001First one uh was assistant superintendent of human resources Vicky Thompson uh to give us a brief negotiations uh update t the season. Okay. Well, good evening. Um let me just kind of briefly tell you about the process that we use. It's an interestbased process and I think over the the years it's it's more of a hybrid now. But um kind of talk a little bit about the difference um be before we get into ours. But um most of you might have might be familiar with what I would call positional bargaining. That's kind of a win-lose approach where you sit across the table like slide your offer back and forth. Uh we do not use that approach. We use um the interest based approach which is a win-win approach. It's you are trying to find consensus
002um amongst the parties and you work collaboratively to um come up with solutions um dealing with our workplace issues. Um and we use this approach with our classified and certified units. We use a meet and confer process which is not that dissimilar from the interestbased bargaining approach with our administrative professional and uh supervisory staff. So we have not started with our administrative professional or supervisory staff yet. They will be later on this month, but we are almost done with our classified and our licensed certified unit. We will finish up this week. Um, so with this process, it's it's really to create an understanding, you know, hearing the stories um of what's going on from those individuals that are living that story. Um, how can we help? what can we do to provide better working conditions
003and benefits to our employees. We also have a set of norms that we all agreed to at the very beginning. Um, very common in the IBN process and you want to stick to your norms. You want to call your team members if they're not um adhering to the norms, if they're violating those norms. So, these are just some some general norms that we've come up with over the years. Um I won't read these to you, but um one of the big ones is honor confidentiality. You know, what happens here stays here until it's been um communicated out and we've got um a tenative agreement. And um then we also talk a little bit about um just those communication tips, both the non-verbal and the verbal, and making sure that we're aware of that and keeping
004each other in check as we're going through the process. We actually have a system where everyone has um their a name plate um or tent name tent card um write their first name on it. If they want to speak, they turn their tent upside down or vertically. Yeah. Um and then the facilitator will call on them to speak and um then we we move on. So, everyone has an opportunity to speak who would like to um weigh in on whatever topic it is that we're discussing at that time. Um I already talked a little bit about that, you know, pausing, paraphrase phrasing. Well, what I heard you say is this to making making sure that they're understanding what is being being said and voiced. And it's okay to ask some other questions or um ask
005some clarifying questions as well. Um we're trying to get more specificity. Um we want to place ideas on the table. So there's a lot of brainstorming that happens during this process. It's like what are your ideas? Let's just throw them throw them out there on the table. And then once we start the brainstorming process, we go through and we narrow it down. Okay, what is you know, first of all, is it legal? You know what you're asking us to do? Can we actually do this? Is it legal to do? Do we have the financial resources or the individual resources to commit to this? Um what are the other constraints out there that we have to be aware of? And we always are presuming positive intent. Um this is what the process is. It starts out
006with the story. So we'll put a topic on the table. Um planning time is pretty common with um our certified staff. And what's the story about planning time? Well, we don't have enough of it or um how can we how can we better utilize our plan time? We have to go to meetings. So what's that story? Well, the story is I have four different preps and it's hard for me to take one one hour a day to plan for for all my four different classes. Okay. What's your interest? Well, my interest is I would like to have um more opportunity to to plan for each class so I can provide more engaging lessons to my students during this process. What are my options? Well, maybe I don't have to teach four different preps every day.
007Maybe I can bundle my classes. So on this day I teach I was a business and marketing teacher. I teach accounting and business law on this day instead of accounting, business law, marketing and sales. And then on the next day I just teach my marketing and sales classes. So those are some of the options that we talk about. Uh we don't make any judgments at that time. Um we don't want to be Debbie Downer. We want to be positive. Um and we want to again understanding what what is being um discussed is is critical that we understand what the root root issue is and the root cause. Then we have that's when we start evaluating the standards and criteria. So this is the brainstorming part of it. You know what are some ideas that we
008can throw up there that are going to to help with this situation? And then we start to analy an analyze and evaluate those options. Um then we go to the solutions. Well, knowing what what we can do, here are our options. Here are the ones that look like they're attainable that are doable. What's the best one out of these two different options and why? And so we find that common ground. During this time, um we might ask for kind of a temperature check. So, if we go with this one, tell me how many of you um feel like this is the right one. And so, we do a thumbs up means we agree with this. We can we support this. Sideways means I can live with this, but I still have a couple of questions
009or I want to make sure that my voice is heard as to why I'm not here. And then thumbs down means I can't live with this. I don't support it. And we don't have consensus. So, what we're looking for is this for everyone or this. Ideally, you know, this thumbs up, everyone thumbs up is ideal. So, every so often we'll we'll have a few of this, but um that's where we just need to have a little bit more conversation as to why they're there. And that is that is pretty much how we do it. Um what we do next is or what we're going to be doing next um on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. We're meeting with um all of our employee units. The certified unit is Tuesday morning CTE and we're going
010to be discussing compensation and benefits. We've already talked about language, any language adjustments in those agreements. We did that um prior to spring break. So we have consensus on some of those language changes. Um Tuesday will be Jed will be part of part of this as well. Jarelli because it's compensation and benefit. We've already talked a little bit about that. We've had the benefit meetings with all the employee units. So they're aware of where our benefits came in at this year. Um then Tuesday afternoon we meet with one of the classified units. So we we're taking each unit separately like we did during the language when we talked about the different language um adjustments. Um I believe it's with transportation is afternoon on Tuesday. Same conversation compensation benefits and then on Wednesday we've got um
011the pair of professionals um in the morning, TSS in the morning. Then we have nutrition and custodial in the afternoon. And our goal is to um have consensus on benefits and compensation with all our units that we can um bring those to the board or bring those back to the units so they can go out to their members, ratify the agreement, then come back to the board and have you all um approve it once it's been ratified by the employee units. The u meet and confer with the administrative, professional, and technical group will happen later on this this month. Um, so you might just see a slight delay as far as when we can bring that to you, but that was at their request to meet after spring break and we will be working with
012them and it's just a half day and that we'll get everything done in half day with them. Any questions for Emmy? Vicki, are those meetings about compensation of benefits? Is that Sorry, I didn't catch this week or next week. This week? This week. Starting tomorrow. Okay. starting tomorrow. The first one is at um I think I believe 8 o'clock. Okay. Yeah. And we meet at the transportation center. They have a nice big um training room that we meet at. So it's nice to be off off site. Offite offsite but still on site. Um so that's where we're at. Thank you. Anybody else have questions for Can I ask have any of our employees gotten raises this year? Um they did last year during somebody had just asked based upon based upon this process. Yes. And
013um I mean that's what the compensation conversations are tomorrow. So that's why Jud's a critical part of this because of the budget and he'll be able to cost out what um our employee units bring forward as far as what they're looking at for compensation. Yeah. Um, we do have a facilitator. Good question. Um, she, um, her name is Shelley Langrath. Um, and she's a HR professional. um former school district HR assistant superintendent, has been in consulting for the last nine years, um does negotiations, works with um a lot of rural districts um with just some HR projects in general, but she's been through this process a lot quite a bit. Um she I'm getting good response with Shellyley versus um the person we used last year was knew the process too but she liked um
014to do more of the um interactive kinds of things like stand next to somebody that you haven't met before and I could our our units were like let's get down to business. We, you know, we don't we don't want to play any games. I don't want to tell you what my favorite color is or if I could be any animal, what that would be. Um, so that it's going really well with Shelly. Yeah. Well, I want to thank Vicki for all her work. It's it's a long very very long valuable but long process. and between setting up interviews for schools that are hiring and the negotiations project process, she's been very very busy the last several months. So, thank you very much. I also um did I had a principal say how kind and how
015helpful we've been for her staff to go elsewhere, sell her clothes. has been very our top priority which feel comfortable. That's probably our hardest part of closing the school is to thank you. Oh, thank you. Okay, with that we'll bring up Mr. Nat who's going to give us a brief overview of upcoming major maintenance work district. It's all yours. All right. All right. So, I'm just going to go through this um came from one of the talking with um Alicia when we had the new board members come on and we were talking about what our major maintenance projects were for the year coming up and how they were determined um and and what we go through with the state to get to those. I'm going to leave these up here even though I can start
016over. So, these are our 2025 uh capital construction and major maintenance projects we have coming up for this year. Um the McCormick renovation uh if you guys are familiar with that um it's going to be done in three phases. Uh we start the first phase um this summer and the first phase consists of like five different parts of the building. So, as we go through that, they'll they'll stay in the building. um we'll do the work with keeping all everyone in place over there and the first couple of phases that are the front entryway and the office administrative offices should be done around Christmas time and then as phase one finishes up there will be a phase two and phase three so it's going to last about two years overall and it'll address everything that
017affects students um as far as classrooms, administration space, office space. We've already remodeled the library over there. Um the gymnasiums were done a few years ago. Um so the only thing this isn't going to touch in those three phases are the CTE rooms right now. And then we'll also be starting the South Triad 56 Elementary. Um there's a meeting tomorrow on that to get our start our RFP for design bid on that and probably from tomorrow through getting the RFP put together with the state. We should probably get design bids back in about 30 days um from tomorrow. And then ARP Elementary, we just awarded the design bid on that uh last schoolboard meeting I believe it was. So the next phase of that is putting together um a sharet team to start putting some
018ideas into that and that currently scheduled for April 18th for the first meeting of the sharet. Um and we do not have the team put together yet for that. So if you're waiting on an invite that's why you haven't got one yet. I expect there is um so combined with our you know our annual major maintenance was about 10 to 11 million um there's close to 100 million in new schools coming up and the McCormack renovation um over three phases is about 17 million and then of course also going through the summer there we have some roof replacements story gym and central and these are things we talked about that come up in the major maintenance projects for the year that We didn't really plan on story gym from an inspection. Um they found out
019that the roof was loose, similar to the pool that happened out of South. So they had to try and hold it down for the winter until we could get to this time of year. They're working on it currently. And then we have some door replacements throughout the district. Um all the gym floors are being finished this summer. Um and for those of you that don't know, we do all the competition floors every year and we do secondary every other year. Um there's a nutrition freezer repair, transportation complex. They're replacing um all the components on the overhead doors out there. It's a pretty big project. Um and some of the doors as well. And then of course um heating, ventilating, ventilation, and air conditioning repairs, boilers, fire alarms, and lighting replacements in a couple of our
020elementary schools there. So that's what's planned for the summer. Andy? Yes. Can I ask you um in and we're going to be talking about under new business, but I was curious with the playground equipment that's going into at Eastridge, can that be reused or moved to ARP? Um the plan is not to move it to ARP. Um if if we have anyone in that swing space, we'll leave it. Um if we don't have anyone there, then we'll decide if we can put it in a different school. Is it tough to do? Um yeah. Yes. Yeah. and and sometimes it's hard to get it moved and reinspected and get everything approved and passed once you've moved it as new as that is and with that one probably we could if it's done relatively near future but
021I don't know um if we end up having to use that for swing space then we would just want to leave any other questions on these projects one more Steve had mentioned about the five you might need a different design or something like that. That's what the RFD is for tomorrow. Um, and I need verification from the state and from Amy as well uh before we go through with that. But, um, the design fees came in from our current designer that had designed the prototype and built Metallark and Coyote Ridge um, higher than what the state anticipated or us. And so, um, to justify what the design fees were, the state felt it would be better to put it out for bid if we were okay with that. Um, even if they come back in
022at that cost, then they know that that's where they would come in at because it was quite a bit higher than even our new ARP, which is a similar school, and it was quite a bit higher than what they were seeing around the state on some design bids. So, that's where we're at on it. So, I've got a lot on these slides and I'm blame Vicki for those you don't know Vicky Bonds back here helps helps us in planning up there with um a lot of our data work. Um this this process we put together here though this shows you we've talked a lot about the facility plans and every four years when they used to give us an index scoring um and you know you hear a lot of talk about um not doing
023deferring maintenance not doing maintenance with major maintenance. The process, the excuse me, the way it used to work was they would do this um condition assessment every four years and then they would score this and if they had a one or a two, that's what we had to address. They give us four years to split those out along with our other projects that you'll see coming up here. Um gets to be quite a few. So that's how that used to work. Um and then of course as as we get that list we go down here to address the deficiencies and look at you know what what's the impact the importance inspect what um whatever they had listed. we can disagree with them um on things and sometimes they'll change it and sometimes we just disagree.
024But then it would go up here into a prioritized list and that was our summer project list that you just saw was based on um whatever that prioritized list was the top seven or eight $10 million whatever we could spend. So it's it's mostly budget based when you get to here. um this list is larger than the budget. And then currently they've changed this. Um now they did skip the COVID year. So they had seven years to to redo this and they came back with a new um you guys have heard about this as we went through trying to get funding for these elementaryaries um called Bureau of Verif um studied all the schools statewide, came up with a new way of doing it. Um and it it was it was probably pretty rough and
025basic. um as it came out, they're trying to refine it, but what it does is it looks out over 20 years and it's it's more fluid. So, if work is when they project the lifpan of a component um you know, in one of our facilities, where they think it needs to be replaced is where they put it out in those years. And if you could fix everything as it hits and keep up with it, um you would stay somewhat ahead of it. But anything that gets deferred just keeps rolling in to further years as it goes down through there. So those those all go into our facility plan that we turn into the state. Um and then again we address the deficiencies of the components, put them in a prioritized list and then it comes
026back to a budget and we take the top numbers out of that budget. So this is where you know we try to hit as much as we can do in the summer. Um, also taking into account things like story gym, the roof coming off or anything like that that might have to um have some emergency funding out of our major maintenance. Mr. Quest, so with the new system, obviously we have quite a few things that have are not on schedule for when they should have been replaced. You know, we have a lot of things that are old and and probably should have been replaced 20 years ago when their lifespan at that time. So, what did they do to address all of those things? Meaning components or whole entire schools? Components. Now, the major maintenance.
027Well, so what they did is they went in here and they went through each school and and like I said, they're they're still working on this. There was definitely some problems. Um I think we talked about like Buffalo Ridge, that was one of their things that they had quite a bit off. Um, but they've come in and looked at, I'm going to show you here in a minute, some of what they put in there at each school and what they anticipate the cost of that to be and where they anticipate us having to to replace it. Um, and I think this next slide will make more well two slides up will make more sense here. So, this from that list you just saw right there. This is what we've developed out of that. This is
028everything we had for the year. I know this is way too much to see, but I just wanted to give you an idea of how many projects were on there, and this is what totals our major maintenance for the end of the year. So, after we got through that, prioritized them, and fit what we could into the budget, this is what we come up with, and this is the list you saw on the first page. So, that's sort of how we get to there. And when answer your question, this is what their graph would look like. So, the blue um those are new things they think we would have to replace that year. Um and they have some amounts in here. Sorry, you can't see that very well, but um and then this uh gray
029is the deferred maintenance going through there. So, some of this is carryover that should have been done. Let me ask Vicki, am I correct on that, Vicki? Some of it does carry over that they're just trying to add in, but they didn't want to hit all of the old ones in tunes. All the old ones, all of all of the seven in 2020, right? So, yeah, started over. Um, if Sorry, maybe a little bigger. Oh, there we go. Maybe. Wow. Yeah. So, um, sorry about that. Anyway, this gives you an idea kind of if you look at this 2033. Um, well, we're not going to get enough years out there, are we, to get to that one? But, um, these are the amounts they have coming up. So, this I don't know what this is,
030but this could be several components. Could be something large like boilers, a roofing project. Um, and then, you know, if if we were to do all that work in 2033, the next year, they're not showing we would really have to do anything, but then they've got something they think we would replace here. So, this is kind of fluid. And if if we were to do these and take these blues out, this would drop. this is where they're scoring us at. And if we do some other projects and this sort of um to complicate things, so we look at that if we had um a school coming up that needed uh if we knew we were going to do a major renovation like McCormack, right? We're not going to go in and do these component things.
031So, it's going to look a lot worse on here and you're going to get the um implication that you're not maintaining it, but there's a reason because it's going to get addressed down the road. Um or if we're doing a lighting project like is on our summer projects at Alta Vista or Afroba, um if they've determined that we need to do something that ties into that lighting project, we would just defer it until we get to the lighting project that we know's coming up in our facility plan. And are they they're okay I mean you have to tell them that they're okay with that. They they're okay with it if you Yeah, we can we can talk to them about it. Um and they usually agree with us. Uh they'll they'll come out to verify
032that you know over what they're showing from their consultant um either is in agreement or conflicts with what we're telling them. It's usually um so far it's always been pretty clear because it's not I mean we're not usually telling them something that's not true, right? So when you take them out and show them what's wrong, uh it's pretty easy to get them to agree with it and change it a little bit. Uh some of these things, some of the problems they're still working through like this. So this list, I'll show you a book here in a minute of what each school has for this list. This is pretty extensive, but if you were to look on here, um so this talks about heating systems, $92,000. What they're not telling us is if that's a complete
033heating package, if that's per unit, if there's, you know, four units in there, if that includes all associated costs like electrical that would go with it or distribution. Um so we don't really know. They don't know if that's um repair or replacement or but we don't know exactly what their consultants came up with for numbers here. Um this one here, this is why we put this on here, but this is uh oh that's backup power. We have one where they call for replacing the power system. Well, you wouldn't go into a building, no matter what condition it was in, and replace all your distribution systems because that'd be a renovation then, right? You change all your walls, everything in it. So, um when when they put that in there, those are the things that we
034would not address or we would point out to them why we're not addressing them. Mr. Also, are you saying is this going to work where they're requesting major maintenance funding based on these idea these time frames and what they think to cover? No, we're still going to get the same amount. Um I think this year we're going to get more because they they change it for this year. I can't remember if it's one year only. Um so we're going to see a little bit more. I know they're trying to change it permanently. Um, but that didn't go through. It It just needs to increase to be able to address all of them. It will all of these charts will continue to grow with where we're currently at because we don't it's not enough to cover.
035So, this is just for them to sort of track what we're doing. Yeah. They track it and then, you know, they'll be able where where I think they're going with it. This this being the first start of it. And then they've also um talked a lot about putting a routine ma routine maintenance software statewide that all districts would use to track what we're doing for routine maintenance. And then they would go in here and look at this in our facility plan. And if we didn't touch any of this and this was just continuing to grow or we were hitting a tenth of it um and then we requested a new school, they would want to know why. And somehow in our records, I've thought this through quite a bit. I mean, we would, this would
036take a lot of work, but you would be able to justify going back to saying you gave us, you know, $11 million. We spent $11 million on major maintenance and we did not address these items and so they were deferred and the next year we had twice as many items. We spent 11 million and we had defer these. And but that would be quite a process, right, over the years to then show them this is why we're requesting a new building or new and there's other reasons for a new building. Sometimes they're just worn out. Um can I ask you to jump in on this? This is when things hit expected components hit expected end of life. Talk about what it looks like in your office when a boiler blows up office schedule when it
037wasn't at the end of its expected time. How does that factor in then to the budget? So like this year for example, we actually had some of this with um a couple of we had some boiler issues. We had the roof on story. We had some different projects come up. Um when that comes up, it's not in our facility plan. It's not we don't have anybody assigned to it and we don't have any money assigned to it. So then we have to go into that list from the start. If we don't have enough in reserve, um we have to go back into that list and decide which one we can defer to next summer. um or till fall. And uh I don't know if you've seen any of the list, but I had one earlier
038this year. We actually had a lot more projects on it. Um and we've deferred some of those to at least fall um because of money. So, how do you prioritize? I mean, is there a Well, with the state assessment, we've taken what what they're telling us is important. We look at these um where they're rated. if if it's a immediate need, if it's coming up right in here, we look at those um rating system then to use. So we put those in our yeah in our um four kind of in a well it used to be a four year now it's actually can be longer just in our facility plan but um we put those in to address those and then we know um from all of our technicians we have in the district that
039come to us and say you know like we'll have a boiler that the mechanical group will come in and say we're having to go you know we've replaced all the parts in all the pieces it's 40 years old or 25 years old or whatever it is and we have to go out and manually start it almost every day and send someone out to maintain it or get it running or you know we've had some where we didn't have the money till the next year so we sent them some out every day to manually run the boiler until we get to the next building season. Um so that's what happens in there. Ideally you have to leave some in reserve which um if Jed was here probably catch 22 because he's always get in trouble if
040we have too much reserve. they think we're not using it. But then if we don't have it, we run into this issue of, you know, we had some of these projects set for summer and now they're delayed because of the money in there. So that's how we determine them, just what's going to fail and what and also what would have the most impact on the district and uh you know what's going to affect students or you know cause school to get delayed, postponed online, whatever that would be. Heating and roofing are important obviously more so than paint and windows and flooring. I guess that was my question is they have this system where they're saying okay these are the things that you need to do and yet we have we can't do all those things
041with the money they give us. Right. Correct. I mean that's what you're saying. And so now we have we've prioritized of the things they told us we need to do. We prioritize the things we can do with the money they give us. So those things that are left over then get into another year. Well then that pushes all the things that they think we should have been doing that year out. Doesn't really push them out. It builds, right? So but they don't give us any more money to do those. And so how do they think we're going to be keeping up with their their recommended list? I I don't have an answer for that. Um well I would tell you I mean at at um previous years at the legislative sessions there's always a people
042that will take the stance that we have more than enough money it should be cut and that um we aren't putting it we aren't prioritizing it right. um you know and and you can go down there and argue with them a lot if you want but there's just some people that's just their belief and I personally I mean after doing this for quite a few years I think it's it's uh an uneducated belief right if they and I've invited some of them to come down I said come down and we'll go through this we'll walk through every school in the district we can walk through this I can show you what we spend and show you what you know what we're expected to spend what we can spend what we do spend and where we're
043at and how much we're losing thing and I've never had anyone come and take me up on it. So, Andy, doesn't this new way of doing it sort of work to our advantage that they will then have proof, the state facilities commission and division will have proof of, hey, they had unexpected things and here's their log of everything that should have been done. It it could have. I mean, I I don't think it's a bad thing. I don't think it's bad to track and I think it could help us. I even think the routine one could help us with the exception of um it adds another layer like on our routine guys, something they have to do and track and run a program and probably another cost to the district. Um so I I don't
044think it's a bad thing if we get down the road a few years because you'll be able to show that. The only thing you'll have to do is keep up on your routine maintenance, right? and we'll have to address as much of this as we can and have the record showing this is what we prioritized for the year and why and this is what we couldn't do and why. um you know because to prioritize it it's um it's a combination of of mostly just the district um maybe in conjunction a little bit with the state but saying we think we need to do X instead of Y um because of this and in this study could show that well it looks like you wouldn't have to do Y for another year or two but we
045also know the reality right that it's failing and we have the guy out there every day running something manually and or we have a roof that all of a sudden started leaking. You know, I don't if you know the admin building roof started leaking over a break and part of the plaster ceiling fell in the auditorium. Um so, you know, things like that happen and that could have been big. It it turned out not to be as big as we thought, but it could have been pretty big. So, that's where we're at on that. Um Vicki, do you have that book? So, I was just going to show you guys this book real quick and then I'll let you go. I've got the ones and twos. Oh well, I don't think we'll go through the
046ones and twos, but those that little sheet I showed you for Alta Vista, this these are all of our school. This is that report and they want us to go through it every year and update it and prioritize it. But, you know, Alta Vista is actually a book in here of 37 books. So, that's what that report shows of everything that they've determined that we need to address at some point in every school. So, that's um There's just a lot. Sure. In that list, they have all of the different. And with that, they want us to look at every one of them and tell them it's enough money, if it's in the right year, if we really think it's so we're still having to go. But the good thing with that is we can also
047say what if you're hearing a lot of complaints that something's an important thing and something needs to be done. We can we can pull it in and they will consider they've been really good at talking to me about some of these because I've called them many times to say is this to replace this is not you can't really repair a wall if you have all these walls that need to be put this many have enough to clean it. So the I'm sorry go ahead. Do you have the ability to know the cost if they're accurate or the 42 a cost they came up with and we need to know have the ability to know if it you're exactly right. They want to know they want us to tell them what a real cost is because
048this is an estimate. So but they're not going to hold it to us. They're going to say it has usually these are enough. They would have to Okay. So they will let you go out for bid and sort of see what they want. Well, we have to go out for bid. I mean we this cost they don't hold us to it if that's what you're asking. That's what I'm asking. So yeah, we go out for bid and then if it's more that's just our problem, right? It comes out of our major maintenance. Um well that's what I'm asking. Yeah, that's so that's but to Vickiy's point and what we were talking about a little earlier is they don't really tell you if this is replacement or repair or how many units it is or if
049it's even really feasible. Some some of the things they put in there like a wiring distribution system is not feasible to replace, right? That's every wire in this building coming from the panel that runs every light and outlet and thing in here. You might replace the panel and you might replace the fixtures, but you don't replace the distribution system. So, um, so yeah, they do that and these costs, um, if you go through them, they some might be legitimate. I'm not sure because, you know, it's a national company that comes in, puts it together. So, some of them are not even close. I I would say that. And then they they're basically giving us an idea of what we think they think we're going to spend and they're saying we have to do it and
050then we have to go out for bid and we have to spend whatever it costs. And this would be so this is a list like when they give us the ones and twos of what we used to deal with. There's six pages that look like this. Um and you have to go through these in a four-year period include all of these projects into your other major maintenance projects. So this is what it looks like up until we started this new one. This was our last ones and twos list. So that's that's kind of where they come from and that's how many projects are on there. Um if anyone has any questions about that again this this is perhaps an ignorant question but will the school vouchers and the lowering of our um taxes does that
051affect we we get less money so we can't address um as much major maintenance? I would assume it will. I mean, I I don't know that that's there's I'm probably out beyond my own skis on this one, but I think because education is promised to be funded in the Constitution that they will have to find the money to fund it from a different source. Okay. Which might mean something else gets reduced outside of us. Um that's my understanding of like the property tax. Yeah. But um declined enrollment is probably what's going to hurt us more than anything in these conversations. And so, you know, as we try to tell the major maintenance story, which has been wildly misunderstood on occasion, um we have projected costs projected at best, right? We think it's going to cost
052about this much on projected timelines, not taking into account catastrophes that happen every year with a finite amount of money. And as you know to Trusty Hingle's point, um so you get to what you can get to which causes some consternation of those who say, "I thought we were getting the new along the blank through major maintenance, but because part of a rift got pulled off, it it changes things a bit, which um if you're looking at one piece of this puzzle is probably very frustrating, but if you're looking at the whole puzzle, it's frustrating in a whole different way. Um, and that's part of the challenge and and I think that's part why um this needed to be a work session is um imagine running just even your own household budget um this way
053with all costs projected all timelines projected catastrophe that could be as much a half as your paycheck on any given month with a set amount and you can't borrow against and so um I think that's maybe part of the story that you told tonight. Yeah. And I think again I don't know enough about the you know what what the tax cuts will do to us. I would I I my feeling is if it may not affect education from the educational side, instructional side, but I think uh if if there is a place it's going to affect it will be on the facility side because that's easier for them to I believe probably reduce the money to. But it did go out this year. I think we're going to see some extra money. Um, so that'll
054help for a little bit anyway. Other questions? Thank you. Yeah, thank you for all of that work. Um, that's overwhelming and like lot. So that was that's you plural and her entire team. Yeah. Well, then that's a good point. While most all of the district was on spring break, Andy and Andy's folks were dealing with the fact that part of the ceiling caved in in the auditorium. You don't get to just say, "Well, we'll handle that back on the 7th when we all returned." There were a lot of folks that were back at work because those things came. There were and some of those what we run into with these older buildings too with not replacing them is um you know we have management plans for every building that show indicate where we've tested everything
055for asbestous materials um which can in a lot of those older buildings you know can be anything in the walls the ceilings the floors the pipes um not in the pipe insulation on them and uh so you know we run into some of that and part of my point with this like these emergencies that come up the admin building being as old as it was. Had that been an asbestous release or something, we would have had to have that abated with the crew out of Denver and we would have had, you know, it all sealed off. I just probably had to evacuate, not working in there. And those don't come cheap. I mean, they're I would guess that would have been probably at least 100,000. Um, a lot of them are two to 300,000 when
056we have to do them. So, and that doesn't count putting it back together, right? So, that's what we have there. And um so yeah, those are the things come up that that really chip away at the major maintenance. So look for the invitation for the plastering party. Yes. Hopefully you don't mind being on a 50 foot ladder while you do it. I was say don't be afraid of heights. Madam chair, with that, that is the end of our work session topics and give the floor back to We'll wrap it up for now. We'll adjourn and back in there about Good evening. Can you do it again? Good evening everybody. I'd like to welcome you to this meeting of the county board of trustees. Um, we've got a packed house tonight and I believe even um
057more parents and uh family members out in the hallway. So, thank you all for being here. Um, I'd like to um call this meeting to order and start with the pledge of allegiance tonight. If you please rise. Hi, I'm Katie Montgomery. I'm the principal at Bane Elementary. Hi, I'm Kquberry, third grade teacher at Bane Elementary. This is my very great task that recite today. That was students from elementary school. We always love to see those videos um to kick off their meetings. Um Dr. Newton, do we have any adjustments to the agenda tonight? Madam Chair, any adjustments to this evening's agenda. Madam Chair, I move to adopt the agenda and I second. So we have a motion second to adopt the agenda. All in favor, please say I. I opposed. Great. The agenda has been
058adopted. We're going to um move next into what I think is always our most exciting part of the night, and that is the recognition of our students and staff for outstanding achievements. Um as I mentioned earlier, we've got a craft room in here. We've also got a lot of folks out in the hallway and the lobby. So, we just hit ask um after your student has been recognized. Or we were not even asking. I just would offer that that we'll we'll give a minute if if you would like to leave with your child. Um and then we might have a few other parents to come in as well to celebrate their kiddos. Um but we will start tonight um with a recognition of our students of the week and get to that. Our first sorry
059our first recognition tonight is uh Missia Aut from East High School. She's a senior. She will be u joined by principal Mark Kushner and her favorite teacher, Mr. Peter. Good evening. I'm Mark Kercher, principal at East High School, and I have the pleasure of introducing Alysia Au tonight. Um, she's just a really, really well-rounded individual, and she's got a lot going on both in school and outside of school. Academically, she's always challenging herself and she enjoys taking AP and college classes. She's been a member of Junior ROC for four years. Three years at her previous school and one year at East. Um she works. She's a part of a military family. And on top of all of that, she's a competitive bowler. So, she's got a lot going on and honestly, she's just the kind
060of student that we wish we could have spent more time with, but we're just really fortunate to have had her for her senior year and to count her as a member of the East High School class of 2025. So, I'll let Alysia talk a little bit about Mr. Berg and why she selected him as her favorite teacher. Hello. I chose Mr. Berg as my favorite teacher because he showed interest in my future, my future career, my bowling career, and everything past that as well. He's always been there to talk even in his off hours and mine as well. And I've always appreciated that. Actually, it's just about Marling. I like Bing for a long time. A long time. And then I found out she got a bowling scholarship to pen, no less. I was like,
061that never happens to anybody. So, I was pretty that other than that, it took a while for this to kind of open up, but she's going to be a fine outstanding citizen someday. And Alysia has some people in the audience supporting her. So, if you stand to be recognized, the next student of the week that we'll be recognizing tonight is Caleb. It's either Little or Lidle. Um Caleb is a student at Johnson Junior High School, um a seventh grader, and he will be joined up front by um principal Michaela Bradshaw and favorite teacher Karen Perez Johnson. Good evening. I'm Michaela Bradshaw, principal at Johnson. Today I get the pleasure of introducing Caleb Little. He is seventh grade on our Southside Sparks team. Um Caleb is in the top 1% of our student attendance at Johnson
062this year, which is something to super be proud of. Um straight A student is super kind and an AVID class researching colleges. Um wants to become a an engineer and is looking into UT Tyler. So, we'll let um Caleb talk a little bit about himself as well as about Miss Perez. Well, I think Miss Pres is my favorite teacher cuz she has a really good teaching form style and she's fun with everybody, but she still keeps everybody on track. Um, my very first memory of Caleb this year was at our seventh grade orientation and um, I immigrated from Mexico to this country and he found a friend at orientation who didn't speak any English and by the end of orientation they had been friends, made plans and they were talking on Google Translate. So, as
063a former ELELLL student, that just warmed my heart and I just knew Caleb was going to be golden. He did remind me today that anything beyond the age of 25 is considered vintage. I think he's big at calling me old, but he has a wonderful personality and he's just one of the students that is considered the best of what the Southside has to offer. Could we get Caleb's um family members in the audience if if anybody's here? Would you stand? Thank you. [Music] And we have one more student of the week celebration tonight. And this is Annayia Patel from Central High School. She's a senior. Um, so if you want to make your way forward and she'll be joined by assistant principal Nick Lamp and favorite teacher Sasha Patel. Well, good evening. Um, as some
064of you might know, I'm not Mr. Lamp. I'm Mr. Maloney, the associate principal at Central. I came tonight because I thought the students were going to talk about their favorite principles, but it turns out favorite teachers. Um, it is my pleasure to um honor Anna Anya Patel as our outstanding student and I'm going to let her come up because we'd much rather hear her talk and introduce anyone who's with you. Talk about your future plans and your teacher, Miss Sasha Patel, who you nominated and then we'll let Sasha talk about you a little bit. So, come on. Hello, I'm Anna. Um, my parents immigrated here from India, so I'm a first generation American. My mom's in the crowd right there. Um, and I've always been a pretty creative and person a person who values leadership.
065So, I try to do as many things as I can um, in high school that involve leadership. So, one of my main things is Spanish club and the Spanish Honor Society, which Mrs. Patel actually introduced me to. Um, and that's something that I dedicated myself to for the past three years. Um, and I'm really proud of the accomplishments that we've made along the way. Another one of my biggest accomplishments is my published book that I published in August. It was something that I was working on for four or for four years. So, it's one of my biggest accomplishments. Um, and I think it really shows how much dedication I put into it. Um, and then I chose u Mrs. Patel as my favorite teacher because she really helped me participate and engage in the Spanish
066language as well as the culture and she made the classroom very engaging and fun. It wasn't just like another Spanish class. It was something that I could actively use the language and try my best. And I think I learned a lot in her class. So, I'm thankful for her. So, you kind of started I know I'm taller. We kind of started saying what I was going to say. Anya is one of our like most dedicated Spanish students. And I would say we even like started Spanish club together. like we got it going. She's our Spanish club president right now and Spanish National Honor Society. It's both. Um I had Anya in Spanish 3 and in Spanish 4. She's even in Spanish 5, AP Spanish 5 right now with my colleague, Mr. Vega. And just recently,
067she took the biiteracy test and she achieved what she needed to to prove that like she gets a seal on her diploma to show that she's biliterate. But yeah, she's just a hardworking student and just a delight to have in class. And I wish you were in my class more, but a great wonderful person to have around. So, like I said, my mom's in the crowd. Um, can you guys bring her to the class? She's awesome. Hello, I'm Megan Case and I work in the community relations department and I just want to give um our student of the weeks one more applause. Congratulations. Actually, I have I have the pleasure of um taking photos of them and interviewing them for the videos that we post. Um it's one of my favorite parts. I love seeing
068um all the amazing things that the students in the district are doing. Um and with that said, I would like to introduce um our Western Vista uh representative tonight, um Crystal Iron. She's going to be presenting some certificates and saying a couple of words about our student of the week. I'm short, guys. Got to bring it down. All right. Good evening. I'm the branch manager for Western Vista, one of the few. Um, we are very honored to be representing student of the week. We do this every week and it's an honor for us. Um, in recognition of the efforts for you students that did so well, we are going to be presenting a certificate of achievement along with a Visa gift card and the same will go to your nominee of your favorite teacher. So,
069congratulations and keep doing what you're doing. You guys are doing amazing and I love doing this. So, keep it up. All right. And if you want to open it with your picture, that would be great. That is for you. Thank you. just Just get used to pictures. There it is. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you so much. The next students that we'll be recognizing tonight are the uh first through fifth place winners of the Laram County 2025 spelling bee. Um, so I'd like to ask e coordinator Shannon Brooks to come forward and then she'll bring those students up. Hi everyone. So my name is Shannon Brooks and I'm the elementary ELA coordinator for Laramie County School District 1. It is my pleasure to be here to honor our spelling bee champions for the 2025 Laramie County
070Spelling Bee. Um, I have to tell you these individuals competed on through online written rounds against 212 peers among 19 different schools. So, it's an amazing feat that they accomplished what they did. Um, and then they advanced to our oral competition where they are our top five. And I just found out three of them actually placed in our state spelling be as well. So amazing dedication and hard work on the part of these spellers. So I'll call you up one at a time. You can get your certificate and while they're coming up, if the families could also please stand up so we can recognize you. So in fifth place we have Matthew Berg. In fourth place, Lincoln Kenny. Lincoln also placed in eighth place at the state spelling be. So, awesome job. In third place,
071we have Henry Wright. Henry placed 15th at the state spelling beat. In second place, we have Blake Winter. And in first place, we have Monica Nefert, who placed third at the state. Great. Okay, now the families do have to stand up because they didn't the first time to be ready. I do want to point out that the state fell be occurred during spring break. So those families really committed a lot to take their kids to the state spelling beast. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Good job. Good work. Congratulations. Good work. Congratulations. Good spelling. Good work. So you're main there. Yeah. Next up is recognition of the East High School 4A state indoor track champions. We'll be recognizing two students. Um, so head coach Amanda Brinkman could come up and then introduce those students and Mr.
072Kersner, you could come up too. All right. First of all, I just want to say congratulations to all the participants and everybody here being awarded and recognized for all their accomplishments. It's amazing feat. I need Maggie and DJ to come on up here. Um, I also want to say thank you to our administrators for giving us the opportunity to run in our hallways, create chaos, and everything else that goes with indoor track. And I also want to say thank you to the board members and everybody for giving us the opportunity to be recognized as well. So, thank you to everyone here. Um, I am going to recognize two of our state winners. Um, track, indoor track is is a it's a grueling um it's a grueling winter sport. We don't have any facilities to go
073to. We run in the hallways. We jump in the hallways and it's pretty painful on the body. Um, our distance runners go outside. Rain, snow, sleet, hail. Um, if it's above zero, then they're outside. So, it's it's not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. And, uh, our athletes, uh, take pride in our sport and we go long distances to compete and we wake up early mornings. And for us to have state championships and state champions every single year is is an amazing feat in itself. Um considering that we get hallways to compete in and we have to travel long long distances. So it's an amazing feat. Um DJ this is his first year competing for us. Um he played basketball up until uh this year and he is an amazing talent. He has
074untapped potential that he's gonna get just be motivated with because he's got so many skills. He's got a huge skill set. He can jump uh super high. He can jump super far. He's got speed. Um but he's got motivation, too. And I think after winning the high jump this year, um I think his motivation is a little bit more uh because he understands that there's uh a a door waiting to be open for him to for his future to go through. So DJ won our high jump at 64. It was a huge PR for him. And I remember having a conversation with him, I don't know, maybe a week before we went to state and he goes, "Coach Brinkman, I could win the high jump, right?" and he just sat there and like the wheels
075were turning in his head and I was like, "Yeah, you you're like tied for a first with three other people. There's a huge possibility in this this boat for you." And um when he started our season, all he wanted to do was just triple jump, triple jump, triple jump. And then all of a sudden, he's like, "I could win the high jump." And I was like, "Yeah, you most certainly can." And he came out of nowhere and won the high jump. And so it was fantastic to see. It was a huge PR. It was the last event on the first day and everyone was watching and he stepped up to the plate and did a fantastic job. Uh Maggie, uh if you guys pay attention to if you watch indoor track, our schedule, our indoor
076track schedule, stage schedule is it's a grueling schedule. It's not like outdoor track where you get three days to compete for three like over three days to compete. It's a day and a half and the the rest time in between events is much much less. And so Maggie came out and um just killed it um and won the 1600 and the 32. And she's just a fantastic talent. She's a sophomore. Um she's your state cross country um 4A winner. She's also the Gatorade cross country runner of the year. So she's got immense talent and they get to come back. Both of them get to come back and so I'm super super excited for both of them. I would be remissed if I did not introduce their my assistant coaches that work with them. Uh, I
077would love to take claim for all of their accomplishments, but I I get to work with DJ the most, but uh, Coach Becky Fornier, our head cross country coach and our head outdoor coach, works with Maggie day in and day out, and I'm going to let them speak on their part because this is their accomplishment as well. So, I'm going to have Becky or Jack come on up. So, this is Becky Forier. She's our cross country coach and our head outdoor coach. Hello. This is so much fun. Um, with Maggie, I I'm starting to get kind of used to this because she does these things a lot. Um, she's just one of the most talented athletes that we've ever had come through our school and know she's just a sophomore and this is her she's
078now won six state championships. Um, and we have a lot more running to do. She still has all of her junior and senior year and outdoor of her sophomore year left to go. Um, so it's really just fun for me to get to show up and see her every single day. She's one of the hardest working individuals that I've ever worked with and one of the most coachable individuals that I've ever worked with. She just comes, asks me what's what we're doing today and tries to execute it the best that she can. Um, she runs slow when I tell her run slow, she runs fast when I tell her to run fast, and she wins when I tell her to win. So, that's my job. That's all I have to do. Um it was really
079incredible to get to watch her reap the benefits for all of that hard work and um and for the dedication that she puts in in the off seasons. She's running all summer um in the offseasons between between our seasons on her vacations to Europe and all of those things. Um she's always running and making sure that she's putting in the work so that she can show up and and perform when we ask her to. Um yeah, just just a joy to have around every single day. She makes me laugh. She's actually she's so quiet, but she's actually really really funny and witty and um yeah, I think that's about it. She's an amazing student. She has a 4.11 GPA and is third in her class currently um and puts in a lot of work off
080of the track as well in the classroom in her community. As coach Brinkman mentioned, she was the Gatorade player of the year for cross country this season and that recognizes her efforts on the playing field and then in the community and um and in the classroom as well. So, she's just an outstanding human being, outstanding person, um outstanding student, and outstanding athlete. Coach Rain is our high jump coach and he's going to come and talk about DJ. Like I said, DJ came into our season just focused on triple jump and then high jump came into play and he's just sprouted and has done amazing good things. So, I'm very proud of him. Hello. I have to quickly tell you that um when we were doing track this year that uh I had DJ and one
081of the funniest things was we were in the hallway and we were talking about height and I said DJ how tall are you and he goes I'm 6'4 and I go no I'm 6'4 and I so got out of measuring tape he turned up to be 67 and I said uh I like your 6'4 attitude but you'd want to be 67 so one of the fortunate things gotten to do with last year and this year with DJ is last year he was the first time he high jumped for us at East and we were at a little meet in Colorado and he wanted to try high jump because he'd been triple jumping. So I said sure let's go give this a whirl. Didn't have the mark, didn't have anything and he went up there and
082he just flew over 510 and he went through four heights before he finally missed it six feet. I thought where's this kid been all year? And so for that it gets me real excited. And so being a exclion high jumper like coach Brinkman um we both just if we see people that have that passion it's just your eyes start sparkling and you have visions of grandeur and DJ didn't disappoint in that regards this year. Uh we have practice at 5:30 in the mornings um twice a week and DJ would show up and believe me I'm a morning person. These kids are not morning people. So trying to get them motivated to actually get in the mode to jump is a feed in itself. And DJ would still come once he got revved up and ready
083to go. We had great practices. And it's a lot to ask these kids to get up at 5:30 in the morning to go into the gym on a snowy day and to compete or to practice. And the fortunate thing was we every meet we were seeing DJ just progressively get a little better and a little better. And I kept telling myself, he's he once everything clicks, this kid's going to go. And at the state meet, he had two great competitors that were buying for that first place title. And they were all evened out at six feet. And 6'2, we had two left, DJ and a kid from Jackson. And I told DJ, I said, "You've popped 6'4. You've got this." And fortunately, his third attempt, he went over there and he hit every part of
084that bar with his butt and it stayed on. And I don't know who was more excited, DJ or myself, but I kind of screamed like a child and I was so excited for him. But the fortunate thing is, like I said, I've got him for outdoor this year and already the motivation and the um confidence he's coming into outdoor with is incredible. And so you're already seeing in his jumps now. He's already gone 6'2 for outdoor, but he earned that 64 and that state mark because he persevered to overcome and knowing that it was his third attempt, he he he hit it. And to me, that was just monumental. So, I'm very proud of him. I'm so excited to have him for the rest of this year and next year. And we'll see what he
085the future brings for the guy. But it's a pleasure to work with him. I'm very blessed to have a athlete such and he comes from great pedigree. So, I knew I had something coming. And so, um, with that being said, like I said, DJ is just a a one a marvelous kid to be around. So, thank you. We can have parents in the audience stand so that we can recognize them as well. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. My next recognition tonight will be of um two more state champions from East High Um, these are wrestling state champions. So, I'd like to call up head coach Thatcher Heel. And he's got a couple of boys with him. Thank you. Little one. They're there. Okay, good. Um, thank you first of all for recognizing all the accomplishments of our
086students tonight. Um, and before I talk about these young men, if I could have their families stand up to be recognized. Being a wrestling parent is not the easiest thing in the world if you've never been to a wrestling tournament. Sometimes you're sitting in bleachers all day to watch one or two matches. And um but beyond that, just thank you for the opportunities that you guys have provided for your sons and um from the time they were young and more importantly just the the skills that you've taught them to be great humans is much more important than their wrestling aside. So thank you. I know that's large large um because of what you guys do for them. Uh I'll talk about Kad first over here on the left. Uh Katad is a a sophomore. He
087was a state champion this year at 132 pounds. Um the only reason he's not a two-time state champion is his season as a freshman was cut short due to injury. But in in two seasons he has not lost to one Wyoming wrestler. Had a 42-6 record this season. Won the Rocky Welton, which means nothing to you, but it's a huge tournament that we go to out in Kansas. um beat a couple state champs there and won a a pretty big bracket there. Um wrestling aside, just he's the kind of person you everyone hopes that their son will be by the time they're sophomore in high school. He's a gentleman. He's tough. Um he's a hard worker. He's a great student and just just a great teammate. Was one of our team captains this year. That's
088Jose. This other young man is Liam Fox. He's been up here a time or two or four now. Um, this year he became, I think, the 31st ever four-time state champion in the state. Only the 12th ever in 4A. Had a a very dominant season. Didn't lose to any instate kids. He lost to a couple kids at a big tournament that we we took these guys to out in California. um just had an outstanding season, has had an outstanding career. He's not only he's the second ever four-timer from East High School, third ever from our our county, but I would say and any coach that has watched him would say he's one of the most talented wrestlers to ever come through our state. So, he's signed to go to Western Wyoming next year and wrestle
089and go to school up there. Um they have a a great program top. I think they finished third this year and won the NJC 2A's the last two years. So, we're excited to see what he'll do. We'll miss him. Um, wrestling aside, hey, he's a great individual. He likes to talk a little bit about anything, but hunting and fishing and just really enjoyed the conversations outside of wrestling that we've had this year. And, um, just watching him grow up over the really since he was about six probably. So, um, thank you all. Congratulations. Good luck. Okay. Now we are moving into a long line of central high school recognitions uh for different state champions. We're going to start on that list with the Central High School 4A state girls cross country champions. Um, and those
090girls I believe were being recognized by head coach Sean Wild and assistant coach Jessica Sains. I was trying to convince uh one of our seniors that she should just leave because this is her sixth time here. So, she kind of gets the program by now. Um but quite a incredible group of girls we have here. We actually have another girl who would have been on this squad had she not gotten hurt, but she still got a state title. Get recognized here in a little bit. Brena, wave. If you want to come up, you can stand by us. You're one of us, too. They give me a hard time all season long. I get to do that tonight in front of the community, so it's nice. But we'll make this quick because a lot of these
091girls we get to recognize again a little bit later as well as multi multiple of them. This is not their first rodeo. Uh but we got sophomore Sophia Rose. What' you place at state for us? She was all state. She got fifth place as well. Next we have Ryan Cordell Riner senior for us. We have Adelind and I always pronounce her name wrong because I like to emphasize the race in Rosinez. Next we got Malia Adams case Montano Cla Kohl's and Reagan Ghart. All these women very incredible. Um, it was interesting because we had quite the incredible squad three years ago that won a state title and then we had three of our seniors that were on that scoring team graduate. And last year they came out and they ended up getting second and only
092lost to first place by two points. And it was astounding with how much of a turnover we had that they were able to do that. And this year they came back and were able to beat that same team that beat them by how much did we end up winning by? One point. So it was quite the turnover. In fact uh Mala, it was actually really incredible because uh towards the finish line I was standing with our new assistant coach who has fallen into her role wonderfully. She's a great addition to our squad. Um, we got to see it in the last 100 meters and uh, we had quickly done the math in our head and in cross country you just add up the scores for what place your top five runners got and compare it
093to the other teams and that's whose wins. And I've roughly had the score in my head and I'm looking at Malia who is neck andneck with a young lady from a team that I know is from Nrona County and that's who we were competing with right there in those final moments and coach SC starts yelling and I start yelling telling her you got to get these girls and not only does Malia get the Nrona girl but then she goes on and she gets two other girls and that really sealed the victory for us and it was quite a memorable moment in that. And so, ladies, give yourselves a round of applause as well. And parents, if you would stand up so we can recognize you. And a lot of you all do this again. And
094thank the Yeah, picture. That'll make it easier. We're just gonna we're just going to roll right into indoor track since uh uh we had several state champions in that. Let's start with Sam Meltchure. Sam Melture at the state indoor meet. He was first place in the long jump. What did you place in Pvalt? Second, third. And then what was the other event you placed in? Sixth in high jump. Sixth in the high jump. So he did quite a job. Our men's team got second. We lost to those dreaded Sheridan boys. done that quite a bit those last few years, haven't we? It's a nice little It's a nice little rivalry that we have with them. Uh I uh competed against their head coach in high school myself and then I ran on the same team
095with him at the University of Wyoming. So we got to we got to be rivals, friends, and win rivals again. The next uh we had a lot of our young ladies that were state champions across country. They won the 4x8 and set a state record. And that squad was Malia, Ryan, Sophia, Adeline. So before we give those a round of applause, I do want to thank the community for not running over these kiddos as they're out running around, especially when we I'm super mean. I actually make these girls run when we got blizzards going on and rain and winds blowing 40 miles per hour. But that's probably one of the reasons why they're so dang tough and they keep winning year in year out. But also, if it wasn't for you guys, we wouldn't be
096able to compete like we do. So, I appreciate your support and everything you do for us. by Sam's parents in the audience. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Our next Central High School recognition is for um the boy state boys swim and dive champion from Central High School. I'd like to ask head coach Josh Bot and assistant coach Talon Premer to come forward and with your student. Um, thanks to the board and to Dr. Newton and big thanks to all of the central administration for all the support we get. Um, a lot like those runners, swimmers and divers do a lot of stuff that most people would never dream of. They get up early. They're at the pool late. Travel all over the state. And uh Brady is a diver. He's our diving champion. And
097he does so many things that look amazing every day. And he makes them look so easy. Um it's just kind of a amazing to even think of getting on the board and diving off head first for most people. and Brady's up there twisting around and hitting his fingertips on the roof of pools and stuff and broking records left and right every week. Um, as the head coach, my number one job is to coach the swimmers, our assistant coach, and most swimming and diving assistant coaches are pretty much the head diving coach. And I'm going to let Ton Kumer talk a little bit more about Brady and his accomplishments. But, uh, I've been around a long time. I've seen a lot of divers and I can say with every bit of myself and all of my
098heart that Brady is probably the most gifted diver that Wyoming has ever had. And uh he's only a sophomore and he's kind of just scraping the tip of the iceberg right now, but I'll let Taylor get into all of his accomplishments. All right. Like Josh said, um Brady is definitely one of the best divers um that Wyoming has ever seen. Definitely the most talented diver I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Um he not only is one of the best in Wyoming, he is also nationally ranked. Um so that is definitely an accomplishment that he doesn't ever get enough recognition for that he is ranked in the nation. Um top 23rd. Um he has gone two undefeated seasons as a sophomore. He has the pool record at every single pool that he has ever
099dove at. So this year he has the Nona pool record, the Kelly Walsh pool record, the Lammy High School pool record, the East High pool record. He has both central pool records. Um and then this year he broke a 20-year pool record at Campbell County High School. Um and it will be etched in stone because nobody will ever dive at that pool ever again. Um he broke the state record, but because it was not at state, he does not get to keep it, unfortunately. Um but next year I think it will be shattered and will be untouchable. Um he also has the Eastern Wyoming 4A Conference 11 dive record. He has the all conference and all state. He also received all-American honors this year as well. Um his accolades go on and on and on.
100And then to top that off, he also was injured and was out for three weeks, maybe a month. Um, so he missed several meets in that. And more importantly, what I'd like to say about that is when you get injured, there's a lot of mental blocks that come into play. And anybody that sustained an injury knows that there's those questions of like, am I going to get back? Am I going to have enough time? Will there be enough time? What's going to happen? Is it going to be the same? And for Brady, like, he stayed strong. He came to practice. He worked with his teammates. He did everything he needed to do. He did it the right way. And when he got back on the board, he trained the right way to get back to
101where he needed to be. And at state, it was dive after dive after dive. And we didn't try to get ahead of ourselves. He did everything he needed to do. And he did it flawlessly. And from where he's at from state to where he is now going into his competitive season, I think next year is going to be bigger and better. And he has two years left. And I don't see any reason why he will not be a division one diver even with those NCAA cuts coming down the line. His name is going to be in Wyoming history books and he definitely is going to be back next year in front of this board. I am going to let Birdie talk a little bit about what he's going to do this summer so that we
102know what's coming for his future. Congratulations. Uh, so I had a pretty good high school season. Um, this summer, uh, I'm going to complete compete club um, which I've done for the, uh, last year and I have regions coming up um towards the end of this month and then uh, hopefully qualify for zones and from there hopefully qualify to to nationals. So that's about it. Oh, and my family is sitting over there. And what he meant to say was, "Thanks, Mom and Dad, for driving me to all of those wonderful things and taking me across America." Benny, good job. Congratulations. They both said Yeah. All right, the next group um that we're excited to introduce is the Central High School 4A state girls basketball champions. If you girls uh would like to come forward with
103your coach coaches, um can't wait to celebrate your win. Uh first off, uh board members, thank you for celebrating what this uh young group of girls did this this last season, which was incredible. Uh thank you Dr. Non, thank you to my assistant coaches. We have coach Goodwick right here, Coach Genanau, Coach Guyer, and Coach Moti over there. Um and then thank you to the parents that are here um that supported us the whole year. Uh if you weren't able to watch what this group did this year, um you really missed out on something special. Uh they went 25 and two, the best record in uh Central Basketball, girls basketball history um at Central High School. Um lost to one Wyoming team and we had two losses. The first loss we had, we won 17
104in a row after that. And the second loss we had, they won three in a row for a state championship after that. And just their ability to be, there's just one word of what their season was, and it was dominant. You know, I think they beat teams by an average of 21 points in the state tournament, which is, you know, the three toughest teams or three tough teams that were playing. I think we beat teams by an average of 22 points. Um, one of my favorite stats I like to say now that I figured it out. Um, going to the state tournament, I did not have to call a single timeout the entire weekend. Um, and that just shows how dominant this group was that there's nothing I had to stop or dramatic or change
105because they're just doing everything the right way. Um that state tournament is one of the most dominant state tournaments that you know I've seen this group play and you know they're dialed in ready to go even though you can't see them now. Half of them are wearing swim goggles in here right now. But the uh the look in their eye that I saw of the MS state tournament was something I haven't seen before and it honestly it showed. And first first uh first playoff game got a running clock which doesn't happen too often a regular season game let alone a game. uh second seat or second semi the semi-final game beat a very uh proud program in Campbell County by about 25 and then in the state championship game against Sheridan who won the state
106championship last year uh beat them by 19 between the second and third quarters outscored Sheridan 40 to7 and just there's not a whole lot of words I'm not that smart to have a big vocabulary words to choose from but they were just dominant the entire season down with the state tournament and very honored very blessed to be a part of their journey and a lot of these girls our seniors and they they left a mark for Central High School um and the basketball program and what it needs to look like day in and day out. So your 2024 25 for girls state champions. First one we have is Gary, running Elise Newton, uh Sammy Schaer, Harley Nixon, Reagan Ghart, Taylor Ray, Carson Temple, Urick, Izzy, Kelly, and David Newton. Am I under my Congratulations. Congratulations.
107Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Good to see you. Thank you. I didn't realize was back in town. The last but definitely not least on our list of student recognition tonight um are the Central High School speech and debate national qualifiers. So I'd like to ask assistant co Oh wait, is that right? And assistant coach of the year. Yeah. Head coach Caleb Simpson. Yes. All right. Um, my name is John Watson. I'm the head coach for Central Speech and Debate. And the this is about eight of the 13 kids that qualified to nationals this year. Some things about speech and debate is that the season starts in October and runs clear until March and then we also have um a national tournament in May and then another one that's a week long in June. So the season just
108keeps on going and um the students really have to be relentless um in order to seek out the fi find the end of the season and um these guys have really put in the hard work and the dedication um to be successful this year um through the sticking the thing. They show up every day and they just get on the grind with their cases and their speeches and they just do a phenomenal job. I'm really proud of them. And so these are national qualifiers. And I want to do something kind of different. Um I'm going to teach you guys a little speech and debate um format. It's called the one clap. So when I call um a student's name, you're just going to do a one clap and then for each student just one clap,
109one clap and then at the end I'll say shine central speech and debate and then we can all applaud together. Okay. So let's let's give it a shot here. So, um, national qualifier and state champion in McDuro interpretation, Miller Paul. Yeah, there it is. Um, Wyatt Miller, also state champion qualifier interpretation arson. Okay. Ray Paulzi. He was also part of a PF team that was a state championship team. And all it was kind of cool because we had multiple PF teams and um it's called a closeout when the two teams meet each other in the finals and so it was a central and central in the finals. So they're co- champions. So we actually had and it's a pair pair debate team. So, we had four state champions in one event. Pretty sweet. One clap
110and our other state champion in public debate. Everyone get theirs. Cheyenne Central Speech and Debb National. Yeah, I'm going to Yes. Yeah. Got you. Um, so, um, I'd like to introduce my assistant coach, Caleb Simpson. He was, um, assistant coach of the year for the Holy Deal speech and debate district. And so, he was nominated and received the award. He was in the pool of many different assistant coaches throughout the state, including veteran coaches and um, who have done it for years and years. This was his first year as an assistant coach in speech and debate and he just put in the hard work and the dedication and his talents um and his intelligence really helped our team. So um I can't think of anyone that deserves this award more. So okay, thank you. Y
111thank you very much. Go this way. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. That's fabulous. Congratulations. Good work. Congratulations. That's part of our agenda sometimes takes the longest but is I think for all of us up here one of the most exciting and rewarding parts of of every meeting that we have. Um we are going to move on in our agenda now to items from visitors. Um a statement I need to read about how this works and then we will um start with public comment. Um 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 wish wishing to comment during a board meeting must sign up by 5:45 p.m. on the
112day of the meeting. Sign up for public comment can be done electronically by accessing the form available on board docs under the public comment portion of the meeting agenda. Alternatively, individuals may also contact Darlene Davis to be added to the 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 this is a time for board members to listen and consider, but not to comment or debate. The board asks that all speakers first state their first and last name. Second, keep their comments to three minutes or less. And third, note that if you wish to discuss matters pertaining to the employment of a district st staff member such as the appointment, employment evaluation, reassignment, duties, investigation, discipline, or dismissal of an
113employee. This will not be done during the public comment portion of the meeting. Such comment should be directed to the assistant superintendent of human resources or you may request to meet with the board during executive session. So, we will start with public comment regarding agenda items. Um, and I would like to um ask Patricia McCoy to come forward. Good evening, school board members. My name is Patricia McCoy and I'm again representing the petition submitted March 17, 2025, signed by qualified electors under Wyoming statute 21-3-110. I first want to thank the board member who ensured this matter was added tonight to tonight's agenda. Your effort is greatly appreciated. Council suggested that our petition falls under Wyoming statute 16-3-106 and 16-3-103 of the Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act, citing WS16-3-101 subsection B subsection 9, which defines agency as
114including boards of political subdivisions. I respectfully counter that Wyoming statute 21-3-110 is more appropriate. WAPA governs board rulemaking for state or subdivisionwide agencies, but our petition targets this district alone, asking you to consider a policy for Wyoming statute 6-8-105, the Wyoming Repeal Gun-Free Zones Act, effective July 1st, 2025. Wyman Statute 21-3-110 subsection A subsection 13 specifically mandates this board to act on petitions from five or more district citizens within 30 days today being day 21. We are not asking for a full policy by April 16th as the law allows until July. We are asking for review to begin. Wyoming statute 16-3-101 B subsection B subsection I may include boards but Wyoming statute 21-3-10's focus specifically on school district governance and citizen proposals fits our intent not WAPA's formal rulemaking. I'm grateful tonight's agenda inclusion meets
115our second request and this public discussion fulfills our third. So thank you all. We ask you for four actions. One, to review our model policy, firearms and concealed carry on school property, aligning with Wyoming statute 6-8-105. Two, agenda it, which was done this evening, allow p public comment, which is happening now and will come in the 45day comment period, and consider adopting our policy with two of the items addressed. We look forward to the policy advisories, review, and future public input opportunities. The petition and policy were submitted and provided at the March meeting, but I understand the board may not have received all of those copies. So, if any member would like one, please see me after the meeting or shoot me an email or text and I'll be happy to provide that for you.
116Thank you again for all of your work. And now moving on to public comment um on non-aggenda items. Dylan Ford is signed up. Is he here or online? Oh, he was here. I think he was here. Madam Chair, there are no hands raised. We'll see if he's out in the lobby. I think somebody went to load or Okay. Are there bubbles? So, you don't see anybody? Okay. All right. We will move on with the agenda. Um, moving into board communications and reports. Um, starting with information on upcoming meetings. Um, April 9th at 6:30 p.m. there's a parent advisory committee meeting in the boardroom. April 16th, we will have our board planning meeting executive trustees with superintendent. Um that's at 100 p.m. and we need to get a couple of board members signed up for that.
117So trustee Humphrey is able to attend that one. And do we have another trustee that would like to come? Okay. Trusty Cook. Okay. Uh, our next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, April 21st at 6 PM. And now going on into individual board communications and report. This is where we have added um just today made a change to the agenda. We're going to start um under miscellaneous information discussing the petition that Patricia McCoy um gave to us last week. want to just give a little bit of background information. Um, our legal counselor, Amy Polly, is online tonight. Um, she will probably provide a little information and then we'll open it up for discussion from the board. Um, but at that March 17th meeting, we received a petition as Miss McCoy talked about asking
118the board to consider and adopt a proposed policy regarding the implementation of the Wyoming Repeal Gun-Free Zones Act. Underlining state statute 21-3-110. Uh she they filed this um this state statute requires us to consider and take some action on any petition that is brought u by at least five citizens and we have to do that within 30 days. So as Miss McCoy pointed out, we're a few weeks into that. Um our last meeting was March 17th. So um that was when she brought that forward. Um with the recently passed legislation at the state level on the repealing gun-free zones, um our school district and districts throughout the state will be required to pass a policy that's in line with that law by and have that in place by July 1st. So this is this is
119a topic we will be discussing. It's a policy that we will be um having to write. So, um, this petition, you know, came a little bit before we were as a as a district, um, looking at a policy or policy language, but, um, or before we as a board have seen it. Um, but we we do need to act on this within this 30-day um, time frame. So, I would like to now um, turn it over to Miss Paulie. And Miss Paulie, we was hoping that my message went away. um that you might be able to just remain aboard um our policy for or process for policy adoption. um give us a quick overview of that petition with the four items that that has been requested on that and also um if you might before
120we start our discussion just give us a quick overview of the policy being proposed and then I don't know if we have that to pull up on the computer for folks in the audience or online to see or maybe we don't this time but it will be posted um in the next few days. We'll we'll ask the admin team to get that online so folks can review it there. But Miss Per, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, perfect. Um, my apologies that I'm not there in person tonight. Um, I think I caught everything that you asked me to go through, but if I miss anything, please feel free to interrupt um and and let me know. So to begin, you receive the petition on um
121March 17th as the chair has said um statute then requires you to take some action on that position within 30 days. So to look at the definition of action um we go to the public meetings act um which governs your uh meetings and in 16442 in the definition section action means the transaction of official business including a collective decision a collective commitment or promise to make a positive or negative decision or an actual vote upon a motion proposal resolution regulation rule order or ordinance. Um, so where you are tonight, because this is a petition for rulemaking, you have to still follow your own um policies on how um you adopt policies as well as state statute um regarding the process for adopting policies. So at this point in in the process um in chapter two
122of board policy, it outlines um how you as a board develop your policies. Um that does involve a a presentation or um a review by the policy advisory committee which is um defined in your policy um the the members of that committee. Um you may remember that at the last meeting during the superintendent's update uh Dr. Newton mentioned that we had started looking at that uh statute and drafting language um for that policy. The the new statute is very specific on what what has to be included um if the board chooses to adopt a policy um implementing requirements for concealed carry. Um, I'd remind the board that if if you decide not to adopt a policy, it does not mean that that there will be no concealed carry by staff or volunteers. What it means
123is that um all staff, all volunteers who have a concealed carry permit would be allowed to carry within the school. So, what the policy that you would be considering would do is effectively um it puts in place um training requirements that in addition to a concealed carry permit that an individual staff member or volunteer would have to to comply with in order to carry lawfully on school. Um again, this would not only apply, excuse me, this only applies to staff and volunteers. It does not apply to anyone else. So it does not affect anyone else's ability to carry on school property um only district staff um district volunteers. So that's um part of where we are. So tonight um Miss McCoy's petition um goes through and I apologize I'm a little clunky. um goes through
124and and um runs through basically a lot of this the requirements that um are in the new statute uh regarding um training requirements. Um there are some additional um parts of that policy um draft that go beyond what the statute allows for. Um, for example, let me see where I'm at. So, on page two, toward the bottom of that page, there's language that says the district shall implement an age appropriate firearm safety education program at each gradeband level that promotes responsible gun ownership and safety. Um, without, you know, speaking at all to the merits of of having a policy on on that or curriculum regarding gun safety, um, I don't know that that's an appropriate place um, within this policy because again, this this directly relates to how um, individuals are allowed to carry firearms
125on school district property, not um, you know, firearm safety in general. Um there is a lot of of um sort of concern about the statute um and and questions still about what um would be appropriate in this type of a policy versus what's not. And that's based on a couple things. one, this the um particular bill from the legislative session repealed an existing statute that dealt um dealt with school districts and and their policy related to um staff carrying concealed on on campus. That repeal um that that statutory language included different things than what is included in the bill. So there was a little bit arguably a little more flexibility under the previous version of the statute that allowed for concealed carry um policies than there is in the new version. Um so I would
126just exercise a little caution when you're looking at um any any proposed policy. um you know, the legislature made it very clear that that the state um has preeemption authority and is the only entity that can um govern um the carrying of firearms within the state of Wyoming. And so that's a fine line that we want to make sure that that you don't get up against. And again, like I said, um and like the chair pointed out, this is a conversation that is ongoing um across across the state of Wyoming and and school districts. And so, um, I've talked with two attorneys today and there's not clear consensus on what can and and could could be included within the the policy and what would venture kind of too far and exceed the authority that the
127legislature has given school boards in relation to this policy. So um again within your process um generally speaking um policy development starts with staff and like I mentioned and and Dr. Newton mentioned that the last meeting staff has begun drafting a policy um related to concealed carry um for school district employees and volunteers. Um Mr. deorter. Our safety and security administrator has been um working closely with law enforcement on the training and um instructor and curricular requirements that that the statute allows the district to have um input on. Um and so that piece is also I would say missing in the petition that's before you tonight. um statute allows for the district to um in consultation with local law enforcement um come up with qualifications um related to the um individuals who would actually be
128conducting the training. Um Mr. reporter have been working really closely with both CPD and um the Larmy County Sheriff's Office on potential courses that would satisfy um the statutory requirements as well as who would be qualified to offer those courses. So, that's a piece that I would say is missing from your the policy that has been proposed to you tonight. Um that is actually included in the in the um policy that the district has been working on. Um, at this point, um, my recommendation, um, should the board choose to, we could put this both, um, the policy that was presented by Miss McCoy tonight and and last meeting, um, as well as the policy that the district has been working on out to the policy advisory committee um, for their input and some feedback um,
129prior to the board voting on any policy that would ultimately go out for the 45day review under the APA. So, you could I mean, as soon as tomorrow, we've got um the both versions of the policy, we can send both of those versions out seeking input. Um our timeline in order to comply with the 45day is a little bit tight on this one. Um, so in order to have a policy in place by July 1, the board would need to put this out for 45day public comment at its next April meeting. um you know that's that's ahead of the 25 26 school year um by you know a good month and a half but that would cover the summer school period that begins or that runs into July. Um, if we needed to, if the
130board chose, if we need to push it out further, um, we could always put, you know, the version of the policy that the board chooses to go with, um, put that out for 45day review potentially in May. and that pushes that out into July, but the board could also adopt it on an emergency basis ahead of that July one cutoff so that it would be effective for the um summer school period. I've been talking for a while and I feel like I've I've talked too much. So, are there any questions? Did I miss anything? So, we probably have questions. Who would like to go first? Trusty Hingle. Um thank you, Chairman. Um, Miss Polly, um, this has nothing to do with any visitors that come in as far as concealed carry. This is just staff
131and volunteers. Is that correct? Um, Madam Chair, Trusty Hinkle, yes, that is correct. So, the the change to the statute that was made during this last session allows for um visitors um any adult who has a a concealed carry permit to lawfully carry on school district campuses. It just gave the school districts flexibility to adopt additional training requirements for staff and um volunteers only. Thank you, Trusty Cook. Yeah, Madam Chair, um Amy or Miss Paul, we thank you for your all your time and I had sent her an email, pretty lengthy email today and she responded to mo most of my questions. My two concerns about the policy that we've received from Miss McCoy was the as you have stated the education part of it. I think our teachers have quite a bit on their
132plates right now. So to add uh gun safety to it I think is um something that might not be such a a great idea. And then the second thing I'm concerned about in the same policy was if people have the concealed carry and I think they need to be accountable if something happens to a gun in the schools um some accident whatever and I think this policy says there should be no accountability and I believe that that there parents or whoever the person that has the concealed carry should have some type of um accountability for an accident. So those are my concerns. Anybody else? Chelsea Burden. Um, yes. I I have a um question. I appreciate all the hard work that's been done um thus far. Um, but the thing that I was pondering today
133is what if there is an accident and somebody is seriously injured or or killed? Um, gun accidents happen in the, you know, in the community as well. Um, is the school district going to get sued because the incident happened on the school property? And is that something that um can be considered, should be considered, not allowed to be considered? Um because if somebody dies, that to me just screams million multi-million dollar lawsuit. Absolutely. Miss Paulie, do you have any feedback on potential liability for the district itself if if an accident happens with a gun? Yes. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Trusty Burden. Um, that is definitely a concern. Um, Mr. Curelli is is currently working with our insurance um to figure out uh what coverage could potentially look like for the district um with having
134staff and volunteers carrying. Um in the proposal um that the district staff have been working on it kind of clearly um states that if if an employee or volunteer chooses to carry that is their decision solely. It is not part of their job duties. There is no um you know expectation by the district that they will carry and that they would be um liable um you know for their own actions with respect to um their firearm use. Um now would will that stop a lawsuit? Um no. But I think that there's um you know we can we can limit it as best we can and we can um seek you know work with our insurance to see what kind of coverage and what that looks like um from a liability perspective. Thank you. Anybody else
135trust? Thank you Madam Chair. I appreciate this conversation and just thinking through these different issues. Um, I too think the the firearm education is a curriculum question and that gets us into a lot of issues. Uh, Trusty Cook raised one of them about time, but also just funding and we're looking at finding budget cuts. So, I'm not sure this is the time. Um, but I had another thought when I was reading through this and it's kind of up above that section a little bit and it talks about employees and volunteers who carry concealed firearms will be kept confidential and I appreciate the the sentiment behind it and I understand it. Um, but on the first page, it also says that you plan on carrying as an employee or volunteer, you need to notify the superintendent
136prior to and I guess as we're working through ideas in drafting our policy and and I do think that we should share this policy tonight, we should decide to ask them ask the staff to share it with those are working on the overall policy so that they can take the good good idea ideas and mix it in with their ideas. Um, so I I do support that idea. But back to this point, it just occurred to me as I was reading through it, and I'm sure I'm overlooking a lot of other issues, but this one popped to mind, and that is if there was an active shooter, um, and you had a employee or a volunteer that had concealed carry, they would need to be able to identify themselves as someone other than the active
137shooter. And I think that that's an issue that we should think about as a board as we move through this process as well. And maybe that's as simple and this is I know nothing about this, but maybe it's as simple as as issuing them once they've gone through any requirements our district determines are needed some kind of identification that they can use if they hold their their gun out to help. So, that's another issue I I would like the staff to at least have a conversation around is how do how do um police officers and and police um author different authorities identify um those employees and volunteers who are concealed carrying in the in those active shooter situations. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Anybody else have anything? Trusty Hinko. Thank you, Chairman. Um, I'm
138going to make a little bit of a statement here as probably the only person up on this dis who has been in an emergency room when a child has come in from an accidental shooting and died from a brother shooting them. It is devastating to a family. It is devastating to that child. It is devastating to the community. Um, I am against having guns in our school. I'll say that number one wholly against it. I understand we have to have a policy in place. We have to do this. The state has imposed this on us. I get that. It is unconscionable to think that there will be a gun in elementary school and that these kids, no matter how careful people are, can die. Um, so that's my statement number one. Number two, having read
139the draft that was developed by the employees of the district, um all of the things in the current policy that Miss McCoy um gave us that apply to the law are in that policy. It does not have the other extraneous parts such as the firearm safety training and the um information about not being liable. And it also includes a portion that says who or which um types of training um would apply to this. So, my um what I would like to propose is I would like to move that we do not send Miss McCoy's policy in that we allow the um people doing the policy to see it if they want to, but that we formally send the draft policy written by the employees and not Miss McCoy's policy. Um and if they want to
140make changes to that then there will be public comment allowed and we will discuss that at that time. Anybody else? So, in visiting with with Miss Polly earlier today, um you know, any any policy that we pass will have to be strictly in line with state statute and what has been um decided by our state legislature. um any deviation from that or any extra that we add really um could put us in a bad position as a district for um tightening things up more than they should be tightened or adding extra allowances that maybe were never the intention of the lawmakers. Um I I just you know the a draft policy that the district has been working on just came to us very late this afternoon. Um I I knew that that had been in
141the works, but um what I would propose and I we we're not voting right now. This is not a business item, but um that perhaps this policy or this draft and what our district has worked on both go to the policy advisory committee and let's let those folks that have very vested interests in different aspects of what this looks like um and how it's implemented. Let's let them sort that out. I my understanding is there's probably not much in this that is not actually taken directly from the state statute. So um but maybe we could before it it will come back to us soon. I mean at the next meeting it sounds like but um give both of those drafts to the policy advisory committee. Let them flush some things out. Let them join the
142the experts that are already having these conversations. Um, Mr. Deploy, as Amy mentioned, just even today was meeting with local law enforcement about this very thing. So, let's um I'd like to ask the staff to take both of those drafts, give them to the policy advisory committee, and let them tweak that before we get a draft policy as a board to even really, and this is all pretty premature tonight, um for us to react to then at the next meeting and um decide on putting it out for 45day review. Um not you know, I I appreciate that we have folks in the community that are super invested in this as well. Um, and the the work that went into this, but I would like to see both policies go to that policy advisory committee and
143let them hammer it out before we actually react to anything as a board. I don't know if anybody has thoughts on that. Trusty Humphrey, I agree with putting both in front of the policy advisory committee and seeing what um they give us at the next meeting to put forth to public comment. Anybody else have thoughts one way or another on it? Like I said, we can't we're not voting right now, but um I'm not sure, but it hurts for them to look at. Madam Chair, I um also agree that we should send both to policies to the committee. Um we do have signatures from members of our community. Um so they are stakeholders as taxpayers. Um I don't know most of the people on the list, but I suspect there's parents on that list as
144well. Um, and so I believe that the work that they've done and things they've considered um need to be uh part of the discussion process as we move forward. Trusty Kurt. Um, thank you, Madam Chair. I'm I have not had the opportunity to read the draft, so I'm at a real disadvantage, but I'll go right along with uh Trustee Hinkle. I am not a proponent of guns in our school at all. And so, um I know we've got to go along with it because of the state statute, but I think that we need to be very careful about what we do and how we um allow that in our schools. Um, so I would be supportive of I I believe that our school district and I don't know Mr. Deorter, but I believe that our
145school district would have the best interests and I um in what would be best for our schools to comply with um House Bill 172 and um or this new law. And so I guess I am for just putting forward the policy that our school district would come up with. Anybody else want to weigh in on on that? I personally am not sure how it would hurt for the board or for the policy advisory committee to look at both drafts. one that our legal council and internal folks have provided and one that has been put together by community members, but um seems to um mostly site state statute and it um and let that let that be the first ground for hammering things out to to give us something to react. We don't typically even look
146at policy and I mean it it goes to them first before we ever have much say on Trusty Ashby. Did you um No, I don't have any problem with it going forward. I I'm reading through comparing again. I think the the only pause in there that I I don't think we are at a point as a district to implement a a firearm safety program internally. Um, and I'm reading the indemnity clause differently than, um, Trusty Cook is. So, um, I don't think it's that different. And so I Okay. Trusty Clson, did you have any thoughts on that about both drafts and the first to me? Draft should go. Okay. All right. um seems to be then the will of the board that we would um ask our admin team to um send both drafts for
147the one that we just received and I haven't read it yet either but that our staff has put together as well as this one send those um right away to the policy advisory committee and let them start taking a look at it. Um, Miss Polly, so we would hear back with a you you would have a proposed policy for us to look at and vote on putting out for 45day review at the next meeting. Is that right, Madam Chair? Yes, that would be correct. we would take um input from the policy advisory committee um over the next probably week and then um combine all of that into a draft policy for the board to consider for 45day review. Um Madam Chair, if I may, just one uh question that I have. Um Miss McCoy has
148the um policy as falling in chapter 5 supportive services in in section 16. And in looking at the policies, um, I I feel like it would probably be go better in chapter 3, section 8, which relates to the general school administration. Um, would it be okay? It so that the policy advisory is isn't confused to thinking that we're doing two separate um policies or making changes in two separate places. would it be okay if I I make that one change on where the policy would be located? Um and and you know, Miss McCoy, um if you want to shoot me an email if you think that it's important that it it be located in that in that particular um section, we can leave it as is. But I feel like it might be a little
149confusing to policy advisory and others if we have two potential policies that deal with the same issue but that are listed as as being located in two different um sections within the policy. Miss Paulie, we're getting lots of nods in the room and flew in from Miss McCoy. So I think we're okay to um move it to that other section. Okay, perfect. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. And then Miss Paulie with that and starting that process with the policy advisory committee. One of the um requests um with this was that this would be um shared publicly and start receiving feedback. Would it be possible to um have our staff put the proposed polic both policies that are going before the policy advisory committee um online this week with some sort of link to start
150providing feedback? I'm not I'm not sure whether we include education in it or not. The the the feedback we get changes very much. Um, but that was one of the requests that that it be posted publicly or we could post it publicly and then wait for feedback until the policy advisory committee has done his magic. But what do you think about that? U Madam Chair and I apologize. I forgot to mention that we can certainly um post both drafts online with separate links um for um the um Microsoft form to provide feedback. Um and then we can include kind of that public um free public comment feedback um as well as what we get from the public or excuse me from the policy advisory committee. Um that may just take it, you know, policy advisory
151we can get that out first thing tomorrow. Um getting it posted online um might just take a little bit more time than that. Does that muddy the waters? Maybe we finally have a policy up for 45day review and the the board seems concerned about that. Um most everybody I was looking at me thinking that that might make things further but he wasn't sure with this petition that that was one of the requests. Um how do we handle that? Okay. Trusty Coulson. Madame Chair, I I don't feel strongly about this, but it's really different than how we do every other policy. So, even as someone that's been on the board six years, it's a little confusing to me. I think that what the majority of us agreed to was give all ideas to the policy committee,
152and this would be one of them, and have them hush out and talk about all these different issues. I raised an issue I'd love to see them talk about tonight. Um, you know, there's there's things in this that some of us have said, I'm not sure we can afford or take time out of classroom to include. Have them hash all of that out, work with, you know, work within the parameters of their policy committee and then bring back something that we can all look at, including our public, and they can provide some feedback. So, that's kind of where I think we should go on this. Um, we're at the ideas idea stage right now, I think. Okay. Trusty Hle. Thanks, Chairman. Um, I do have one other thing. I just wanted to make a statement
153because the um the the petition came to us with a a a background note stating that um they were uh concerned that the Wyoming School Board Association was going to do a draft policy that was generic. Um, and I just wanted to clarify that the draft policy we're sending to the um, committee, the policy advisory committee is actually a policy that was drafted by our district employees and not by the WSBA. And Miss Polly did was not even aware of a draft policy. So, I'm not sure where that information came from. I have not seen one. Miss Polly, is that that's correct? Yes, Madam Chair. Uh, Trusty Hinkle, that's a good point. Um, I know that WSBA will likely be putting out a draft policy in the future. Um, but at this point, there is
154no um proposed policy by WSBA. Okay. All right. So, I am not sensing that it would be the role of this board to start collecting public comment on those draft policies at this point in time. Is there a legal issue with that? Um, with regards to the petition we've received, Miss Boring. Um, no. Again, your honor, or I'm sorry, Madam Chair, the um sometimes I forget where I'm at. Um, the the statute requires that you consider and take some action. And so, you are not required to do everything that is requested in this in this petition. You're just required to consider it and and take some action. So, um, and again, looking at the definition of action, it can be, um, you know, a a vote, an a a yes, a no, um, and kind
155of anything in between at this point because we haven't, um, we we can't formally put it out for the 45day review yet. So, you can make the collective decision to either put it public facing or to not put it public facing. That's that's a board decision. Okay. Well, let's just forward it then I'm I'm hoping to see mods here um to the policy advisory committee along with the draft policy that the district has developed and then revisit this in two weeks when we have a policy to review. Um we'll follow our standard procedure moving forward then with policy adoption. Um once the board votes, if we vote at the next meeting to put that out for 45day review, then it would be posted at that time. Um and public comment would begin right on it.
156Thank you. All right. Um that took up a lot of time. Are there any individual board communications or reports? All right. Well, seeing none, I'll turn it over to Dr. Newton. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple of brief ones this evening. While everyone was enjoying spring break, we did have a couple of groups that we wanted to acknowledge. Um, it was paraprofessional appreciation day and librarian appreciation day last week. And so, um, even though they were on break, we were certainly thinking of those folks and they, uh, wanted to publicly thank them this evening, both of those groups for the work they do for our kids. Um, the second thing I wanted to mention is, um, we have uh, been diligently working on the uh, staff survey that um, we got the results on
157um, a while back. And what we are doing is incorporating recommendations from that survey into action items in our strategic plan. Of course, the strategic plan is our uh blueprint for how we move forward as a district and a lot of the recommendations from that survey are um really woven into the very fabric of how we will be proceeding. So, um I will be sharing those updated the updated strategic plan very very soon which is um thanks to a very um a lot of hard work in the division of instruction. Um we will be cross referencing items from the survey in the strategic plan. So if anyone cares to know where items recommendations from the survey um are to be found, it will be very easy to reference within the strat plan work itself. And
158so as we're finishing up some of the just the uh rate smithing and the finishing touches on all these hyperlinks um it's coming very very soon and we will certainly share with both the board and the public as we uh finish up that work. But with that madam chair that is it for this evening. Thank you Dr. Newton. We will move now to 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? Can I ask questionable one? Sure. the um
159recognition of homeschool curricula. When does that stop being something we do? Afternoon, Madam Chair. Trusty Ashby, I I would have to look to see specifically if that's a July 1 um date um or if it is effective immediately. That's a great question and turns out there's a mix of dates on when some of these go into effect. We'll look into that right away and if the date has passed, we will absolutely take that off our future agendas. Madam Chair. Yeah. Yes. Um Madam Chair, just to clarif clarify that is a July 1 and so up it will continue through this school year and then beginning next school year, you are will no longer be required to approve the homeschool curriculum. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for the clarification. Any other discussion on consent agenda items?
160Okay, seeing none, Madam Chair, I move to approve all motions listed as consent agenda. And I second. Do we have a motion and a second to approve all motions listed as consent agenda? All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Those motions um pass. All right. Going down to new business. Um start with the first motion. Madam chair, I move to grant permission to adopt the meas didn't take Spanish. So Spanish language arts curriculum and materials not to exceed $325,838 for the LCSD1 dual language immersion DLI programs. The adoption is for curriculum and materials for grades kindergarten through fourth grade in both schools. This cost includes the adoption of additional grade level each year plus the cost of consumables over the next six years. Funds are available from the department of instruction curriculum budget. Second. All
161right, we have a motion and a second. Do we have any questions or discussion on that? Okay, seeing none, all in favor of um granting permission to adopt the Spanish language arts curriculum and purchase um say I. I opposed. That has been approved. Madam chair, I move to grant permission to declare one facilities department vehicle as a total loss and to be recovered by the district's in insurance carrier. Second. We have a motion and a second for declaring the vehicle as an insurance loss. Do we have any questions or discussion on that? Trusty. Yeah, Madam Chair. What what what happened to the vehicle? Mr. Curelli is going to tell us all about it. Yeah, that's what I was curious. Um, Madam Chair, uh, the vehicle was involved in an accident. Um, and so as a
162matter of procedure, we have to, um, um, have a formal motion to, um, uh, relay that property to the insurance, um, carrier, um, and they will, um, effectuate the disposal of that asset. Um, and you'll notice at this point in time, we are not asking for funds to replace that vehicle. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or discussion on that one? All in favor say I. I opposed. Madam chair, move to adopt the proposed school calendar for the 2026 2027 school year for Laram County School District number one. Second. All right. Do we have any questions or discussion on this calendar? So, I'm on the calendar committee, but I was hoping that maybe we could just get a have a quick conversation about what's changed on that um and and what that calendar looks
163like and how it might be different from other years. Mr. Preley, good evening. Thank you, Dr. Newton. Um the Chairwoman Smith uh take any questions you may have. Uh but um overall what you will see in front of you is a uh change uh from tradition is that we've um to start off in a August we frontloaded all of our staff development in our planning day to prepare for more um robust staff development, professional development um to prepare our our certified and classified employees for the school year. Uh we have moved our October parent teacher conferences to the end of the quarter. Uh this year's um trial was a trial and error in some extremes. Uh others liked it. Um but we felt as a calendar committee and a uh parent teacher conference committee that
164it would be best served at the end of uh the quarter. um more traditional as you can see in November and December with the Thanksgiving and holiday breaks as well as uh January. Um there really wasn't a lot of discussion around uh when we would have those breaks. They naturally fell as they had in the past as well as our our spring break. And at the end we did have some discussion around what to do with the end of the school year uh to try to uh incorporate snow days um once again. Uh we did get some feedback on um from parents uh our community uh that they do appreciate snow days uh and so we would add those to the end of the calendar year. But we'd also take a look at June 1st
165uh to bring back a planning day for um teachers, for certified and classified staff to get together and uh have a planning day to to kick off not only um for next year but to wind down the the current school year. So those are some uh big changes and I'd like to take any questions. Anybody have a question? Um Mr. Freley, I was a question about the professional development days. Are the teachers excited to have that block before school starts or was that input from teachers? Yeah, Madam Chair, uh through we have um a split a little bit. Uh some wanted uh some staff dilemma throughout the year. uh where we landed was that we we uh took a look at the absentee rate of our um certified uh staff and it was quite high
166during the school year. Um we only had uh certified staff this year of uh about 13 that were gone the first day and about 25 on the second day and in the upwards of the hundreds um throughout the school year. So that's why we took a look at um frontloading these to get better staff development, better attendance uh for those trainings. I I know as a a teacher those days before school starts are like gold to work in your classroom. So I was curious about their thoughts on it. So thank you. Absolutely. Anybody else? I'd just like to thank Mr. Freley and Don and your office for all your hard work on this. I just being on that calendar committee for a couple of years or so now it is it's a very involved process
167and I think hours of frontload of work before the committee ever even starts looking at multiple drafts and processing through what different changes look like. But thank you all. This is great. I'll pass that along. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Do we have any other questions or discussion on the calendar? Seeing none, all in favor say I. I opposed. All right. The 2026 2027 school year calendar passes. Madam chair, I move to approve the administrative professional contract on the attached list for the 2025 2026 school year and to place them on the appropriate step of the administrator professional salary schedule. Second. Okay. Do we have any discussion or questions on these appointments? Yeah, I just have one question. Are any of these new positions or are these filling old positions? Madam Chair, Trusty Hingle,
168these are all replacement of people retiring or resigning. Thank you. Anybody else? All in favor say I. I opposed. Okay, so those have all been approved. Did you want to comment on any of this? Madam Chair, I believe we have administrator joining us here this evening, Mr. Bradley who's in the back and he will be a new assistant principal at Central High School next year. And um I known Brody for a long long time and he's a welcome addition into the administrative ranks of Central High. Thank you all for having me. I look forward to working with each of you in the future. Thanks for being here. Of course. All right, moving on. Madam Chair, I move to grant promotion to contract uh for multimedia equipment and supplies with B&H Photo Blum USA Incorporated. Am
169I reading the wrong one? Yeah, you skipped one. Okay, did I preface that I don't have my glasses tonight? Because I don't clearly. Okay, take two. Madam chair, I move to grant permission to purchase two wrestling mats for Kerry Junior High from Wrestle Sports Products and two wrestling mats for Johnson Junior High and two cheer mats, one for East High and one for Central High from Dalmer Sports Surfaces for an amount not to exceed $15,58. I second. Hey, do we have questions or conversation on the mats? Um, I don't know if Mr. Sik really wants to say anything or Mr. Nap, but these were funded, these are being funded through the Cheyenne Community Recreation District through the Yes, sorry. Um, Madam Chair, members of the board, that is that is recre mill funded on all
170those mats and they're replacement mats for ones that are worn out. That's awesome. Thank you, Mr. Nap. Anybody else? All right. All in favor purchasing the mats, please say I. I opposed. All right. That passes. Madam chair, I move to grant permission to contract for multimedia equipment and supplies with B&H Photo, Blum USA Incorporated, CCS, Prestation Systems, Focus Camera, Pyramids, School Products, Scott Electric, and gosh, Stu, Stewie Vesset Partners for multimedia equipment for an amount not to exceed 500 $500,000. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any questions or conversation about this one? Nobody. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. All right. Permission is passed for that. Madam chair, I move to grant permission to contract for a purchase card program with First Interstate Bank. I second. All right. Have
171any conversation questions on that? Okay. Trusty Clson and then we'll go to Trusty Trusty Ashley. I'm going to guess the same question. So, uh, actually I don't have a question. I have a statement. So, we will be different. But I believe Mr. Cigarelli briefed us on this months ago about um accountability and having purchase cards so that we can better track incidental spending. Is this correct? That was essentially Can you refresh my memory of what these are? Madam Chair, Trusty Clawson. Um, yes, kind of. Um, uh, a few months ago uh, we addressed the board on a plan to move a lot of our PECARD purchases uh to Amazon storefront which allowed us to have more visibility on the purchases that were being made by schools and departments. Um the PECARD program is a little
172bit different um in the sense that um what we did was um issued what you might call a reverse bid. Uh this is a no fee to the district. Um we solicited uh a number of banks um and uh credit card providers for their commercial card program. Um so what you see here is not a cost to the district. Um it's a program in which we'll actually receive um rebates that will go back into our educational program um as a vehicle to make purchasing. Madam Chair, yes. I just want to commend Mr. Curelli and his team for always looking for ways we can save on our budgeting. So, good job, Trusty Ash. That was same question. All right. Anybody else? Okay. All in favor of of um contracting the purchase card program say I. I
173opposed. All right, that permission has been granted. Um, and one more motion. Madam Chair, I move to grant permission to purchase one playground addition for the East Ridge Art Facility from Star Playgrounds for an amount not to exceed $162,981.50. I second. We have a motion, a second. Do we have any questions or comments on that? to read. Um I believe that this one is also being funded by the CCRD budget. Um that's correct. Mr. M, do you mind to talk about that just a bit for me? Yeah, madam chair, members of the board, the question was is it how it's funded again? Yes, it is. It is a rec mill project. Um and it's a full ADA compliant um section of equipment that's going to go over at Eastridge. I I was thinking I remembered
174a conversation during one of our retinal board meetings about the ADA compliant playground equipment. So this is that this is that project. Okay. This is that. Yes. Great. Wonderful. Thank you. Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. All right. That permission to purchase also passed. The next regular board meeting will be held on Monday, April 21st, 2025 at 6 pm. The business of the district is done. And do we have a motion for executive session? Madam Chair, I move to go into executive session prior to adjournment for the purpose of possible student long-term suspensions, explosions, personnel, legal advice, and potential litigation. I second. Okay. All in favor of going into executive session say I. I oppose.