001PR order you'll please stand and join the presal allegiance is being done by the um Lori Martins second grade class from bags Elementary um you can either listen to them or you can join in and always a great way to begin our meeting so we focus on what is most important District let get so all right so do we have any adjustments to the agenda Mr chair there are no adjustments to this evening's agenda Mr chair I move to adopt the agenda I second okay we have motion to adopt the agenda without any adjustments all those in favor say I I those opposed no and we have two board members that are gone tonight we have a have one online is it is she online R is okay so do Dr Hinkle's online if she
002is on vacation or some so for some reason we're being out of the country and then uh we have a brand new mother who's at home with her baby so and she was very much hoping to have that baby before this next meeting so glad that happened for it all right as far as the um classroom recognition for the Pledge of Allegiance the principal and teacher couldn't be here tonight so uh Mr Bean from Western Vista has agreed to go over and actually present that to them at school tomorrow so they'll get a little I don't know if it'll be treat but they'll have a little surprise tomorrow when he goes over to do that so that'll be good all right so now we're going to talk about student of the week and the first
003person is from CH oh I'm sorry that's where you normally go we have something special tonight we have a special resolution and go ahead Mr chair may I call forward our special guest for this resolution we have Corey and Lorie talich here uh if you'd come forward as long as well as Jed sarelli and our High School principles for the myy and Bonnie Brown um recognition Proclamation whereas the Mory and Bonnie Brown estate has generously bequeathed a donation in the amount of more than $1 million to each of the high schools within laram County School District number one and whereas this donation is specifically designated to support and enhance the athletic programs at each high school and whereas the school board recognizes the significant impact this contribution will have on the development and enrichment of
004student e of athletic opportunities for our students and whereas the school board acknowledges the esteemed Legacy of Mari Brown and expresses gratitude for the estate's commitment to investing in the future of our youth now therefore be it resolved that the school board hereby accepts the generous donation from the mor and Bonnie Brown estate with profound appreciation and be it further resolved that the school board extends its heartfelt gratitude to the mor and Bonnie Brown estate for their unwavering support of Education and extracurricular activities within our community and be it further resolved that the school board pledges to ensure that these funds are utilized effectively and responsibly to enhance athletic programs at each School fostering a culture of sportsmanship teamwork and Excellence among our student athletes I second okay a motion as second for um the
005resolution to recognize the contribution the great contribution from the um Brown family all those in favor say I I those opposed no motion passes no Mr chair we have some of our principles who would like to say a few words Dr Newton Mr chair board um I would tell you that I was very fortunate and lucky to have known um Mr Brown and Mrs Brown for 45 years and by the way this donation is from the brown estate which is Mory and Bonnie Brown and I was very fortunate to know the family and to um get to know what they stood for and I would tell you that when receiving the donation is such a gracious donation but I'm not surprised because Mr Brown who was an outstanding businessman and um U really drove a
006hard line with his business he had a soft spot in his heart for this community and for the kids in this community and he talked to me before about how Athletics and activities made a difference in his life when he was a Cheyenne high school and he remembered that and he gave he and Bonnie gave so much back to this community over the years and this is just another example of how generous and kind they are to other people and this is something that's going to um benefit tens of thousands of young kids in far into the future and we're very excited about it and very thankful today us principles got together and had a quick conversation um just honoring this gracious gift and I would just on behalf of South High School like to
007say thank you and I do know that I did not know Mr Brown personally but the gift that he has given will be used um very wisely our goal is to sustain that for years to come and to appreciate that gift and use it um to help support kids and families at South High School and I do know that he'll be truly missed to this community and I'm just truly grateful so thank you so Mr Brown was one of our distinguished alumni at Central High School and I had the honor of getting to meet him and and his wife uh coming out to a lot of basketball and football games and so um I remember one night um I was outside supervising on the cold track for a football game and the wind's blowing like
008I don't know 70 miles an hour and it's snowing and we're cold and after the game uh Mr Brown and Miss Brown came up and said you know we we can get some like heat warmers for you all standing out there and I thought you two are the only people people are probably concerned about our well-being uh in this very moment and it just spoke to my heart about how he was always so concerned for other people and him giving this uh him and his wife giving this gracious gift to Central High School um is an honor um we are so moved by that and on behalf of Central High School thank you so much um it's amazing thank you Lor could you step forward and please receive our uh our resolution tonight on the
009f gots than you G be hard to follow that surprised all of us saw that so all right so now we're going to be doing students of the week and the first one is from um Johnson Junior High School and this is quas you come help with this yes not till the end good evening I'm Michaela Bradshaw the principal at Johnson Junior High School and it is my honor to introduce you to miss Leah Russell she's a seventh grader at Johnson Jr High School super smart super funny and the best part she's a fellow Swifty at our latest njhs induction it happened to be on April 19th and the Big Talk of the night was the new Taylor Swift album that was coming out so we always have fun in our huls in our rooms
010and Leah just makes it even more fun to introduce her to her favorite teacher as well as her a little bit about herself I give you miss Leah Russell hi my name is Leah Russell and I love Johnson Junior High because I love all the things we do there and I love cheerleading and I love all the fun events and school dances we have there and the reason why Miss Nelson is my favorite teacher is because she has taught me a lot about acting and a lot about theater and and she's really fun um I have had the pleasure of having Leah in my class this last quarter and the way that she has grown has just been tremendous she approaches everything with an open mind and with a tenacious Spirit um she is more
011than willing to help anyone out and her kindness just goes beyond measure she has been so just like willing to step into any role that I ever needed and to give a helping hand and it's just amazing to watch you grow honey and just real quick I want to say what Miss anakah Nelson just said about Lea is almost exactly like what Miss Nelson is one special thing about her that I just have to share is over Mother's Day weekend she made sure to take time out of her day to also text me and wish me a happy Mother's Day so I I appreciate you miss Le you go are Leah's parents here please stand stand up and you don't have to come up with the picture plus you want to take one later on
012you can yes and she mentioned that she in there for a quarter that um you don't know in our junior high schools seventh graders get to change lectors every quarter so they get a chance to try out different things so then to make that cutch of a mod at one quarter very amazing all right so our next person is going to be from Central High School good evening I'd like to introduce uh Hayden proventure and so Hayden um pton pton I'm sorry that's right I know what you what your name is Payton I'm so sorry sweetie so um so pton um and I really got to know each other this year and uh what I love about pton is that he has such an old soul and U so miss Krauss and uh Payton and
013I have really delved into Cheyenne Central history this year and figuring out how old we are and so we've been working with the Wyoming state archives together to really explore um our history and how schools came to be in Cheyenne and so what I appreciate is that that he's interested in the fact that I'm kind of a nerd about those things um and so I'm gonna give you a few moments to speak but also he chose Miss Krauss and so miss Krauss is our behavior interventionist and the Sesser funds are going away and so she's going to be doing some amazing work at the University of Wyoming next year and so we are going to just miss her um greatly but she's going to do amazing things and the world is special ed and so
014thank you for what you do too so Payton come on up here honey and say I like s because um I don't know it's a nice school I mean I don't really fit in with the kids but you know I love the teachers um but yeah I just censor CU I I like the teachers um they teach well um and they're all kind they need a stool um here we go so pton didn't sell himself as well as he should have um Payton came to me and I'm Behavior inventionist but I also help out on the academic side once long Payton came to me and he just knew he was struggling and and he advocated for himself which we try and teach that so often to our students and he came to me and said
015I'm struggling and I want to do better I he want he said I want to be a better student I want to be a role model to um other students and I want to be eligible for football he's limping a little bit because he just got out of practice um he he now Advocates so well for himself when students come in my classroom he's like you know what you need to do is Mrs Krauss taught me how to do this and the only thing I did was I provided him with the tools and I told him you can be a better student but you're going to have to be the one that puts in the work I can't put in the work for you but I can help you with providing you the tools and
016he took that and he ran with it so he's been sending students I think I'm a little overwhelmed because he sends so many students to me but he sent students he's like if you do this and you do this with Mrs Krauss you know that you're gonna do well but it's not me it's all Payton and I will say he really really loves um Dr delber he's said if you're leaving is Dr Del going to be there I said yes he's like so do you think we'll be able to continue learning the history of the school I'm like yes and you guys call me next year so I can come join so Payton is just one of those kids that you want to be around that um all the students they really look up to
017him and when she says he's an old soul he is an old soul and he's very very mature and he just wants the best for everybody so I'm just very proud of him and I think within the first couple months he is passing all of us classes and I think he's like A's and B's pretty much right now so just very proud of him so thank you and would Payton's parents and family stand please be recognized you need to come up also don't get away that easily well congratulations to these great students um we do have a a Western Vista is here this evening um Dan Buchan he's our senior vice president of financial services and lending and he has a few words to say and um some certificates for the students Dan you need
018to go the microphone because we're broadcasting this I know you can't speak that loud Western vist has been pleased to sponsor the student of the week program going on a few years now and uh we get to congratulate the latest students of the week tonight so congratulations I'll present the certificate of achievement give card conratulations I our next recognition is going to be for the ly County robotics scrimmage and Festival overall award Julie good evening Dr Newton chairman Bolan uh Board of Trustees it is with great pleasure and it's a great honor to be here this evening to celebrate the uh overall winner or grand champion of our sixth annual larmy County spring robotic scrimmage and festival and one of the things I'd like to say about it is this year we reached a new
019Milestone normally we have 14 teams who come out Mountain compete and this year we had over 26 we had 23 in the challenge uh division which is um the what we're celebrating our U the team for tonight and then three from our explore Vision um our explore division with our our Littles um we had some of the most amazing competitions in projects and in um robotic design and in core values and some of the things uh and and those things and it was just a thrill to really see kids engaged being kids and of course the best day of the whole year which is May the 4th right you should have a robotics Day on May the 4th be with you right so anyway that was also a special honor and so tonight without further
020Ado I would like to call Coach Stafford and the Fairview Falcon robotic team and before the before before they um before I give them their award um I'd like to hand the mic to uh coach Stafford and then let the kids talk a little bit about their journey and how they got here tonight so they were really nervous about coming tonight so I promised I would do most of the talking but I am going to hand it over to them in just a moment um this has been quite a journey for us as you can see we're a small school and this team has worked hard to achieve something that they've been working towards for the past several years um often we go to competitions and because we're small um we're often overlooked and we've
021gone to several State competitions and cheered and and been happy to be there but gone away a little disappointed so I am really overwhelmed with just gratitude and joy to have been this team's coach um first and foremost I would like to express my deepest appreciation for these students um your guys's determination creat ativity and unwavering commitment have been the driving force behind your success despite numerous challenges and setbacks this team embraced each obstacle as an opportunity to learn and grow and your passion for robotics learning and solving problems together has been truly inspirational I also want to thank our community especially our collaboration with L C's maker space to help with our Innovation project the community's belief in our um team and the potential of students and the willingness of numerous individuals including community
022members District staff board members and the Fairview leart PTO provided this team the support and resources they needed and have made all the difference to our families standing over there in the corner and our other supporters thank you for standing by us every step of the way your unwavering belief in our team has been our greatest strength your sacrifices and dealing with my crazy practice schedules and your endless cheering have fueled our determination to keep us going even when we were faced with am men's challenges as this team celebrates Victory I hope it inspires others especially those in other Title One schools to dream big and know that nothing is impossible I'm going to hand it over to these guys and they're just going to tell you a little bit about who they are and
023their role on the team and how they um just kept driving to create this robot that was so successful for them my name is Brooklyn and I'm a programmer my name is Karen and I'm a researcher my name's my name is Cen I'm also a programmer my name is Lucas and I'm a researcher so our Builder today could not make it but our Builder helped us modify our bought a lot and I've been here for two years trying to get a victory I've also been here for two years trying to get a victory too um one of our mom applications is the backside um it used to not move and now it can and then now our Hook is more stronger because we used rubber bands before and it has a motor now we went
024from Wheels to Treads which gave us more grip uh we put this camera right here for a more lifelike look and we really work together to build the bot all our suggestions have been included in the bot everyone helped with everything everyone helped research and program and build sometimes we would have separate and have people working on the mat and some researching but of overall we all helped and we did good we had to communicate a lot and we you we got into like a few fights about um about like what like Rell should like do and we really work together to fix the M mistakes everyone helped with everything we have a question from from mton and she was wondering about your hats could somebody please share with us about your cool hats so
025the hats are falcons which my grandma made for us and it helps us show our team what our team is what he's not telling you is that originally Cohen had a hat and then we were at the state competition in Casper and his grandma was like you all need hats so she went like to her hotel room and was sitting up in the stands crocheting like mad to make sure the entire team had hat before I uh recognize the team uh with the parents of the Fairview Falcons robotics team would you please stand so that we can um recognize you this evening thank it is my it is my pleasure to recognize the Fairview Falcons uh robotics team as the grand champions of the the sixth annual uh robotic scrimmage and Festival thank you guys
026and then we'll take a picture work conat congratulations congratulations thanks for all your help with that any parents want to come up take a picture feel free I see we already have some thank you we maybe had some future engineers in that group and next up we have the Central High School fora State Deca Champions a very large group okay miss mcer your all of our Deca kids could come on in time year when we get a little writer cramp because back I have to sign every one of these my hand so so I'm gonna introduce uh Miss McClure so miss McClure came to us at Central High School this year um the first year at Central and she has been amazing and has really just worked so hard with our Deca students and so
027I'm going to let her speak about our Deca students they look amazing don't they so miss mcair all right hello my name is Anna McClure I would like to take credit for these kids but I took over for Lori Meredith and she had um trained this team up and like mentored them for over 20 years so I can't take much credit but they are amazing we actually did qualify 39 kids for Nationals but 18 of them are seniors so I think they're busy planning for graduation some of them just came from football practice um but these are the kids who were able to make it tonight so we and all everybody who is here did take first place at State and they took their events to Nationals so we have Brooke Miller Charlie Kohl's Tyler
028Anderson Bishop Lane Von Woodard Lucas Medina and Elise Newton um a few things I would like to point out Charlie was a member of our officer team this year and he will be again next year and Lucas is going to be a member of our officer officer team next year Lucas and Bond were also really instrumental in our fundraising this year they raised so much money and they were really helpful and the biggest shout out I want to give right now is to Elise so Elise not only took first place at state but she made it into the top 20 at National so placed in the top 100 or placed in the top 20 out of 160 people from all over in her event so great job would the parents and families of our students
029please stand to be recognized congratulations congratulations congratulations congratulations conations you want stand next all right next up we have the East High School Deca champions very pleased to introduce Mr Paul Garcia he's assistant sponsor per Deca Mr Flores couldn't be with us this evening Mr Garcia is going to tell you how well these youngsters did the entire year um not just at state but also at Nationals Mr Garcia uh hello so I'm here to uh represent Manuel Flores who is the um head sponsor for for Deca he does a great job with these kids um they they put in a large amounts amount of time um to be very very punctual with what they do um and so it's um with great honor that I stand before you guys to introduce uh these kids so
030Brooklyn Terrell has three first place finishes Anthony quick two first place finishes Sarah Morts two first place finishes and a second Laura true two first place finishes and a third uh Sierra Shield me one first place and a third and a fourth Natalia copac first place and a third place Jacob Schwarz is a first place a third and a fourth Adriana Hardin is a second uh Place finisher Ella gold schwitzer second two second place finishes and a fourth jie Davis is a second a third and a fourth Juliana Morales is a second and a fourth and Ayanna Bailey is a two third place finishes um one of the unique things about this group this year is we had um Laura is second place no yeah second um in the international competition so that um in
031Independent Business Plan for her and then Sarah mortz um is a top 20 International qualifying um person so again great job to these students great job to Manuel Flores who does a good job of representing and preparing these guys do a nice job and again uh to the board thank you for supporting all of our sports activities um and clubs through lar me County school district one I know the kids are very appreciative for your guys and what you guys do and the parents thank you to you guys for um just having a lot of really good good um good kids with good representation of of their families and the school and uh Mr marriage thank you for all that you do for our for our kids as well and so with that uh deca
032parents and family members that are here this evening would you please stand to be recognized thank you for all the support of your student and of the program and of our school thank congratulations congratulations conratulations thanks for all right staying with the same te we're going to have the South High School State Deca Champions and they were we had a little mix up they thought they were going to be here last week and here this week so sou High School Dr Newton uh board thank you so much for giving us a chance to represent Decat South um and thank you for a second opportunity since we weren't able to make it with some of the kiddos um last visit but here we are today I wanted to introduce Ann Mirad she has been a Deca
033sponsor for 11 years at South High School we're pretty proud of the work that she does on a daily basis and she's just amazing um to dedicate as much time and energy that she does to this program so I'll let introduce the kids they're not all here today but they're still wonderful and fantastic they're seniors you know they're working they're already adults so here we go hi nope did I turn it off just hold it okay thank you is it on okay all right thank you obviously not real used to using microphones I want to uh honor Tyson McMillian is the only one that could come tonight because the other the others were working but he was in a team event with Caleb Greenley buying and merchandising team decisionmaking and they took first place and
034were able to go to the National Convention in Anaheim a couple weeks ago and then the other student that we have is Caleb Brewer who took first place in principles of business management so um I'm always really proud of our kids I was able to take seven senior boys to our National Convention um we had a great time and they were really wonderful uh can I have Tyson's parents stand up thank you and as the previous people said without the parent support these programs just would not work as well as they do so we're always very appreciative of all the parents support and um also the administration support because we do get a lot of administrative excuse me administrative support through our programs um so thank you good J and next up another one of
035our clubes for East High School be the skills USA chapter these the SE skills USA winners pleased to introduce Mrs Kelsey Bob Gardner one of our sponsors for skills USA they had an outstanding State Convention just terrific she's going to tell you how the kids did and the Great accomplishments bomgar right okay so I am the skulls USA or one of the skulls USA advisers at East High School and we were lucky enough to be able to take up about 27 kids to Casper in April and out of our 27 kids we took home a pile of awards um East High as a chapter we work all year long with our community service and our fundraising and um all of that goes into our gold chapter medal so I'm not sure if you guys are
036really familiar with how skills USA works but not every chapter actually gets awarded gold silver bronze you have to qualify in the event as a whole okay so our first big award is um the gold chapter Excellence award and we were the only state in Wyoming to be gold and then the next to touch us was actually a Bronze award after that we were highp point for a chapter um we were Champion pin design with Nico McQueen niiko where are you at Nico is actually a three-time gold medalist this year year and he um he had an incredible year he can stay up here he's um he won our pin design he won our firefighting contest and then he's Al actually also a part of our opening and closing ceremonies he's a two-time state qualifier
037for that National qualifier for that and Nico's going to go to Nationals in firefighting which is a huge deal because Wyoming actually doesn't have a firefighting contest Neo had to go all the way to Montana to qualify so over his spring break he and his family went all the way to Montana and they competed in the Montana skills USA contest where he beat everyone there and qualified for Nationals okay next is our opening and closing ceremonies team which we have Owen Raymond niik mcqueeny again Bailey early America quick Ali Wagner Andre Wagner and Sophie Ray on up this team has qualified this will be the third year we've qualified with some of you guys here and um there're we have really high hopes for them whenever they go to to Nationals Nationals is in Georgia
038Atlanta Georgia um and they're very talented team they they've won for the last while we EA's had a a St team for the Last 5 Years so well on guys okay Chapter business procedure is Sierra D Camilo Reagan Allen Kelly Rosner Hannah schik Bradley McCarley and Brody Medina and these guys are also headed to Nationals and these guys are a really unique team because they got to compete also at um state for FFA and they did exceptionally well there as well the teams are big way to go guys and good luck okay my next senior who's Ethan rupy Ethan come on up here Ethan um won our contest last year for the state it's the hugest contest at at State skills he works all year he is a welder that's what he's going to do
039for his job he's done a really remarkable job he's our only well he's our only welder that qualified this year but honestly it's a really hard contest and he won last year he was state champion last year and we lost just by the skin of our teeth this year but he was reserved and he did a really really good job too Anna Anna come on up here anna um Anna is our runnerup state champion for first aid and for our t-shirt contest um CPR is probably next to welding in the competition wise it's really hard there's a lot of kids in that contest and um the fact that she got so high is just the sophomore is really encouraging we're excited to see where she where she lands next year as a junior good job
040I'll find us okay then the next one is Sophie Ray okay so Sophie has um taken a career tech ed class this year and she took our certified nursing assistant class with my co-sponsor Tina Marie quick and Sophie um entered our certified nursing assistant program which if you know anything about that in our district you take the classes and then you're certified at the end of the year to to test so she can actually test after high school and become a certified nursing assistant and so then she um she decided to enture the SS contest and she was a Reserve Champion she did an awesome job okay Ali Ali Wagner Ali Wagner was our Reserve Champion for medical terminology if you want to talk about a really hard test to use your brain it's this
041one um if you have never taken a medical terminology class you probably don't know how hard medical term is but it's like speaking another language and she did a an exceptional job she was reserved champion and I think it was only by maybe one or two questions how many questions are in that 50 it's hard Andre okay job skill is um a kind of an interesting contest isn't it because you can have anything there you can have anything from changing a tire to reading a story book or what' you do I did she inserted an IV for her State contest and she was wrong so she was third Caroline we tried a new contest this year and the contest was called facon and facon was what okay failon is interesting it's like running a facilities
042management team and you have to come up with this like elaborate plan on how to fix a problem within the facility in Caroline with third and that okay and then the last the last award this community service project um it impacted everyone at state or at East High School and their community did a really good job these three girls went out into the community and they advertised for support a senior so basically what that is is they took seniors in our high school or we opened it up to everywhere but um it turned out we used our seniors in our high school that maybe needed some things you know like we going to college and they needed stuff for their dorm room or they needed stuff for prom or they needed a prom dress or
043their makeup done or just things that maybe they never would gotten before and these girls rallied together and put together this really awesome program and um made it a big community service event and they were um they were Bronze in that okay overall we had a great year and um thank you always for supporting our kids we appreciate it thank you and could I please have all the parents and family members of the students please stand thank you again for your support of your student program thank you it's not often we see a group of East students wearing red so but red is the skills USA color so congratul conratulations congratulations conratulations conat conratulations thanks also notic there were a lot of family names there so it's kind of a family thing to join that
044club it seems like so all right we've spent a lot of time now um recognizing our students we're now going to take our time to represent some staff some teachers a teacher of the year all right well this I'm very excited to get to do this again this year um there are a couple of things that I enjoy doing on the board most of all and this is one of them um I'll talk about the other here in a few minutes because I got to do that last week as well um so I get to introduce our um teacher of the year as well as the people that were nominated and our finalists to be selected as the teacher lcsd1 teacher of the year teachers are nominated by students staff or really any member of
045the community teachers then must fill out an extensive application form and for those of you that have never seen it it is pretty it's a pretty elaborate form um and so thank you for all of you that have taken the time time to do that uh it is reviewed by a selection committee made up of lcsd Staff um from diverse roles and departments in the district as well as community members and myself um this year there were 23 nominees that turned in applications the selection committee scored the applications and chose we decided to do something a little different this year we chose an elementary a junior high and a high school teacher to continue as finalists and then we did interviews with those finalists so I want to call up the people that were nominated
046for teacher of the year if you would come forward we have a certificate and then you need to stay here everybody got it the other group tried to sit down there is no sitting down Brian Brian adami asked say it for me Adam I Heidi Berg Casey bostron Alicia Curtis Amy Curtis Tara Hall didn't see her Paige hanal Rory Mack Tony Moore Shirley Moore Derek Nissen Lisa nowatney Adrien Parker courton Courtney Paul Tim Peterson Samantha Pearson Melissa Roth Heather Samson Janet Stewart and Heather Young don't you all right let's do a big round of applause for our nominees so as I said earlier out of those nominees set of nominees we narrowed it down to three finalists that we did interviews with uh our first finalist was Goen Elementary first grade teacher Marty daringer I
047don't see I don't see either one of our this and Central High School social studies teacher Lor Barto uh they are our finalists and they will be given an award from first education Federal Federal Credit Union so big round of applause for them okay and Michelle Wilcox from first Ed is here she's going to come up for a minute do we want her are you going to say something I'm Michelle Wilcox with first education FAL credit Union I'm the com controller and I did sit on the committee this year for Teacher of the Year and I am here to present a GI Visa gift card uh and then many of you have seen uh we had our uh winner in the paper this year uh and I was very disappointed I didn't get to be
048at the presentation I had some personal things I had to be dealing with but I would want to call up McCormack Junior High English teacher language English language arts teacher Katie Wheeler and principal teach so Katie has been teaching for 19 years and has spent her entire career at McCormack along with various English courses she has taught a variety of subjects including honors courses and theater did not know you talk in 2021 Katie spent time building an academic interventions program before moving back to English congratulations chairman Bolan trustees Dr Newton uh I'm honored to receive this award and honored to represent and um shout out to my colleagues in matori three of them are behind me um and none of that would be possible without our my colleagues our families and our community with community
049in mind um one of my goals was to share uh a little bit of classroom with wider community and so I wrote a poem and then I told my students I'm going to be sharing this with the board and they heavily revised so now this is our poem and it's entitled our classroom in our classroom if you hear the Sea of thought and talk that stream from the mouths of 20 plus 14y olds you'd have proof that standards in curriculum matter but hearts and Minds mean more in our classroom if you grab a book and plop down for Sil reading you'd study and wonder at the words Amazed by the ways that empathy leads to understanding in our classroom if you pick up a pen and let your thoughts pour onto the page po excuse
050me potent and powerful you'd recognize the way words can shape a story a mind a life in our classroom if you sat down to learn the life of just one human in this place you'd agree that the wild Red Rage of the world is nothing in comparison to the smoldering potential of these people in our classroom if you saw the life the chaos the pure joy of everything that's right in this world you'd show up day after day clearly exhausted but never bored thank you for this honor and this opportunity here I had the opportunity to attend the reveal ceremony of MC high school and haven't been in a whole room full of eth graders in a long time but when they announced that Miss wheeler was the winner um she got a standing Elation
051so from eth graders that's pretty good all right thank conations congratulations conratulations and that concludes our our awards for tonight and we're going to be coming up on the um first time when you can have item visitors and I don't believe we have anybody signed up for that part tonight I will get around to ask to see if there's anybody who's here that did not sign up in advance and we appreciate when you sign up in advance we know how many are going to be here but of course you don't have sign up an event so I will let everybody who has something to say on the agenda item let be here I do want to um read a statement here um we've had some concerns for some of the things that happened over the
052last year or so and during this particular time when we have the public so I just wanted to remind everyone about a few things first of all the lcsd number one board is elected in a nonpartisan process so you noticed that this last week or so um the candidates that were that in partisan by the process have been signing up for the primary election which happens in August because we're nonpartisan we don't up until um August when the primary is almost over so we have to conduct our regular special emergency meetings with Public Access but are not required to provide a time for public input during our meeting the primary purpose of the board meeting is to transact the business of the district in orderly and efficient manner the current board believes that input from
053the public during board meetings by email and other channels is very important in helping us do the business of the district we have set aside two times during our business our board meetings for input from the public either in person or online we encourage calling ahead to reserve a spot but that is not required the rules for public comment can be found on board docs by clicking on the meeting agenda and then on c.1 items and visitors concerning agenda topics or items from visitors concerning non-agenda topics I would like to ask that in addition to our established rules for public input that anyone addressing the board be respectful of all persons and groups and refrain from using drug to comments or labels for individuals or groups Applause is not necessary and lengthens the time for
054the input so please refrain from Applause during our after comments be respectful of every speaker and do not Heckle anyone that is speaking all right so that being said is there anyone here who would like to speak on one of our agenda items for tonight and if you're online please raise your hand Mr chairman there hands raised online okay so we'll go on and again we'll have another time later on we do have some people signed up for the second okay next is board Communications and reports and our May 3rd 2024 at 4M is the Triumph High School graduation here in story gym on May 24th 2024 there'll be three High School graduations at Fran Frontier Park they are at 9:00 a.m. for East High School 1: p.m. for Central High School and 5:00 p.m.
055for East High School now the weather is not looking great depending on which forecast you look at so one or some of those may actually be moved for G we've not had to do that yet since we've been doing our Frontier Park and hopefully the weather will hold out for us we won't have do it this year but we do have a contingency plan all right um June 3D 2024 5:00 P PM work session 6 P PM regular board meeting and June 24th 2024 we have 6 PM regular board meeting okay now we'll go to individual board Communications reports anybody have any thank you chairman B so a couple of weeks ago I had seen on Facebook that Bane Elementary School was doing a leader and me activity night last year Dr raybine had invited
056the board and some other distinguished people in the community to come see their Leader in Me program and so when we got to the school we were met by my fifth and sixth graders in their Bulldog t-shirts and got School tours and then learned about the program which the leader and me program has eight habits and I think it's just a fantastic program shortly after that Dr raybine and some of her students spoke here to further talk to everyone about the program so going back to the activity night I decided I would go I would see the progress in it and boy am I glad that I did so they didn't talk about eight habits because they only have six grades that they were representing there but they did have some and let me tell
057you the kindergarteners had kindness and they were super cute with their game so they had a card that said kind and a card that said not kind and then different things out on the table like if you were to kick someone under the table so we had a grandma there whose granddaughter was behind the table and she picked pick that card up and goes hm kick someone under the table and her granddaughter's pointing like this towards the unkind it was just super cute the way that the kindergarteners did theirs but my favorite were the fifth graders and it was their habit was Synergy and they came up to a group of parents and myself and asked if we knew what that was and I resisted the urge to open my phone and do a quick
058Google search I said I don't so then they did demonstration of what Synergy means and after the demonstration that they had they had oh I think five students that were all hand inand in a circle and then got all tangled up and then they had another student that wasn't watching that turned around and they all work together to get untangled so after the demonstration they asked us a second time if we could guess what that habit meant and the other parents and I said hm working as a group for a common goal and they said yes we'd passed that test but then they said okay no you're not done now you get to play that so we got to do that I got to be the one that untangled everyone but it was just super
059cute to see all the students that were there they were behind the tables and they were they either had a game that you could play or a demonstration of that of that habit and they were so happy to do that I will tell you I think that the Leader in Me is a wonderful program so then moving on chairman Bolan and I were able to attend the East High Senior Awards night and that's always fantastic when you get to go to a senior Awards night and then the following night I was able to go to South High and see theirs one of the things I really appreciate about how they do it at South High is that when the that they they name the student and then they talk about the different scholar ships that
060they get and I had no idea what a Daniel fund scholarship was until that night at South High wow it's fantastic room and board books everything tuition so that was really great but also they have people they that uh say if you're joining the Armed Forces stand up or if you're going into a trade stand up and be recognized so I think that part of it also is really great great so then I went to metalark and they did a musical and the one that they had on the 16th it was like Phantom of the music room and it only took about a half an hour but it was super cute and they were all energized and they were easy to understand and they had their songs right on key so that part was great
061but I talked to the music teacher afterwards and said how long did it take than you and she said about 5 weeks and she said because of the way that the bus schedules work we had to use the recess so which is about 30 minutes which ended up being about like 20 to 25 minutes by the time everyone got got in there but they did a fantastic job and then last Britney trusty Ashby and I met with the finance team in MHP for the audit kickoff so and if you're into numbers it's always good time and that's all that I have thank you terol else ask me uh so I get the other thing that I enjoy a great deal um through the year is I got to participate with the fifth grade We the
062People program last week and I wanted to give a big shout out to Michael pck and uh Dr Kaufman and the other people that were involved uh all the fifth grade teachers that are involved with that you all heard a little bit earlier in the year any of us participated with the high school We the People program and South got to go to Nationals in that uh the fifth grade is a little different it uh not quite as competitive uh but it does give the fifth graders a chance to really dig into the We the People curriculum that talks about uh the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and um kind of the founding uh documents uh and then they get to present it and defend it and um I've gotten to participate as a
063judge judge is probably strong Ward um for many years now and I uh they do such a good job they get to do it in the um hearing rooms at the Capitol I get to meet with some of the legislators and um really do and they had um a a fifth grade class from Casper this year which was um new and different so thank you Mr chair I just wanted to mention and give a shout out to both our East and our Central High School soccer teams this year we just got done with State and uh I believe East got fifth place in the state and Central got second place in the state and they just they were they just were fabulous teams and and um great coaching and and great kids quite honestly so
064I just want to say congratulations to them and also um we had our Central um High School choir coner concert last week and I know trusty Ashby was also there and tomorrow night MMI um has their final spring choir concert and uh our choir teacher at McCormick is retiring and she's just been fabulous the kids all love her and I I know as parents we love her too so she'll be a big loss um and and Mr chair I'd like also like to ask the superintendent a question I I know we had just after our last board meeting we had a student that was struck by a car um it wasn't in a central Triad but it was in our it was in our district and thankfully the student wasn't seriously harmed but this is
065a second student that's been struck in the last year and a half or so and and I just wanted to ask um the superintendent if you could share a little bit with the board and our community um what efforts we've made as a district I know that a lot of um the traffic signals and things those are those are handled by our city but what can we do as a board and is there interest by our fellow board members um in putting something together to try to emphasize we need to protect our our students going to and from school trusty Clon thank you for that yes uh it was a tragic accident it turns out um that our little guy is okay um but he could have easily not been okay um our city has
066grown up around us and uh we have a lot of residential areas where students have to cross very busy streets um one of the things that uh I would like to point out is the further we get away from the school the harder it is for our District employees to monitor kids getting home safe and um and as they get further and further away from the school um we then lose their ability to supervise the school grounds that they actually are liable for um so it really is a partnership it's a partnership um with our staff who are working with our kids to talk about what does crossing safely look like um it's a partnership with our city um there is the monthly traffic safety meeting tomorrow I believe at 1:30 and we have Representatives
067who sit on that um uh committee to talk about um what can be done as you mentioned um the lights the signage crosswalks that's all under the control and purview of the city of Cheyenne and so we continue to try and partner with them in the high-risk areas it's my understanding that this intersection is is slated to get a hawk Beacon uh much like the one most are familiar with the one by um Yellowstone by Davis um when that will be exactly um I don't think the city has revealed um I think our parents partnering with us talking with kids um and to the greatest degree possible trying to get them to and from school um as safely as possible um I would give a shout out in this most recent incident to bags Elementary
068it was uh clear from the beginning that the staff were absolutely heartbroken um and wanted to do everything they could within their power uh to try and make it more and more safe I did hear reports that the police stepped up their presence in that intersection in the subsequent uh days and were ticketing very heavily in that area um those motorists who weren't slowing down for that uh school crossing area so perhaps that's the last thing I would say to our community members is um in the business of the day making sure that we're watching our signage watching those flashing lights paying attention to the the speed limit reductions um because there's a good chance that a little one is trying to get their way home that it he SM nothing okay I I have
069a couple of things um first off I talk about going to the Ming thing um last week um Mr selli was um gracious enough to provide a preliminary budget meeting hearing or budget meeting for all of us and he's does a very good job of taking very complicated terminology and explaining it in words that the board members can understand so that we understand what the or voting on when we get to the budget um I also along with two of the fellow board members um trusty Edon and Dr and Britney we went to a meeting with the CTA executive board and we mostly just listened to some concerns that they had and we trying to act on those if we there was any way we could um I'm the boorder representative on the benefits committee
070for our district and the big topic there was well they started off talking about the changes to the health insurance program but those weren't very good or weren't very much this year but the big thing this year is that we're going to a four-tier plan instead of a two-tier plan in the past we've only had a a single and a family this year we're going to single and then a um a spouse with the with the U with the employee and then you can also have an employee with children as many children as they have and then the fourth option is family so those are actually going to save some moneyy for those two tiers that are the middle which actually for over the last few years have been supporting the the single and the
071family ones a little bit so um that's kind of a complicated process to change that all over and our benefits department is actually working out a son meal that went out today that's encouraging everyone to get signed up for that but then the new thing the brand new thing for this year is that we're going to be offering Dental or dental insurance to all of our um employees through blue Blue Cross D Blue Cross dental and we're going to be paying for the single premium for all of our employees that want to sign up for that and then they'll get a credit for that if they decide they want one of the other three tiers um they'll get the credit for whatever it is for the single premium so again a lot of our units
072already were providing dental insurance that the employees had to pay for so this will now be added benefit the districts going to be providing and they still have a choice of going with dental insurance through their unit or changing over to actually use the the district one so and hopefully with the the district offering will have a big enough group we can get the insurance at a very low rate um I have a chance to go to what they call an informance over and it's sponsored by the National Endowment for the artarts and I went to the one there was a they actually went to each of our three high schools did they go to all four high schools just three the three Comprehensive High Schools I was there at their final perform informance which
073was at e High School this is a jazz thing and they brought in two professional jazz people um somebody on a trumpet and then there was a vocalist and then the real showcase for this is they have five um students that that competed nationally to make up make up this team and so they had um a young man on piano they had a young man playing the saxophone they had somebody playing something kind of like a xylophone they didn't call his zhone they called it something else um then they had drums and then there was a young lady playing bass and so they actually played things and then they had a um the person their director actually explained what was going on as they were playing they even actually took us through the the music
074part of of the whole thing which was way over my head my wife probably would have enjoyed that understood that didn't mean a whole lot to me but I know a little bit more about how jazz is put together now after listening to that once that informance was done I left at the time when they were actually going to question so I'm sure they had a lot of questions for him uh the question the last first question I heard from was what year did each of you start playing and they were actually asking the professionals but they they were starting to ask each of the the kids when they started playing also then after they were done and they did each of the high schools too they did a peer-to-peer thing which means these young
075people those five young people that were chosen were actually going to go and work with the peers and the same instrument and actually give them some tips on how to play better so that was actually a real fun thing to go to and Dr Newton was there for it also so and a very well behaved audience watch that song and it was mostly music classes so I'm sure again you understood it more than I did but um I think they had some others there couldn't just been music because the auditorium was full all right anything else oh trusty Hinkle did you have anything no thank you okay glad to hear you there okay so now we're going to go to reports from superintendent Seth yes I'd like to call up Mr Jed sarelli for a
076preliminary budget report and while he makes his way up here I would like to express my um deep and sincere appreciation to the mor and uh Bonnie Brown family for their very very generous gift to the students in in larmy one um if you know much about um that family's contributions to the city it's uh it's going to be sorely missed I know there were a lot of 4 animals purchased and immediately turned over to the comea shelter YMCA and lots of other organizations that relied heavily on on the generosity of Mor and Bonnie and so uh on behalf of the district um again my thanks to them for their very very generous gift and Mr selli looks like you're ready it's all yours thank you Mr chairman Dr Newton uh members of the board
077um as Dr Newton mentioned uh I'm going to do my best to give you a little information regarding our preliminary budget for fiscal year 25 I'll be the first to tell you that there's a lot of nuances and detail that's involved in a a budget of this size so certainly as I progress through this if I speak a little bit too fast or if you have some questions uh please let me know and I'll be happy to address those as we go through uh just as a quick reminder um of where we are as far as the budget development timeline uh we follow the municipal fiscal procedures act and tonight what we're talking about that conceptual framework for our budget um that will be uh revised certainly um before the final budget is presented to
078the board in July I have a few key dates up here that uh show when those uh budget hearings will be held and uh certainly as we move through the the coming months I've uh maybe explained this a time or two before most of our volatility when it comes to setting our our budget projections at least for the current year we're operating in um happens in the last couple months of the school year so a lot to change over the next couple months as we uh refine and finalize the budget for the upcoming year now as I speak through and and step through these handful of slides I'll I'll just reference that there is a preliminary budget plan um that has a lot more detail that's available and is currently posted on board docs uh
079again that captures the best known data points that we have at this time uh it provides a little bit more detail on how the six funds that I'm going to talk about um are structured uh with a little bit more detailed um information in a Bud narrative narrative that accompanies that um again I'll just emphasize that there will be a lot of refinements with the carryover uh revising those Revenue projections uh student counts and uh another uh certain impact of those data points as we get to uh that fiscal uh development so just as a point of reference from a high level um I mentioned that uh our our budget is comprised of six major funds uh with a combined uh expenditure preliminary budget of about 384 Mill million uh that's about 40 million higher
080than uh the current year that we're operating under uh and that really has to um uh do with at least one major uh change that weile in the budget for the upcoming year which would be uh potential Capital construction projects that uh Mr nap and Mr fertig have um discussed with the board in the past as well but there are other changes um as I uh move through this presentation I'll point out um our special Revenue uh that fund will be down about $13 million as we would have anticipated as the yeser funds come to a conclusion uh which will run through September 30th of 24 which kind of end in that first quarter of fiscal year 25 there are other areas as well with major maintenance excuse me major maintenance a special building fund
081that I'll point out uh but I will just uh mention that the general fund represents the largest portion of our our main operating fund uh so most of my comments will be with regard to the general fund as a whole um anything outside of the general fund are those funds that are required to be recorded in a separate fund due to the restricted nature of how those resources and those revenues are held by the district so a quick note with regards to um the preliminary budget just some highlevel budgetary side um notes to to point out here um we have a number of significant budget changes uh I apologize I might have there we go um to reference um certainly the the most recent legislative session has impacted the uh funds available to us for
082the upcoming year as well as the other various mechanisms that are built into our funding model in March I discussed that the ECA would generate about 9 million for the district as a whole in the upcoming year about 4.2 million of that was for personnel and five million was resource for non-personnel costs those are things like supplies and materials and utilities and other areas now there's some other areas that will adjust and refine like I mentioned before education and experience of our staff will come into play with the formula that allocates resources to the district um health insurance we have that information now uh we know there will be no adjustment for the revenue that comes into the district for health insurance for the upcoming year and there're the re reimbursable components that will'll um
083solidify as we get to the end of the year around special education and transportation now certainly the biggest piece um is the the student count as we measure through average daily membership or a ADM um and after a decade of steady increase in enrollment um our district is seeing a very different uh trajectory in our student enrollment counts I'll show you a little bit of information with regards to that um what you see here is um just the the last uh 20 almost years of student enrollment counts for the district as a whole a little bit different measure of what's used in the funding model but I think it gives you a good representation of the last few years and the volatility um over the uh the changes in enrollment since the pandemic began so
084you'll notice that um we finished U the October enrollment counts in 2023 with about 13,642 students uh this past October as Mr Frey's provided this information in the past we were um at about 13,355 uh students as a whole now the the kind of the fan that you see at the end is a little bit of a representation of that confidence interval of uh when we put together projections on where we expect our enrollment to go uh the further you get away from that dark line in the middle uh the more confidence that we have we're somewhere in that lane somewhere in that larger part of the fan as you get to more towards the narrowed middle um we have less and less confidence um I think maybe as a little bit of a measure
085of humility I'll show you where we were expecting to end um as we came out of last year at this time certainly a very different picture when you see that fan was a little bit higher um we anticipated a little bit different in our uh number in our enrollment projections but as Mr had mentioned before we're seeing a lot of uh uh uh decreases in that that early kindergarten cohort as it moves into the system um since that pandemic uh the high that you see there um our district is down about 96 students about 6.4% in enrollment as a whole uh this past year that 286 student change will impact our financial operations by about 1.5 million uh that that student count will uh result in that decrease of $1.5 million for our district as
086a whole and I think this really kind of gives you an idea of the importance as we um seek to kind of refine those long-term uh Financial plans uh to have more reliable projection models and how important uh not only for financial operations but for facility needs and Staffing determinations uh that we build into those projections um as we move through the coming years now shifting a little bit to the uh the revenue side of our discussion um wanted to to point out a few things here maybe more so to to acclimate ourselves a little bit with this graph as a whole if I can find my correct slide and notes here um it's HIIT a little bit behind um the uh uh the screen sharing uh box at the top but uh that First
087Column that you see um here is a representation of how fiscal year 2022 and 23 ended with actual Revenue figures uh the column to the to the right of that um is what was budgeted for the current year that we're operating in uh the third column over is our anticipated Revenue as we come into the end of the year again with some some assumptions as to how we'll end the year and then finally in that grade outbox on the hand side that's the representation of our preliminary budget um as presented tonight now um I'll be the first to tell you from the revenue side um it it continues to be a moving Target for us um looking at it from a perspective of our s excuse me our evaluations with regards to our tax collections
088um there's a little bit of a trade-off um we use the CATE projections presented by the state to to Really guide our assumptions for the upcoming year from a a local perspective the non-mineral um uh adorm projections are expected to be up about 3% uh when you look at the mineral side they're anticipating a decrease of about 5% now the mix between mineral and non-mineral is very different from District to District as a matter of fact our colleagues uh in our own County have a very different makeup um in laru but about 80% of our our tax collections from an adval Lan perspective come from the non-mineral valuation side so we will see a modest uptick as a result of kind of that trade-off with the increase on non-mineral and the decrease in the mineral
089side now um again kind of on the local perspective um I will point out that um we still um are above the fed's target rate of inflation about 2% knowing that um where that fed interest rate is is very heavily correlated with the investment um that the district receives through uh statutorily approved Investments like commercial paper um treasuries bonds those type of things so it has been uh very beneficial for us as a district as a whole um at least for now it looks like those rates will be uh kept high at least for um the near term now um looking at some of the signaling and the information that uh we are able to G Garner from our investment fund and our portfolio managers um it looks like there may only be a few
090modest um interest rate cuts um perhaps more towards next fall as we get into the calendar year 2025 and so um as I project our interest earnings for the upcoming year on the general fund I've decreased those in result of as a result of some of those outlying projections about $500,000 Less in anticipated interest earnings in the general fund as we kind of move into fiscal year 25 um again um as you kind of look at some of the other categories the County revenue follows very closely where we are with local state revenue um is going to be uh changing in relation to what I talked about earlier with changes in the funding model um things around special education and that external cost adjustment we'll see those adjustments as they are reflected here in the
091revenue category for state so moving on to kind of the the budgetary side um the expense Side Of The Ledger if you will um we're anticipating um increase in cost of about $10.2 million um now keep in mind that over the past few years we've reduced the general fund by uh millions of dollars always focusing our resources on instructional programs first so even with that ECA adjustment that I mentioned earlier we still see sizable cost pressures to the district as a whole I mentioned that we would receive about $4.2 million uh through the external cost adjustment for staff compensation uh subject to ratification uh we have proposed about an8 .6 million benefit package or compensation package um utilizing really three different areas um certainly the external cost adjustment but also looking at um utilizing our
092budgetary reserves now reductions to those non-personnel budgets and then um in areas that we can divert resources from our non-personnel external cost adjustments as well uh we do continue to see operating increase in things like liability insurance utilities um other areas as well and we simply can't just continue to ignore uh where those cost increases are impacting our instructional and our operation side of the shop so uh for this upcoming year we'll see school budget um allocations increase about by 5% um after taking into account the changes in student enrollments we'll see that uh that increase be a little less than 500,000 for the district as a whole uh but we do still see uh really some significant cost increase in areas like curric curriculum consumables um things for excuse me cost related services for
093special education placements um and other Contract Services or related Services uh that we have to contemplate and uh take into account for the upcoming fiscal year as well the next slide here um is really a highlevel um summary of our general fund uh this is outlined in that same statutory format that I mentioned earlier with the current year um the prior year and then the preliminary budget for the upcoming um uh fiscal year 25 and really I like to explain this is it represents um the worst case scenario assuming very little if no budgetary Reser excuse me reversions at the end of the year and then um as I mentioned earlier um conservative Revenue estimates when it comes to things like um interest earnings Etc so right now we're tracking at um the budget level
094for things like Personnel expenses uh I'll I'll put that in a little bit perspective for you um that represents the largest portion of our budget about 100 86 million in our general fund budget as a whole um we're anticipating that we'll be within a quarter percent of that that payroll budget as a whole so very very tight parameters around what we budget for personnel um maybe more so than I care to to to wake up in the middle of the night and sweat a little bit about how close we will be on those payroll budgets but um we do that very intently um uh and by Design to make sure that um there aren't um Surplus areas represented in the The Proposal the final budget um overall as you'll see revenue is going to be
095up about $4 million some of that's um unanticipated uh we like to wait till the end of the June uh treasure tax collections to see where we will sit we do anticipate there'll probably be some type of excess or shortfall adjustment as a result of that um as you kind of move through this this summary here um you'll notice a section called incumbrances released and incumbrance is added um these are really those uh expenditures that are carryover from one year to next if we have obligations to contractors or vendors um on the system that budgetary money is really one time and follows it into the next year where those uh incumbrances are ultimately liquidated but really kind of the Crux of this this particular slide you'll see on the right the net change from operations
096so is about a $15.6 million change to the negative um that's assuming again that all of our expenses are closed out perfectly by June 30th at the end of the year um that would uh decrease our unobligated fund balance by approximately $9.4 million I think it's pretty safe to assume that as we come to the year we'll have a similar amount of carryover incumbrances into the next year so that would likely be closer to three million um when we have an actual change over into fiscal year 26 um at this point you'll see that the anticipated uh Reserve level would be approximately 30 million now certainly um it'll more likely be around the 30 $35 million Mark um which is really our Target level for the general fund Reserve as a whole is that that
097roughly $35 million Mark Mr chairman I won't go into too much detail on this slide um it's represented in the preliminary budget book that's available um but I will point out a few things with just the departmental groupings that are similar to how we present the final budget um that'll have a lot more detail breaking out broken out by the school and departments um but as I mentioned earlier the Personnel increase is represented at the top um that represents about 83% of our budget not taking into account those carryover expenses I mentioned um that does account for those Staffing adjustments that um alleviated some of the the cost pressures on our budget as a whole um as well as some necessary adjustments from the negotiations um and as the district continues to monitor the labor
098market in particular with classified staff um there could be adjustments in order to maintain that parity as we move forward so changes in other areas um with non-personnel are certainly accounted for here what we've done very differently than we've done in the past is represented not just a historical budgeting practice but a needs-based so um we'll see reductions around um the initial cost for the Saddle Ridge program or school to come online we knew that we would have additional resources that needed to be earmarked for that purpose as we come um into the point where that school's open those will kind of um uh e and flow if you will um and won't be represented in the budget going forward things like the staff device refresh changes in our um uh contracts um for uh
099things like um Contract Services in various departments but we also have that that that cost pressure side that I mentioned earlier um consumables around curriculum continue to be a cost escalator for us um the property insurance utilities um I'll give you one example um Mr uh Greenwood over in transportation working with him and his staff we anticipate a need for 14 buses as we come into fiscal year 25 uh that's nearly $3 million in costs that the district has planned for by utilizing our equipment reserves to meet those needs but uh those costs continue to escalate as well and Mr chairman as I kind of um come to an end I'll just touch on some of the supplemental funds here just quickly um what you see here is that same kind of prescribed budgetary format
100keeping in mind that um our district appropriates excuse me appropriates expenditure budget over the major function level which is where you see those 1xx under this the expenditure line the 2xx uh this is the same format that you'll see with the final budget uh but that First Column that you see here that I have highlighted uh this is our special Revenue fund and these are preliminary estimates from our Consolidated grants the ending of the Esser funds now as we come to an end of those Esser funds I'd mentioned in the past that our typical Grant awards from the federal side is about $14 million as a whole for the district and we're starting to see our our our budgets move in that direction um and we'll be closer to that Mark as we move into
101fiscal year 26 now um we also have a unique opportunity as we talk about um the device refresh for the onetoone devices um we will be able to really fund that initiative in three ways um some funds will be coming from the yeser grants um as we come to an end we also will be able to leverage the residual value of the the devices that are currently in circulation with our school district uh with a tradein value and then lastly um the one:1 student device technology equipment Reserve that we established to meet that need for that replacement cycle so really you have three different funding sources funding that initiative um for the upcoming year and just a quick note um as you look at uh the agenda further down you'll notice that we do have
102some budgetary um amendments that are proposed in order to align those with those areas that we expect those expenses to be incurred um the next column you'll see here um is uh our our major maintenance fund um you also have an agenda item tonight to approve fiscal year 25 major maintenance plans from our planning and construction Department that takes into account a number of different ongoing projects as well as the new ones for the upcoming year uh we will see a slight decrease in the revenue associated with major maintenance uh that Mr nap and his team have addressed with that major maintenance plan as well now probably worth mentioning um as I alluded to earlier is our Capital Construction fund um this is the that represents the costs um associated with new schools now um
103Mr Napp has provided a number of updates on kind of where we are with uh Appropriations from uh not only the the 24 uh legislative session but also 23 now certainly there are still things kind of in flux with regards to that so we've um uh projected at least for the time being uh two schools um uh both representing two different elementary schools for approximate cost of about $66 million um it's our hope that by the time we get to the final budget that that number will look very different uh but until that point we're going to um give you kind of a conservative estimate of what we anticipate for potential funding for projects coming up now that fund will also include um some closeout costs for Coyote Ridge roughly 300,000 and other costs around
104security improvements uh the modulars that the district maintains as well the next column over um is the special BT building fund um this actually uh includes a number of different um aspects that uh cover not only our our um funding needs that aren't uh rep recognized through a funding mechanism from the state but also some of those High costly outlays that I mentioned earlier things like uh technology and Equipment um equipment for the Career and Technical education uh music uh uniforms and and uh instrument Replacements uh all of those are represented Within that special building fund U but it also serves another very important uh purpose which is it acts as the the uh the fund that um expenses uh projects for the Cheyenne community recreation District um we utilize the district's um procurement processes
105and contracts in order to to extend those wck Mill monies as far as we can and leverage kind of the buying po as the district as a whole so those costs are are expensed here and then reimbursed by the rec district into this account um as I mentioned before a lot of these costs that you see represented here uh roughly $17 million um are around those areas of the bus purchases um some of those equipments um purchases for the onetoone devices Etc I will point out as a matter of fact I before I move on just real quick on that special building fund um we also started utilizing this fund to address um some of the larger insurance claims that we receive as a district as a whole um I had mentioned in the general
106fund that we Contin continue to see those escalating property insurance costs um one of the ways that we've U sought to try to offset that is increasing our deductibles to try to keep those premiums low um in order to do that we had to make sure and that we have the resources available to meet those deductibles um this year has been no exception uh we know that we had to replace a roof at South High we've had damage to loading docks Etc every time that happens we're able to utilize these Insurance contingency funds and then um when the insurance uh checks do reimburse the districts they go right back into that that fund to address those future uh claims as a district as a whole moving on just to the uh um Enterprise fund I
107know it's a little difficult to see behind the the card up there but um this uh represents really two funds for our district as a whole um that's our nutrition services uh fund as well as our tuition preschool program and so we return to more of a traditional budget structure with our nutrition services with um paid lunches and USDA funding uh Commodities um all the the different aspects associated with running a a nutrition services Enterprise um and that's uh part of the $8.5 million that you see reflected here um we do uh anticipate some very exciting news coming from our nutrition services folks here in the the coming weeks around um what the nutrition services program will look like going forward uh I'll also point out that um on the preschool side we continue to
108look for different funding sources um to uh help uh bolster the program um that we have been operating I believe two or three years now around those preschool programs that are tuition based um lastly just real quick I know I've I've talked about this a number of times uh these are our two District trust funds um for our district sponsored uh benefits programs uh a number of year years ago uh we developed a a trust funding policy to cover the the uh incurred liability for the district as a whole um we continue to um expense uh those liabilities out um but for the first time um in the district's history with those trust funds we were able to offset those liabilities with funds that are um specifically uh saved in a trust to meet those
109needs so just as a quick note uh there were two major pieces of that trust fund um the health uh piece represents a an explicit liability of about $9 million um we still have about $3 million unfunded um we're moving in that direction and we're doing a great job to close that Gap uh similarly with the retention program that was $1 million liability for us as a whole similarly it has about $3 million liability um that we continually to to gradually build that fund balance to meet those needs uh but those funds will continue to have an operating cost that you'll see here will range from about 2.5 to three million a year as well and Mr chairman um just as we kind of end with the the last fund this one's a little bit
110new I talked about this during the preliminary budget presentation last year um but this represents the uh the fund that will be operated in kind of a custodial uh capacity that will represent the flow through of funds from the state to the the state approved charter school now um I I caution this with just a little bit of a note that um this is very um uh preliminary U we don't have a whole lot of information to to base these projections on currently um I'm anticipating uh about 250 students as indicated by the state charter school and found a similarly resourced School within our district to to start that estimation Point um and then certainly the the the the ability of the school to access um some lease funding from the state will also be
111passed through this fund as well and um have tried to contemplate what those resources will look like hopefully by the time we come to the final uh budget in July we'll have a little bit more uh information to be able to give you a more specific estimate on what those resources will look like um so Mr chairman I'm happy to address questions I know that's a lot of information in 15 or 20 minutes but happy to address anything that the board may have just the SP um thank you Jud uh actually if you go back to that thank you um on the um Capital Construction fund you have the 66 million listed as County revenue but it's a designated it's designated from the legislature can you talk about that thank you trusty Ashby um it
112looks like a sell reference it should be the the line down into 83 XX that doesn't make sense to theed I just need a quick clarification if I may and thank you for your presentation in the condensed version so when we talk about the enrollment numbers does that include our prek or does or do those numbers start at kindergarten Mr chairman uh trusty ederton it does not include our PRI students um I'm kind of stuck with the uh the students that generate funding through our funding mechanism okay thank you chy CL yeah I just have a point of clarification too thank you Mr really for your the presentation again I always hear new things um you mentioned that the ECA money that that we were given um by the legislature that some of it is
113for personel but some of it's for supplies I want to say that that was designated actually in the language is that correct um Mr chairman trusty Clawson that's correct there's an ECA adjustment specific to those areas to the supplies okay that was my question thank you thank you Mr s and thank you for the time you took with us in separately but to go through this a little bit more in depth prior to tonight um I just had a a question um as we're looking at the decreasing student enrollment numbers um and we're down I mean it's it's a sizable decrease over the last few years but um do we have any idea and if you can't answer this it's okay but do we have any idea um with the opening of a new charge
114school next year what sort of numbers we might be looking at in terms of additional students that will no longer be counted under our district Mr chairman I'm trusty Smith um but absolutely we have been looking at the preliminary enrollment counts as reported by the the state approved Charter School um now there there's a number of of different caveats that go along with those those numbers some of those students are being reported as um previously in a private school or home school setting some of them may be in other districts some of them may be um moving into Cheyenne that hadn't been previously enrolled in any uh School within our district uh we do um anticipate at least based on the preliminary enrollment numbers um 100 to 150 at least in larmy County School District
115One students um but that'll be subject to change based on what those final counts are this coming fall um what's interesting is the charter school funding will be adjusted uh to reflect what that that student count is um the financial impact to our district as a whole looks to be about $900,000 but that'll be deferred um through Department Rule and regulation until fiscal year 26 at least at this point in time okay good thank you trusty hle do you have any questions yes I have one question that is um for the both the charter school state approved and also the church schools that are approved through our district we don't take any of their funding correct that's all a strict a pass through is that correct um Mr chairman um that is correct now as
116a school that's um a part of our our local school district so um they are funded if you will through our school district allocations um they do generate certain amounts for central office um resources um Staffing supplies and materials um those go into really the administrative oversight costs that are associated with the school district so there are some incremental funding pieces that are generated by the Char schools both the state approved and this the board approved um that do generate a little bit of resources for the school district as a whole but currently we don't take those right U Mr chairman they do stay with the school district um yes that's correct okay thank you thank you Mr cell there will be a quiz for everyone afterwards on math behind all that um couple more
117quick reports um at our last meeting I spent some time sharing our new expectation um of how we will involve parents when we um want to ask um personal student information um but I made a mistake last week or two weeks ago um the mistake I believe I made in um as I shared that expectation was perhaps um giving the impression that um that our staff that our schools that our principles and our teachers don't share that same expectation then don't value uh partnering with our families in the same way um because I didn't share the response how we reacted when it we we came to know um and as it was discussed last time there was a poster that was hung up in 2022 in one of our buildings at a time where we
118had different expectations on how we talk to students and Survey students and things have changed since 2022 but I also know as I was thinking about this a little bit today and looked at the picture of my daughter playing uh eighth grade volleyball on my wall and my daughter's now 27 sometimes we don't update the things on our walls and I just want to share that uh the response that uh that occurred when it came to our attention that we had a school that U had something up that is no longer the way we do business um I was incredibly pleased with the conversation I had with the administrative team at South High School Carrie Gentry and I spoke immediately on the phone and before we even hung up she was on her way out
119into the building to remove the sign um the her team then minutes after that realized we should probably walk the rest of the building and um and then within a couple of hours we had every principal in the district on a call where we talked about that expectation and reminded them that sometimes we have things hanging up that have just become part of the scenery and we might be overlooking it and we need to put a fresh set of eyes on those things that might be hanging up um and they did that and all of our principles within just a couple of hours have scoured their own buildings to make sure they were meeting our expectation um one of the things that I'll be the first to say is we're going to stumble like everyone
120stumbles I've spent a good part of my day today visiting with staff who believes that I've made mistakes and what I could do to be better um we're a large organization over 13,000 students well over 2,000 adults and imagine all of those um possible interchanges between people with 14 nearly 14,000 13,000 kids and over 2,000 adults we're periodically not going to get it right if we got it right 99% with 99% of our kids each day we would not get it right for 130 kids each day we're a big organization but what I can tell you is that our best we're at our best when we work together I really would challenge our community that next time we stumble I would love to hear about how we could make it right and I would especially
121love to hear about it personally rather than hearing about it through social media first that's how we came to know that there was a problem we could have had that situation remedied maybe an hour or two even quicker had we heard about it rather than learning about it um when the rest of the world learned about it um whenever we're at our best we work together when we're at our best we give each other the benefit of the doubt and when we're at our best we absolutely are committed to fixing what's broken and I was uh I I should have said that two weeks ago everyone in the conversation wants what's best for students everyone our best chance at serving our students well is when we work together so that was the rest of the
122story as Paul Harvey perhaps would have said um next we have a consent agenda item um Kyle mckenny if you please come forward and give us a little update on U our Safari Montage contract please thank you Dr Nick Mr chairman members of the board um Safari Montage is on consent agenda as Dr Newton mentioned um we have had that system for about four years uh this will be the fifth year um we bought it in Spring of 20 and sort of preparation for online learning and whatever came next that following year um what it is is a learning object repository uh and that's a a lot of words to say it's a place where um teachers can place content and we've purchased a couple content packs um and it is a tool that uh
123teachers through canvas can search by keyword or by standard and pull down maybe a brief video or an image um and then link to it in their canvas course and then the students can access it um it's a much better alternative we feel than uh teachers Googling or searching around YouTube to to pull down content we have it all in one place for them um just a few of the the content items the providers are like Nova National Geographic History Channel so you go on there and search for frog and get a video of a frog or Oregan Trail or or any of those things and it's a nice convenient tool for teachers to grab content V it and provide it to their students through canvas so any questions um thank you Mr chair I
124was just curious that's thank you for your explanation that was really helpful to understand what what we're voting on tonight um is that something then that we will encourage teachers to use or will they still have the option to go out and look for their own content or how how will we implement or how have we implemented this and how will we continue to implement it sure um Mr chairman trusty Claus and um we we encourage its use it it must be used for some things for example YouTube videos say a teacher finds a YouTube video or there's there's some that are on here that other teachers have provided in order to get that to a student YouTube is filtered so they have to use Safari Montage for that but they can also search it
125for all these other things but it's not a must use at this point it's just it's another tool for them to use in addition to the other uh tools that are out there for them um we do offer trainings it's um it's something we mentioned with you know new staff uh new teachers coming on board we have trainings available all the time for them online and in person um our our TI or um our technology integration Specialists our trainers are also out there sharing how to use it and um and again it's just another tool in the in the belt for for teachers to so so any other questions thank you and to round things out one last report I have I just finished um a round of conversations with um um all four Comprehensive
126High Schools student councils leadership groups Multicultural clubs um I wanted to add that stakeholder group into the feedback that I get um and much like I said during my interview the toughest crowd you'll ever uh face as a group of high school students um they've grilled me with questions they've given me lots of ideas and and suggestions and um it's uh it's a a great way to add that stakeholder group into our conversation so we'll continue to meet in fact I got an email today sounds like East High is is about ready to have me come back they have some more things they want me to hear so um that's been a very pleasant addition to my calendar and with that Mr chair that's the end of my reports I just like d during our
127um agenda meeting back and I discussed that what was the progress with having the students come and being a part of our board here and we're thinking that maybe his going to them maybe actually might be more comfortable for them so he's going to look into that and seeing if maybe he could get the input and bring it to us without them having to be here so possibly we may change what we had as our original idea there and go with something new so part of the reason he's out there check it with all those groups okay now we're going to go to the consent agenda so all items listed with the designation of CA are considered to be routine items by the governing body will be enacted by one motion there'll be no separate
128discussion on these items any item removed from the consent agenda will be considered in its normal sequence on the agenda there any board member request to remove a motion from the consent agenda chair chairman ban yes if I may our science speak a little bit about the sixth grade science purchase that we're doing the sixth grade books and why thank you we'll be glad to yes getting ready to purchase uh textbooks from mcgrawhill um for our sixth graders uh mcra Hill savis is what we're using in K5 but in working through that process our teachers felt that using mcra Hill would be best and that it would be one more way to help transition our students from sixth grade to seventh grade and to or to secondary because we use grill for seventh grade 8th
129grade physical science and biology um the platforms as far as using them digitally with connect dead that's their digital platform versus realize they're very similar um it shouldn't be difficult we will provide um trainings and things in September we'll have I'll meet with people I'll go to them they can come to me we'll have a whole week here after after work of uh of McGill coming in and we'll touch up again with savis come back around for our savis stuff as well um also mgra Hill provided us some of the um it they were able to provide books for us that really met our standards and so we couldn't adopt uh sixth grade when we did the rest of the elementary because sixth grade standards are in middle school and we'd been waiting for the
130State Board to finalize the audit and then for everything to go to the governor uh to uh confirm our Middle School standards so what we're doing for sixth grade meets sixth grade standards and is is what we feel in the committee feels is the best for our sixth graders thank you for that explanation thank you I'm assuming you want to leave it on your consent you don't want okay just want to make sure all right so no one's pulling anything off so we need a motion Mr chairman I move to approve all motions listed as consent agenda and I second okay motion second to approve the agenda all those in favor say I I I those oppos no mo passes all right that moves us down to new business you yes Mr chairman I move
131to approve the denial of the governmental claim filed by Elaine M Quaid in the amount of $1,626 and4 second okay we have a motion and a second to um deny the governmental claim any discussion yes I was hoping that um perhaps miss paully or Dr Newton could explain why we are voting just immediately to deny this in general is in general yes why we're doing this uh Mr chair trustee Smith um this just allows the claim to move through the the rest of the process so it's kind of a the first step is to deny the governmental claim and then and then the insurance kind of takes over and works with the um claimant on on on trying to settle that that claim against the district thank you so it does always sound kind of
132cruel when we do this so any further discussion all those in favor say I I those oppos those oppos no motion yes or remember to pause a little bit okay Mr chairman I move to amend the special building fund budget by transferring say that's okay $6 million to instruction 25,000 to instructional support and 900,000 to fund transfers from Capital outlay second okay we have a motion in a second to do some transfers from the special building fund any further discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I I those oppos no pass Mr chairman I move to approve the administrator contract on the attached list for the 2024 2025 school year and to place them on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule second okay a motion to second to approve the administrators
133that are on the the schedule a see schedul here so um any questions who are we approving the list is not on Mr chair we are approving Mark kersner and Brenda Scarlet okay any further questions discussion all those in favor say I I those oose those oppose no Mr chair Mr kersner is with us here this evening would you like to stand up and be recognized congratul not want to tell anybody what his new job is Mr kersner will be the new head principal at East High I was talking to Sam little bit early said one people Town who' never have known East High School without Sam there so it's going to be a big change but I'm sure you got sure you'll fill those shoes great all right Mr chairman I move to authorize
134the administration to proceed with the attached list of facility improvements including solicitation of Professional Services and approval to call for bids as necessary including all equipment supplies and services necessary for the continued operation of the district second okay we have motion of second to approve a list of facility improvements any further discussion on this one did I have somebody was asking about this wanted some clarification or not um Mr chair that was me I I just asked a simple question about how it might impact our um our building our building needs um on the state's construction needs list um with some of these upgrades so I would love to hear what what the staff has to say you know usually see Mr s come up with construction but Mr we have some construction people are
135out of town so yes I'm afraid you have the backup to the backup um with ards to facilities but um I I believe the the question was um if any of these projects would um impact um our facility condition ratings um and and the short answer is um yes as those buildings those structures um those systems are reassessed um as part of the state construction process um as you put a new roof on put in new um infrastructure heating air conditioning it does change the ranking uh all of these uh projects as you see presented here um are non-enhancement related projects um as approved um by the school facilities Department with the exception of the $500,000 you see earmarked on the the um document um that allows it to be utilized for um existing District
136um and enhanced uh um facilities so uh the short answer is uh yes long term um it does uh impact the the uh facility condition thank you Mr S one more question um as these projects come up we'll get another approval on this is just kind of give us an idea of what's coming up correct Mr chairman that's correct these are just the the initial plan projects for the upcoming year um and as you know there are very um finite uh uh timelines that the construction Department can operate in to do a lot of these projects thank you right any other questions hey all those in favor say I I hi those oos no motion passes Mr chairman I move to ratify the negotiated agreement for the 2024 2025 contract year with the school administrators
137professionals and supervisors managers unit second okay we have a motion the second to improve the um negotiate agreement with the school administrators professionals and supervisors management unit any further discussion this is one unit I I've never gone to the negotiation so I probably do that sometimes all those in favor say hi hi hi hi those oppos no and I will say that all these contracts were approving now the board does get to see those and uh I know I know most of those contracts from having been negotiations a lot but some of our board members are spending a lot of time reading through those Mak sure they so okay go ahead next one Mr chairman I moved to ratify the negotiated agreement for the 2024 2025 contract year for the technical and Support Services par
138Educators custodial Services transportation services and nutrition services units I second okay have a motion and a second to improve the negotiate agreements for several of those units and this year in negotiations we kind of put those units together since they kind of share a common salary schedule and some of them will you know some have special issues that each they have but it was nice to be able to have them together in when negotiating session so they could hear things going on in the other unit so that's the reason we're putting them together here I believe so any further discussion okay all those in favor say I I I those oppose no yes Mr chairman I move to ratify the negotiated agreement for the 2024 2025 contract year for the cheyen teachers Education Association unit
139I second okay motion second to approve the uh CTA uh CTA negotiate agreement any further discussion all those in favor say I I hi those oppos no motion passes okay our next regular board meeting will be held on Monday June 3rd 2024 at 6m and work session will begin at 5: PM so our our pre- session on that one where we look at the agenda is going to be on May 29th and we have that's the week after we have all our graduations so maybe we'll have a little bit more availability anybody want to join Dr n and I on that day I I join as well that's all we're allowed to have so okay did you get those names I guess I spaced that up the last time and didn't even ask last time
140so we didn't it was just Dr Newton and myself the last I and it still lasted a long time that says about how much s we like to talk okay so the business of the district is now done and we'll go to our second public comment time and just to kind of state the rules State your first and last name when you come up keep your comments two three minutes we do have a timer going and there'll be one right in front of you as you look at us so you can see what's going on there it does change colors I think is close to the end keep your comments General nature not directed at specific individual individuals suitable in language and content for K12 grade students add additional information or perspective try not to
141be redundant over the previous speaker and also give you the other things to keep in mind and uh there is a photographer that asked if he could take pictures of you while you're talking so just be aware he may be spping some pictures while you're talking so first person up is Mary Johnson I promise this will be really short if you don't mind turning the the microphone around or holding it good evening can yeah it's on I'm gonna hold it good evening chairman Bolan trustees superintendent Newton my name is Mary Johnson I have taught German and Spanish here for the past 10 years and I've taught some of your children I've taught in NE aska and Wyoming and five countries internationally in about 10 days I'll be leaving ly County School District number one I
142am the proud product of Wyoming Public Schools Sweetwater County School District number one a retired Air Force officer a parent of a former Central High School student and most importantly a teacher in this District thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight our job as Educators is to equip students with the necessary skills for the next St be that college trade school the military or the workforce I believe many of our students don't even have the basic skills necessary to be a productive member of society in March of 2020 our world came to a screeching halt as school after school closed we were the saviors of the world now we are seen as the devil incarnate I was required to take the OAS course on bullying and my first three years in this
143District the program was to help identify and stop bullying it appears to me that currently some of the biggest bullies in this District are parents we are required to make parent contacts for students who are struggling failing or possibly for disciplinary problems these contacts are often met with parents swearing at teachers asking what we as teachers are doing wrong or how we can fix it the blame has in many cases been placed squarely on our shoulders teachers are tired tired of the frustrations in the classroom cell phones foul language disrespect and being asked to do more with less for less money cell phones can continue to be a point of contention data from research by the London School of Economics states that a ban on cell phones in French schools in 2018 resulted in an
144increase in test scores and concentration in the classroom further the research supports the fact that bands reduce stress related problems due to social media the students who benefited most from the band were the students who perer performed lowly lowest academically I often tell students I'm not their friend I'm their teacher and I'm there to teach them German or Spanish we cannot and should not fill the roles of parent friend or social worker I would ask this board to please support our teachers Care Professionals custodians and bus drivers please get parents out of our areas of expertise let us do the jobs we were trained to do and are paid for get rid of cell phones in the classroom the failure to do so will result in a continued loss of Highly qualified educators thank you
145for your time good farewell thank you for your com thank you for years of teaching your kids all right next is Sheila kler good evening my name is Sheila kler and I would once again like to thank you for your transparency in dealing with sexually explicit material in our schools as I have said in Prior meetings I am an employee of this district and have been since 1993 when the topic of sexually explicit material was brought to the Forefront I must admit I was appalled by this insinuation as a teacher I took it very personal to think that the community would believe that I or any of my colleagues would purposely expose our students to such material therefore I set out to prove that insinuation wrong I did so by volunteering to be on the
146book review committee to date I have been randomly selected to review three books and two of those books opened my eyes to reality I can inat tically say yes these books do exist in laramy County School District number one but to the public I want to say please do not take my word for it nor call me a liar rather look for yourself this board and this District have made it extremely easy for you to do so first click on the district website once on the homepage scroll down and click on the library Hub icon then scroll down to the materials list next click on Library materials nominated as sexually explicit as being sexually explicit there you will see the proof with your own eyes not only will you see the titles of the books
147but you will see what schools they are in and the exact passages which are evaluated by two Educators and a parent you will also see the evaluations and the superintendent's final determination please note that there have been 37 books nominated as of have nominated 23 have been flagged as sexually explicit 13 not reviewed yet one determined not to be sexually explicit and one was not applicable due to it being part of the district curriculum I do think I don't think you can get any more transparent than that however there is one thing that baffles me about all of this and that is how did this these materials get in the schools in the first place you see there is a district policy that is been in place since July 1st of 1995 and was last
148re revised on June 7th of 2010 the policy reads that the selection of Library materials and equipment is the ultimate responsibility of the library media service coordinator in conjunction with teachers and the principal of each School so how did these materials get past this group of this sta group of Staff members in the first place a a group of which I have never heard of in all my years in this District not to mention the official position of the library media service coordinator to my knowledge this is a position that had been implemented over the past two years so again I would like to reiterate my appreciation for this school board and for the district for being transparent when it comes to sexually explicit material and for the community's opportunity to see for themselves that
149these books do in fact exist in laramy County School District number one thank you okay Patricia McCoy good evening superintendent afternoon board members my name is Patricia McCoy and I'm back again I'm here this evening to discuss some things important to me as a mother first I wanted to discuss the current state of our education system within our schools in our district many of our students cannot pass at grade level and our graduation rates do not seem to reflect accurate information in comparison to their scores let's take my children's high school just as one example at South High School only 29% of students are proficient in reading and only 23% of students are proficient in and math both of which are below the state average of 49% yet we show a graduation rate of 76%
150this tells me that we are either passing students who do not adequately show Proficiency in reading and math we are passing students on grade Equity or both the overall nich grade for our our teachers academics and administration for our school is a c but hey we do have an A in diversity and that seems to be what matters the most recently to put this into perspective both East and Central hold B averages for the same three categories East has 43% of students proficient in both reading and math and a graduation rate of 84% and Central has 45% proficient in reading and 43% proficient in math with a 91% graduation rate our students are failing yet we're still passing them through and graduating them from high school then they go out into the real world and
151get a huge wakeup call we have books in our high school libraries that are rated at a third grade reading level why what what's the academic challenge for a high schooler to read a third grade reading level book we are failing our children by allowing all this extra garbage to take away from their actual education we're teaching them to test District assessments count for 30% of a student's grade for the semester if you want to just teach them to test for these assessments then what's the point of having our schools open at all get rid of Dei CRT seal and anything else that takes away from instruction and learning time in the classroom Little Johnny graduating from our high schools reading on a third grade level shouldn't be something we're bragging and proud about he
152should have been given proper assistance with his learning and encouraged to strive to achieve more than that I stand Here time and again and say that I love and support our teachers even when we have clear violations happening and it's because of teachers like my children's fifth grade teacher I can't tell you her name but you see I had the honor and privilege of meeting her way back in 2011 when my oldest was just a tiny fifth grader and he's 24 now all four of my children had their lives impacted in a positive way by her while in her class they each have kept in touch with her and gone back to see her on several occasions and why am I telling you how amazing this teacher is because we have many of them just
153like her in in this District as parents Educators and a community we should want encourage and strive for more for all of our students and we must work together as a community to improve the education of our children thank you for your kind comments about our staff thank you is there anybody else here that would like to speak on any of the any topic anybody online please raise your hand if you're online Mr chairman there is a hand raised there is yes can you hear us Carol yes I can can you hear me yes okay um I would just like to comment that some people last name please Carol maah um I would like to comment that some people believe our new method of book selection and rejection is is um good but we must
154keep in mind certain things one person has submitted over 25 of the nominations it didn't take her much uh time either she just visited a site called book looks that was created by people affiliated with moms for Liberty and copied information from that site she did not have to read any of the books in full herself remember the new policy even says it is not necessary to read entire books to consider consider them sexually explicit or even to go looking for any explicit passages in the pages of actual books for people so upset about giving kids access to material they dislike it's ironic that the book looks creators have curated a site containing all of the passage and books they object to in one easy access place for kids to peruse the writer then goes
155on to encourage the community to examine the nomination forms themselves the problem with this is we know that books should be evaluated as a whole and not on select passages out of context examining the nomination forms does not give you the full context of the work there are many beloved books including the Bible that have passages that could be shocking out of context the Miller text test the case law determined test for evaluating an item for obscenity requires examination of the entire work thank you thank you anybody else either here or online Mr chairman there's nobody else online okay so next motion Mr chairman I move to go into executive session at this time prior to adjournment for the purpose of possible student long-term suspensions and expulsions Personnel legal advice and litigation I second okay
156we have a motion to go into executive session for the uh reasons listed um all those in favor say I and those oppos no mo so we'll go into executive session we will come out and reconvene to take any actions