LCSD1 School Board of Trustees Meeting - July 18, 2022

001she's online it's six o'clock July 18 2022 I call this a business meeting of the Laramie County School District Board of Trustees to order um if you could please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance please rise [Music] thank you everyone Dr Crespo is there are there any adjustments to the agenda Madam chair we have one adjustment to the agenda which you can see at um Eve I've done the one an approval appointment of access and opportunity coordinator Drew Hall Madam chair I move to adopt the agenda with any addenda second all in favor say aye aye aye opposed no motion passes um I will point out at this point that uh trustee Smith is not with us um and uh we have uh trustee Ashby on Zoom with us so she will be voting

002okay moving on to recognition of staff and students it's the summer time so I'm hoping that they're all enjoying their summer and um uh but I want to take the opportunity to uh recognize that our staffs are still working through hard uh hard throughout the summer and um I hope that our our students are enjoying their time with their families um moving on to item C information reports from visitors item from visitors concerning the agenda topics um we have a few things to go over here this is a business meeting so if you could please State your first and last name keep your comments two to three minutes so others have time to voice their comments keep your comments in general in nature and not directed at a specific individual or individuals and suitable in

003language and content for K-12 grade students so please do not use explicit language another additional information if you could add additional information or perspective and try not to be redundant we would appreciate that while the board sincerely use public comment please note that if any time this meeting is locally disrupted and cannot continue in an orderly fashion the business of the board if it has not been completed the meeting will be recessed and reconvened in another location and time if you'd like to make comment at the board meetings please sign up with Darlene Davis the day before or the week before as soon as it went agenda's posted you can sign up there by calling 771-2121 to be placed on the comment list to discuss agenda or non-agenda items and this meeting is a little

004different because we will have an opportunity for public comment during our budget hearing as well so at this time I'd like to call Kathy sigliano thank you speak one of the biggest teacher unions in the United States that Nea held a conference recently in Chicago where Wyoming had representation they had drafted a proposal to replace the word mother with birthing person they are trying to push an agenda on us as mothers and fathers and we will not stand for it this mother is not okay with it it just goes to show you just how liberal meaning these organizations can be a few portions of this conference discussed voting on National policy on mandatory masking in schools along with coveted vaccines at the conference the Nea decided to publicize its commitment to Young people's right to

005learn and develop their own sexual orientation and gender identity what's next drag queens coming to our schools to do story time children do not need to be told about by adults in schools about sex or orientation or identity teachers are here to teach math science English and history that's it I do not want any adult talking to my kids about sexual identity and I know lots of other parents don't either when did this become okay we now have teachers in some school districts telling kids to lie about going to art class after school in order to get them to attend classes where they can discuss without parents knowledge sex and gender identity this happened just in Wellington Colorado less than 30 miles away the teachers union has a huge hand in how our districts districts

006operate to think that this organization has so much influence is appalling probably one of the biggest articles of this conference that stood out to me was the fact that they call for the end of school policing this is unacceptable in so many ways not only is it dangerous but also irresponsible 93 of the 6 000 attendees voted on new measure which places an emphasis more on meeting students social emotional physical needs and creating a task force to organize and collect data on school issues racial Justice Advocates alleys allies and Community activists does that mean we as parents are being labeled yet again my question to you as a board is this what are you going to do to ensure that our students are safe I stood here at the last meeting giving you ideas on

007plans to make our school safer I got vague answers I heard you are asking for more money to build new schools which we need as our community grows but why are you why aren't you also asking for more money to improve the safety of our schools if you are willing to let this slide and take chance that we could have our very own Uvalde in this community I pray you will not only not let this happen but that you will move forward in getting our school saber thank you and if we can keep it to the agenda items we'll have another opportunity for non-agenda items I appreciate that Michelle thank you so I was going to talk on books is that agenda or non-agenda okay so should I wait till later then yes okay no

008problem thank you okay uh Susan Edgerton same with me okay remember the last meeting talking okay it's not on the agenda thank you so I'll just go ahead and move if you don't mind girls thank you Carol O'Day okay we're gonna move you in order down to the non-agenda items thank you um we are not voting on the um on anything concerning the books at this time so we would have that as a non-agenda thank you um so uh Lila I may not have said that correct Lila yeah okay very good I will move you and tell me how to say your name again okay thank you you may have to help me again I'm not very good at that but I appreciate you being patient with me thank you Susan Graham okay thank you

009I will move all of you then to the non-agenda in order um I have uh um I have four other individuals that are signed up for non-agenda so I will just go ahead and put you in that place as as we will just move you from that chunk as soon as those other four are finished okay thank you very much all right moving on then um if that uh that completes our uh the sign up sheet for the agenda we've moved those individuals to the non-agenda um and at that time we are let me get my shoot back up here very good um I appreciate that next on our agenda is upcoming meetings July 27th and 28th at 11 30 a.m We have the challenge rodeo at the shine Frontier Days Rodeo Arena August 15

0102022 we have a 5 PM work session and a 6 PM regular board meeting um August 23rd 2022 from 11 to 1 p.m all staff school picnic and story gym um at this time we move on to item three individual board communication and reports I'm going to check with trustee Ashby online so I don't forget her um Brittany do you have anything that you'd like to report uh no I don't think I do it this time okay very good thank you anyone else trustee Clausen yes thank you madam chair I'm just reporting out as the chair of the Cheyenne community recreation District that we've helped meet two meetings since our board met last time um the first meeting was on June 27th and we approved payment for some various recmail projects around our community and

011at our schools including um uh Elementary School fall Services some of you may notice that there's new soft um rubber mulch I would say in some of our playground areas that we're replacing the old mulch because it doesn't blow away and so in the long term it's a little bit better investment for our community and then also East High School pool has some additional uh projects that are still incomplete and I think bleachers they reported out are going in or have gone in the concession stand there the timing system and then we get we're getting some new playground equipment at Hebert and Miller Elementary School and some Landscaping escaping at Meadowlark and that's the kinds of projects that the shrine community recreation District approves using that Mill Levy in addition we met tonight before this

012meeting and we adopted the 2022-2023 budget for the next fiscal year so that budget will be a six point course I should 6 million eighty two thousand eight hundred and forty six thousand dollar budget for recreational facilities and systems and for public Recreation thank you madam chair thank you um Chris trusty Chris um Clawson could you go ahead and break that out it's this you're years retinol was 1.7 allotted the balance of that was would you explain that thank you yes Madam chair um our revenue for this next year our government support will be 1.7 million dollars and um that's added to money that we already have under expenditures that are either ongoing projects that we've committed money to um and they haven't completely been finished or um and and with that additional Revenue that

013our total budget will be the Six Million 80 346. thank you appreciate that clarification um anyone else Mr Bull and Christy Bowlin yes I just have a comment that um I think that it's about time analysis um I realized why we put all those rules in place for who can speak and have to sign ahead of time but I think it's it's time to revisit that and allow people if there's still slots left to sign up as they come in the meeting because certainly issues come up from you know at the last minute for people to talk about so I'd like for us to revisit that at some point and allow people to actually sign up today in the first come first serve whatever but I think we need it's time we need to do

014that thank you um uh trustee Herman do you have anything to report no it's trustee leaders okay um at that um we will take all of those suggestions into consideration and we work with our entire board in um in making those decisions as well as our Administration so um I would like to report out that I attended the board of directors meeting for the Wyoming School boards Association uh this past week uh weekend the Wyoming school boards Association um uh or uh sorry the Wyoming schools superintendents Association the administrators Association joined us briefly to discuss concerns and advocacy efforts around supporting K-12 public education in Wyoming as well as how the new tax collection rules have affected districts across our state that has seemed to we have some similar challenges as other districts do we

015with the legislative changes and during our budget hearing I think Mr sekarelli will sicarelli will address some of those nuances to that as well the Wyoming school boards Association and the superintendents Association have a great working relationship historically and they are focused on Wyoming's children and their education the way new school boards directors voted to renew the wsba's membership with the nsba the vote was split the wsba will continue to serve Wyoming districts with a dual membership in both nsba and Cosmo which is the the New Consortium of school board associations so it's a lot of the members that had left the national school boards Association Wyoming I think we are one of five associations through the Wyoming school boards Association that'll have a dual membership between both organizations and they felt that the school

016board members would be able to choose to go to one or another either or a professional development conference opportunities and it would give individual board members would have that choice to attend the national any of either of the two national conferences um or not attend any at all many of our Wyoming District Representatives felt that the national school boards Association had made Earnest efforts in making changes in their organization the new director of the national school boards Association has ties to Wyoming and several Wyoming School Board Association members expressed confidence in his leadership and when we were discussing the nuances to our vote at this time we have um something and we were looking for I'm looking for a consensus we have 378 dollars that is still due for our memberships that we've pulled out

017um to see what um what the association Wyoming School boards Association was going to do with um that renewal um at my in listening to my colleagues in other districts around the state many of them have uh liked the idea that they would still have a dual membership and have the opportunity to make a choice on whether or not they participated or did not participate or which one they participated in the point was that they were grateful to have the opportunities for professional development um going forward so um we still need to pay the 378 dollars I just like a consensus on whether or not we are whether or not we are comfortable with using the the Dual membership just please just to clarify thank you so the 378 simply completes our payment to the

018Wyoming School Board Association that is what what we're discussing now yes okay and it's not about it's just a consensus on where we are in using the national school boards Association or Costa either organization um for professional development or as we as school board members have always been able to choose on whether or not we attend a National Conference um or even the Wyoming School boards conference or any other type of professional development we as individual board members have always made that decision um not as a unit but as individuals so um is there someone who'd like to start giving me their where they are on this topic yes Mr bowling I still have a question at one point we talked about taking and putting that 378 just towards Cosmo is that even an option

019or would meet there 378 is just going to go into their General time no well at this point um it is still an option you could do that um if that would be the consensus of the board that is an option I have can I yes please Brittany um so as I stated in the last round you know I don't I think that or the National Association has made really substantial changes like you talked about the other board members um and so I you know as somebody who runs an organization like that the level of change that they made is is impressive to me and so I am playing with paying the deuce and allowing for the use of them as the Wyman School boards Association sees fit okay thank you very much Mr wieders

020fun do you have a what would be your say I would support paying the 378 dollars foreign I would um support um completing our um dues to the Wyoming scoreboards Association and then um seeing how the next year plays out very good so you're fine with the Dual affiliation okay and Mr trustee bowling I'm okay with what nationality Association has said I just want to clarify whether we still had that option or not so yes I'm okay with paying the 378 and letting uh Wyoming School Board Association make the their professional decision on how to use itself okay very good trustee Clauson Madam chair I have a question I I asked you this before and you said you were going to consider how you would vote because you do sit on that board and took

021this vote for us um that's one thing I'm not sure I I saw in your in your report did you did you vote for pain um that 378 dollars for our district um actually for that membership I guess that membership trustee Clausen as a voting member um and and as a representative um uh looking at keeping in what I thought was uh best for we were we as sitting on that board as a board of directors we are to um to make decision on what we think is best for when the school boards Association so um I have something I knew that the last time you asked me what I voted I can remember the first time I asked my mom how she voted and um she always uh responded to that question like I

022had asked her how much money was in her checkbook or how big you know the how how many livestocks she had or something but I will uh um I would like to tell you that personally I don't feel any obligation to the National School boards Association um I'm a Wyoming native and I remember a time growing up and living here that a national rhetoric and agenda was not invited into Wyoming we have several discussions even when we disagree although we may not always agree with our neighbors as a community we would come together and help each other Whenever there was any most importantly we as a community and state historically value public education and consider our children our greatest blessings I feel that this should continue to be our focus and how we do business

023therefore I voted no on the basis of my vote I would like the Wyoming school boards Association to continue advocating for Wyoming educational needs and support all Wyoming's children I recently read in an article stating that Wyoming was one of the 10 worst states for a postgraduate student to end to start their career that for me is much more important discussion than any affiliation to a national organization unfortunately from the time I graduated from high school this question's gone unanswered in Wyoming how do we keep our Wyoming student children here in Wyoming how do we get them to be feel comfortable in starting their careers and raising their families here so to be very clear drastic Classen I voted no um in continuing our affiliation with the national school boards Association for the Wyoming school

024boards but I will tell you it was a very very narrow book as um it was split and um there was a lot of discussion on um on both sides and uh very passionate discussion on both sides sure thank you I I'm not sure I followed your logic you voted no to end our relationship with nsba or you voted no to we don't have a relationship with the nsba as Laramie County School District I'm referring to your Vote or the Wyoming school boards Association I voted no no for what for being for continuing our membership with the nsba so you voted against continuing yes okay I thank you I'm not trying to I really didn't understand thank you um so okay I appreciate that actually because I that surprised that surprised me based on your

025conversations earlier conversations um with uh with whether or not we should continue our relationship with him um so we have a consensus I I would agree with your vote that you took on the level of the wsba board I do not think we should have association with NSB at this time since we last talked about this um I've seen that two major states have quit the nsba as well um actually three states and I believe I checked about a week or so ago so it might be different now but um at that time 26 States in our country and our Union had decided to stop their affiliation with the nsba and I agree with that decision I think we shouldn't be sending money to them while an investigation is going on internally and I believe

026it was reported in one of our meetings recently if if we could trusty question if we could um if we could keep this to the the consensus of that um of the 378 are you saying that you would rather not um that you want to restrict the funds or are you saying that you would rather that you're okay with a dual membership I was in the middle of telling you that answer if I could finish please I believe that there is still an internal investigation with thousands of emails in question about other folks who work for the nsba and the relationship to the letter that came out um referring to parents who come to school board meetings and have concerns as domestic terrorists so I think until that investigation is cleared I do appreciate and

027I've said that before um that they are realizing that they were too political and partisan and that they need to work toward um avoiding those kinds of perspectives in their future meetings and materials and emails and trainings but until that they can show us more that they've actually accomplished what they're saying they want to accomplish I do not support sending our fraction of our dues to the wsba that would then go to the nsba so I do not support that they do not support that we have three that do and um or four Alicia um is not with us today Brittany is um and at this point in time um listening to my colleagues uh as far as I appreciate the fact that the Wyoming school boards Association came back with the option for boards

028members to choose on what they were going to do since the split came down the way that it did um I was I was grateful that the school board and individual school districts will be able to choose which direction they're going to go so we have four with consensus for sure that we have four with consensus that the Dual membership would be okay um and quite frankly at this point in time I am I'm whether or not I choose to go to a uh which whichever one I choose to go to I'll make that decision when when we get there so um I think we have a consensus on no restrictions would you agree that that counselor Excuse me yes manager okay very good um that concludes that with no further updates Madam chair yes

029can I ask you mentioned it was a close vote do you do are those numbers available to the public can we know what the vote was um you know I looked on the website and couldn't find it I'm not in charge of that so um um it was split and so it was as close as a split can be um and still have have it Go One Direction so it doesn't get any tighter than that on the boat okay thank you okay going forward in our agenda I moved my papers around here all right thank you very much and I appreciate your patience everyone um and I appreciate the work that when school boards Association has done to support our students and quite frankly the work that they do working with our legislators and individual

030boards around the state so thank you a big shout out to Wyoming School boards Association um now reports from superintendent and staff Madam chair we have one update for mtss and I'll invite Mr friendly up to share our update around the work that we've been doing many of you may remember um a pack meeting a while back where we had the opportunity to hear our local um local support systems they came in and spoke to pack related to opportunities for grants that they had available and we have applied for one of those grants you'll hear more about this as we go but right now we're doing a program overview so with that Mr Fraley thank you Dr Crespo Madam chair members of the Board of Trustees it's exciting to be here tonight to give you

031a quick overview of our piece of our multi-tiered system of supports program or mtss titled sources of strength as you can see here many people involved including Dr Crespo myself the many people on this slide that have been instrumental in bringing about this this program into our district and the ongoing training and support that it will take with our in our district to bring it to our students our staff our community as you'll see in this brief overview I want to share that uh the work that we've done so far in this um is directly linked uh and connected to our strategic plan uh specifically in in each area of our three pillars so I'll start with our student Readiness as you can see the stakeholders will understand and participate in a comprehensive and seamless

032transition experience when students transition in any point within their K-12 experience whether it be from a different state within our district school to school within our Triad system even school to school they experience transition issues and so this program is aimed to make that a more seamless transition for them in a controlled or programmed transition for students to get them ready for the next phase of their lives the other piece within our healthy environments is that we look to mtss to Really support our students social and emotional intellectual as well as physical preparedness for them to grow for each student and so our healthy environment pillar is addressed within this program as well and finally our community engagement this cannot be possible without engaging engaging our not only internal stakeholders teachers administrators students but also

033our community here in Cheyenne as you'll see the next slide um really highlights the purpose of sources of strength and it prevents bullying substance abuse and suicide by three things changing harnessing and learning so we look at unhealthy behaviors that our students our staff our culture has and we try to improve that within each school we try to harness the power of that students have and adults advisors have within their selves by training and empowering them to become student leaders for for those of their peers that may be experiencing some trouble and then developing coping strategies for students to learn throughout the landscape that they may be in source of strength program has a proven track record four areas that I'll highlight tonight it increases Youth and adult connectedness that store School engagement that I

034spoke about earlier increases when we implement this program um it increases that positive perception of adult support and then it also increases the communication of students that may be in need breaks down that that barrier it has National program recognition you see the uh deeper purple areas those are states that have um programs of sources of strength that they have um subscribe to and uh you know in their schools you can see the lighter shades of blue are moving toward those within our state Natrona County Gillette as well as us now we'll be using this program so it has National program recognition it also has a backing from Samsung and uh that regulatory agency that uses evidence-based practice within schools to for this preventative program the financial obligation and implementation um first of all was

035as you can see a partnership collaboration with the Laramie County prevention program in that amount the cost initial cost for the implementation covers approximately two years a little bit beyond that we'll have all seven of our secondary schools trained the high schools by national level trainers the junior highs will be trained by local trainers and then retraining in year two of this for all seven of our schools at secondary schools all elementary schools will be trained through a partnership opportunity 50 Elementary coaches approximately trained as trained the trainers for all teachers and administrators across our district communication went out as early as today to all the principals to Garner that Spirit of training uh finding key people that would like to carry the torch in their school to train folks so we've already implemented that

036piece and then retraining by coaches in the 29 elementary schools in year two is included in this as well as curricular materials in grades three through six that the program requires and then the two years of training materials for secondary and elementary schools are also in this cause in conclusion we are launching this in August and very very excited we have a wonderful internal team who guide us through this process about reaching out to all schools administrators teachers the impact on students we hope will be very beneficial um beyond that uh our next phase this year would be Outreach to our community Police Department other health care providers Youth and faith based communities to engage everybody around using sources of strength to support students in need with that I'd like to take any questions you

037may have okay I'm going to look online and see if trustee Ashby has any questions trustee Ashby [Music] I don't think credit present moment okay all right if something pops up show your hand and we'll I just don't want to overlook you thank you yes trusty weeder sponge Mr Fraley I I guess uh part of part of what I'm kind of looking for is some data that speaks to the success of the program as it has been used by some of the state's over over time so I'm assuming that many of these states have been using this program for an extended period of time do we have any data that reflects how how they manage to achieve their goals or whether or not they view it as being a successful program something they want to

038continue uh we do we do know that there's an Evidence base behind it as it uh as it was on the National Registry um a bit of evidence-based programs and practices um through the Department of Health uh and Human Services um I I don't have any relevant uh right now data to share uh with you on that level but I'd happy to to report as we as we move forward okay I just want to follow up if I could Mr Fraley do we have information at all from or can we obtain information at all from Casper or Gillette have they been using the program for a period of time Madam chair so part of our process uh trustee leaders Bond was to make sure that they have been very happy with their success and actually

039uh through the Departments they kind of invited us to participate and see what's happening um so that they we can see what their success rate looks like so we would and they're hosting actually a Statewide um event as part of their process so we know that they've really enjoyed having the relationship and providing that opportunity for students and we'll continue to provide updates there are some national resources that we can provide to the board related to their success as a community one of the benefits of the program is that it invites the entire community so parents also parents and Community see the advantage of having that the training similar to love and logic so the programming that we do here in the District around level market for parenting it comes up with a common vocabulary

040and system so we'll provide that information as well I look forward to that thank you thank you any other questions yes trustee bowling well my concern is I've heard from about the old days program is that the Junior High version was just kind of a rerun of the elementary version and so I want my question is will this be a unique program for all the levels so that we're not doing a repeat as we go through there because I was hearing this out with the junior students don't take it very seriously because it was a repeat uh Madam chair trustee Bowen uh as far as the uh the program itself it will be new and unique and uh supplement uh what we currently do uh through many of our programs that deal with uh with

041students in need uh including second step in obey us supplements nicely highlighting the need of our present population students my second question is um why why did we choose not to use the national Trainers for our Junior High some of our worst incidents that we've had to deal with as a board have been in the junior high level so I'm just wondering why we're choosing to use local trainers those and who are going to be the local Trainers for those such a person sorry thank you so that's a great question we actually part of the process is that the national trainers walk alongside are in-house trainers through that training process so that once they do that gradual release then our trainers can do the training but they will be with us though through the process

042of training so who are the trainers you said that you're going to pick out 50 of the elementary ones to be trained to do it who's going to do the junior high we got to do the same thing just because the junior high staff so initially it'll be our in-house team and then we'll build out a program from the program from there for the trainee for the trainers to be at the junior highs as well our goal is that they'll be trainers in every building as we build out the program thank you all right yes trustee Clawson thank you madam chair I was curious about this did you say that this was related to our tier system or is this for all of our students and manager uh trustee Claussen this is for all of

043our students uh in need and we utilize all students that would like to work with in this program to help their peers okay so is it a volunteer if um does art when you when you say a knee to you mean when our District staff determined they could use some work in a certain area is that what you mean by that Madam chair again trustee Claussen uh when those needs are identified it could be a peer identified it could be an adult advisor maybe another teacher maybe a parent or or through safe detail it could be a different areas that a student may be identified in need and that's what that program tries to do through that peer support is try to identify a student when they may be reaching out part of the process

044as well is a series of lessons so that students parents Community can identify when that's happening and how those individuals may need that support and that the mentors are volunteers but the lessons of the common vocabulary and the comprehensive understanding of what that looks like um is is through a series of lessons that happen at each level appropriate to each level so that doesn't feel like there's a level of repetitiveness and our goal would be that students Community parents mentors everyone understands what that language looks like what that interaction looks like throughout the whole system so there are both a series of lessons and a system of support as we've talked multi-tiered systems of support is the entire Spectrum so we want to make sure that students that are um may not be in need

045at this moment still have the core understanding of what happens if I find myself in need at a moment as well as all the way through as Mr Fraley mentioned those students that are in high need at the moment yeah Madam chair yeah thank you um so thank you um Dr huspo for that additional information um so we have been using um certain times during our day to provide this type of information to our students using oveis and and second step will this be presented in secondary schools during their study period or I know it's not called that anymore but when will it be presented and um and and I'd love to hear what you're most excited about that this will be supplementing and adding to our what we have going on I'm Madam chair

046trustee Claussen uh this this is going to be taking place over a year and throughout the different phases of implementation uh part of this program does take place uh once per week within like a community Circle type of of atmosphere where students learn how to support each other uh relevant topics that they may be able to discuss in a much more structured manner than what we currently have we also have other pieces in play that students that have students within leaders not just our our leaders that are in student council or things receiving training on a volunteer basis that they um then reach out to um through PSAs public service announcement or make posters or awareness around certain topics so we can explore different ways to help students in need through bullying through uh through

047Suicide Prevention and then through substance abuse I'm sure I'll also add that it's like um obvious PBIS all of the things that we do intertwined we're not without removing but adding to what we already um put in place so that it's a more comprehensive approach to the model that Mr freely is talking about this came out um throughout a variety of conversations through the Strategic plan making sure that students felt connected and valued we had the call to action letter in April around bullying and inappropriate behavior when the health department said we've got funds available if you're interested in applying for a grant knowing that you've got these circumstances and presents it's a pack we recognize that this was a way to like gift wrap all of the things that we're doing that may seem

048um inconsistent so that it all comes together and we have the availability for students to become leaders in their work very good trustee thank you Herman thank you so thank you and um I've heard of various presentations uh several times on this again and I just want to point out that the structure is very sad but it does there's latitude in here for students to come to the adults uh who are guiding with um you don't give them a menu of problems that they can pick from they can talk about that students can actually generate something that is very authentic to what they're experiencing or what they've what they're hearing from some other students so that I think that kind of guarantees irrelevance as long as they feel that it's worthwhile to speak up um

049there'll be a structure there with supports that um you know the whole point is to make them comfortable at sharing with adults and seeking support when they really need it so I think it started far as you know making it relevant I think there is a problem people that people uh recognize with obeyes but this is like relevance is built into it so um again looking forward to hearing updates did I hear correctly a bit earlier I mean we're going to try this out a little bit at summer school or did we do that no no okay there must have been something else sorry sure very good I just um often um individuals in the community are shocked to find out what our um what our transition rate is between um schools um just school

050to school or not just new people moving in and I know that neither of you I didn't like send this out ahead of time and say Hey can I have the statistics but could you throw a shot at me I'll share on that because it is kind of surprising uh so we're probably while we're doing fine we just had a meeting today actually um we're looking at final numbers based on our assessment data so we are predicting about 48 of our students transition have mobility within schools within our district um and we'll have finalized numbers when that assessment data comes out which means essentially half of our kids don't start in the same school that they um start don't end in the same school they started in well and to that note um I will

051just historic some little historic data on my own um Even in our very small 336 kids um K through 12 by the time my daughter finished kindergarten finished to sixth grade there were only six students left of her original class in that school K through six so I was really surprised even um I that number so I always ask that to see where we are because that was way back when and and we still have that much transition between schools which can add a lot of pressure on our students so I'm I'm eager to see how this program works with all of our other programs because we have some great things going on in the district and we have some engaged parents and students and community members that I think are eager for this so

052if there's no more questions thank you Mr Fraley very much Dr Crespo thank you appreciate you manager and Madam chair that concludes our staff communication reports we are really excited for cfd hope you all come out to the challenge Rodeo it's always a great time so very good thank you all right um that moves us on to D1 the consent agenda all items listed with the designation of CA are considered to be routine items of a governing body and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion on these items any item removed from the consent agenda will be considered in its normal sequence on the agenda does any board member request to remove a motion from the consent agenda seeing none trustee Ashby you're good yep all right very good Madam

053chair I moved to approve all motions listed as consent agenda second all in favor say aye aye Rose no motion passes that takes us to um new business D 3.1 and I'm sure I moved to authorize an increase in student and adult meal prices starting with the 2022-2023 school year as follows elementary breakfast one dollar and fifty cents 25 cent increase from 1.25 cents secondary breakfast 1.75 cents 25 cent increase from one dollar fifty cents Elementary lunch 2.75 a 35 Cent increase from two dollars and forty cents secondary lunch three dollars 40 Cent increase from two dollars and sixty cents adult breakfast three dollars one dollar increase from two dollars adult lunch four dollars and 25 cents 25 cent increase from four dollars second any discussion yes Miss trustee bowling I might just like for

054the public though we haven't raised our prices for our school lunch and breakfast program because it's 2012 2013. and we have been until except for the last couple years when we had the universal feeding program for free we we've been supplementing that budget from the general fund for you know at least a million dollars or more so um even even with these increases we'll still be submitting that budget probably but it was time for a little bit of an increase although I hate to see it but uh you know costs are going to have fun so I do have a question yes go ahead trustee Ashby so I I realize there's all sorts of reasons this um is being requested but um has there been any analysis of of whether or not there will be

055a drop in usage based on the rates increases Madam chair I would invite Mr sicarelli and our director Ashley nutrition services to come on up and respond to that thank you yes thank you madam chair Dr Crisco joining me is Miss Ashley Rother food service or nutrition services administrator um and quickly before we address the participation question um I would uh also provide information regarding kind of two factors that um kind of led to this recommendation the first is the USDA has a very specific regulations on ensuring that um that supplemented food through free and reduced lunch does not go towards supporting uh paid lunch pricing and so there's specific regulations and calculations that we utilize to determine if we're in compliance it kind of guides us on that cost Factor um secondly to the

056trustee bolin's Point earlier about um not only the fact that district has been supplementing these operations for the better part of the decade if not longer um is the the continuing escalation of costs that we've uh presented to the board a number of times and it's uh it seems to be uh even more uh important on the nutrition services side uh with the rising costs cost of supplied materials uh Commodities and those type of things there is some information regarding where there is uh interplay between the meal pricing participation and all of this after Miss Roth speak to that for a moment but just keeping in mind that we are transitioning to paid lunch and every time we have an opportunity to talk about nutrition services we do like to emphasize that if you're moving

057away from the free lunch pricing so that the community and families are aware that this is a major Transit first two years of free lunch Services is now ending as we come into the next school year but I'll let Miss Roth address that participation question okay Madam chair um so these numbers were actually calculated on a per meal basis so not the participation doesn't actually affect the meal cost um it's just based on our supplies um our labor costs Commodities and then the average meal cost and we subtracted the federal reimbursement right from that very good any other questions yes Madam chairman thank you um just as a curiosity how many of our students um buy lunches and I would assume the numbers plummet when you get to the high school level um but I

058I'll just be curious how many participate um so I don't have the breakdown for high school and Elementary in front of me but in October 2021 we served 3767 one breakfast per day and 7 748 lunches per day thank you very good excuse me just one more question do do we also um include in those numbers the uh podair the two Charter Schools they or they have their own their own numbers we do include those in the numbers thanks I think any other questions discussion go ahead anything nope all right very good thank you both very very much appreciate all that you do all right hearing no further discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed no did I hear trustee Ashby you did but I didn't get it unmuted in time all right that's

059okay all right just wanted to make sure I didn't miss you um I'll make sure that we don't have anyone opposed all right hearing none motion passes and I'm sure I moved to approve the appointment of Jennifer Simpson in the position of Transportation supervisor and to place her on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year second is there any discussion to the motion hearing none all in favor say aye opposed no motion passes welcome aboard um are we comfortable do you want to recognize everybody at the end um would that whatever works for you all right if that's all right is um we'll just go ahead and give everyone a round of applause and they can all stand at the end if they're here so um we'll move

060on to the next one and Jennifer um hang tight if you're here and and we'll recognize everyone at the end thank you go ahead Madam chair I moved to approve the appointment of Kathleen Larson in the position of Transportation supervisors and to place her on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year second any discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes Madam chair I moved to approve the appointment of Karen delbridge in the position of principal of Central High School and to place her on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year second is there any discussion all in favor say aye a post no motion passes Madam chair I moved to approve the appointment of Kirsten Bean in

061the position of graduation and instructional loss coach and to place her on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year second any discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes mad I'm sure I moved to approve the appointment of Brent bacon in the position of special education coordinator and to place him on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year second any discussion all in favor say aye aye aye opposed no motion passes man I'm sure I moved to approve the appointment of Tyler Swartz in the position of special education coordinator and to place him on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year second any discussion yes trustee Molin um I had asked

062a question about um because these two jobs sound about the same and and why things are doing that and there there are new positions but there are positions we used to have in our district and during when they did the special education audit it was determined that we still needed to have these positions and that's the reason we're putting it back in thank you any further discussions seeing none all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes and I'm sure I moved to approve the appointment of excuse me Tiffany Farner Hirsch in the position of special education coordinator and to place her on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year second any discussion seeing none all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes and I'm

063sure I moved to approve the appointment of Teresa Vargas in the position of school psychologists and to place her on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year second any discussion hearing none all in favor say aye hi a post no motion passes Madam chair I moved to approve the appointment of Amy Foster in the position of school psychologist and a Placer on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year so any discussion I'm sorry oh sorry I got ahead of you I'm sorry thank you I apologize all right is there any discussion hearing none all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes try not to do that again I'm chair I moved to a to a point here in delbridge

064as the official representative of Central High School Sam Mirage as official representative of East High School Phil Thompson as official representative of South High School and Troy Lake as official representative for Triumph High School for the Wyoming High School Activities Association for the 2022-2023 school year second any discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes Madam chair I moved to approve a contract with Monument Builders Incorporated for nutrition services freezer Edition an amount not to exceed 796 300 plus a ten percent project contingency second is there any discussion yes trustee bowling um didn't we already do some work in expanding the refrigeration system this is just additional work to redo the the freezer uh Madam chair I would like to invite Mr sicarelli to share the update related to the freezer thank

065you madam chair um so this uh particular action item is response to um again some of the the pressures that we were facing under the nutrition services side um as you'll recall when the pandemic started um we were facing considerable shortages and um it was inhibiting our ability to purchase important Commodities um in response uh the district you might have seen uh have the lease two freezers uh freezer freezer trucks and and particles outside nutrition services um in order to to acquire and procure the needed materials for nutritional Services um knowing that we have increased uh school lunch participation uh we did work with the Wyoming Department of Education to utilize some of our cares funds um to be able to fund and expand that freezer capacity at nutrition services so there are some funds

066you'll note in that that motion that will be covered through major maintenance and from some of our site and facility improvements but the bulk of that costs will be funded through the cares Grant reassuring so it's just a permanent situation to replace those Traders Madam chair trustee balling correct this is a permanent long-term fix to that need thank you very good any other questions seeing none all in favor say aye [Music] opposed no motion passes thank you Mr ciccarelli Madam chair I moved to approve the 2022-2023 memorandum of understanding mous between L Triple C and Western Wyoming Community College with Laramie County School District number one for the concurrent and dual enrollment program in the amount not to exceed seven hundred and ten thousand dollars second any discussion no all right um I have a

067question just because there's an individuals that had some questions about what are our what does that exactly mean so I was wondering um is could someone come up and speak to what kind of classes are offered and and how that works in our district and how many roughly how many students participate in them so Madam chair I can answer some of those um to begin with the dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment is an increased opportunity for our students to earn college credit while in high school in both those cases whether in the building or at the college often we find that students that have access to dual enrollment or concurrent enrollment have better success with college credit and advanced coursework as well as our career in technical education courses as they're headed into certification and

068I remember Madam chair during graduation this year you shared the numbers of how many um credits that we uh we provide for our students in this last graduating class would you like to share that one yes it was over 4 500 um credits but credit hours that were um um given to our our students earned and when I did the the math for another email response um it actually is just short of three million dollars um at the UW price of 669 dollars per credit hour so I'm super excited that we can do that and very very proud of our students and our district for making and L Triple C that partnership with them so that's been that's been around for a long time and and it just gets better and better so thank you

069chairman yes as long as we're recognizing extra effort here the teachers in our school district who um go get the extra um credit credentials to be able to teach courses so that their students can get college credit um it's really nice that that the students can do that in the course of their regular high school day and get these credits and not have to travel to the campus so I just want to recognize that one more thing our teachers do for our students very good thank you all right having that very good thank you very much if there's no further discussion um all in favor say aye um those against a post none very good emotion passes thank you very much and I'm sure I moved to approve the memorandum of understanding mou with HealthWorks

070to provide school-based health services at Pilot locations beginning in the 2022-2023 school year second discussion all right we'll start with trusty um Clawson okay thank you madam chair um I was looking at the consent to treatment form that was sent out today to the board to review at the end of the mou and um I just as a parent of children I was I was thinking trying to think if I wanted to utilize this um opportunity and by the way I want to say that great work for coming up with a solution to get our families that don't have access to health care access for their students but what I started to say and I forgot to say that up front um is that I wonder if the mou or sorry the con consent to

071treatment form um couldn't be a little bit more parent friendly right now they it encourages students who are over the age of 18 to involve um their parents and Guardians in counseling and Medical Care decisions but it's unclear as to what parents are signing on for if their student is under 18. and I really think that we don't want to get in the business or get in between our parents and our students in their health care decisions so I had spoke to miss Paulie and asked her right before the meeting about what in the consent to treatment form it says um that there's confidential confidentiality in accordance with the law and what and I asked what that meant and um I'll tell you what she told me but I'll let her speak for herself that

072she thought she looked that up and thought that that meant that students do not have to notify parents or Guardians if they're seeking treatment for STDs under the law or for contraceptives under the law and so um I don't know Miss Paulie if you found any other exceptions or any other carve-outs under the law that would apply there but um I'll give you a chance to to speak and then I'd like to ask my question might be awesome thank you I'm green it might just be the I'll try to I'll try to speak up I apologize um Madam chair Jesse Clausen so under Wyoming law um there are three essential exceptions to a traditional idea that a parent would be consenting for healthcare services for a minor child um one is for um excuse me

073s-t-e-d-e-sci treatment um can receive those services without parental consent um contraception is also an area where minor can receive those services without parental consent and then therefore children over the age of 12. there's also uh the ability for them to receive services for tobacco cessation um without parental consent within certain requirements so those are the three areas under Wyoming law where parental consent would not be required um and that would apply any um healthcare clinic or institution where a minor would seek services so anywhere in the community they could go to that clinic and receive those Services thank you um thank you madam chair so when I was looking at the consent for treatment I Believe Miss Polly correct me if I I'm misrepresenting you but I believe that the first paragraph had to do

074with um with students over 18 when it came to the language that said um that and that that students will be encouraged to involve their parents or Guardians in counseling Medical Care decisions and I'd like to propose an amendment to the consent agenda I'm sorry to the consent for treatment form to strengthen the language add a sentence that says if you're 17 or younger that you have to consult with a parent or the guardian before the medical treatment with the exception of those things that are carved out in state law so um I think that would be a a way to wait for our district to avoid getting in between the decisions that are made between parents and students regarding their personal health another option that might work is to allow for parents to sign

075this consent form but to opt out of certain services that are listed here on this and forum just so that they know exactly what they're signing when they're consenting to Health Care Within These mobile clinics Adam chair Madam chair thanks um I would say a representative from HealthWorks um this is you know so the consent to treatment the school district will not be providing any treatment Health Works as the medical program in this situation would be providing that so the consent agreement is is um an agreement between Health Works and the parents or child or student of their over 18 um not between the district so um you know I think that those are our viable options from my perspective but I don't represent how it works and since they're parallel I'll let Tracy go

076ahead and speak for them can you go ahead and introduce yourself Tracy and welcome aboard thank you um so if you can pull the mic to you so yeah there's like a big ones yeah pull that down to you there I know you're right oh there you go thank you can you hear me so um thank you um I'm Tracy ferocious I am the CEO of HealthWorks um and we've spent a great deal of time talking about the consent um and we um wanted to enable to make sure that we were following the guidelines in state law but also give us as much flexibility as possible um in order to provide as much care in the mobile clinic um obviously it's all within the intent is to not only involve the patient but also the

077parents um in all of everything that we do our intent is to not only ever the the paint or the kids up but also the fans and make sure that they all have access to primary care so the consents are really based on best practice um in order because you never know what's going to present itself um but we can just we can have further discussion this was our place where we wanted to stay um once we add looking at this from an operational level once you start adding opt-in opt out questions it um creates additional levers that we have to make sure that we're following so and the entire program is an opt-in program it's not a mandatory program very good um Mr trustable did you have questions okay trustee I think that I'm

078determined just in just a to clarify so this is a consent form because and I don't know if people understand how it works is a federally qualified Health Center that is brick and mortar and um has a range of services that has a sliding scale that starts at literally zero um depending on income so it it currently is serving people with insurance without insurance now runs the gamut so this consent form is the same consent form that you would use if someone came to bricks and mortar but the fact is the um services are being simply provided in a mobile in a in a in a clinic on Wheels basically so it's the same thing wherever you go and and the the beauty is that it's going to go and be and be curbside service

079for students I understand free sports um exams good clearing sports but I always saying sports physicals so it's just you're just bringing HealthWorks into the child but there there's no special um requirements I mean it's the same form that you use for everything else okay let's see I'm not very good at this Herman trustee Herman um yes and the the beauty of this program which is we are we will be modeling it here in Laramie County but it's actually been um embedded in a lot of areas across the country for the last 50 years it says if my clinic is on school property we operate as if they had walked through the doors it's the same treatment it's the same interaction with patients it follows all the same guidelines if they went to the Children's

080Clinic with the exception that because of our federal designation we receive additional funding so we are required to treat everyone who comes through our door and put them on a sliding p-scale if they would like to apply for that and or we keep our fees as low as possible so that it's available to hopefully as many families and individuals in the community as possible So yeah thank you very good interesting leaders fun uh Madam chair so I just want to clarify this issue of the consent form so the consent form really is your form am I correct it belongs to HealthWorks so it's not our form to a man correct so so if there were an amendment with all respect to trustee Clausen I guess I'm trying to understand this so so if there were

081an amendment to the consent form would that Amendment be would be that Amendment be coming from you or are we in a position to amend the form so chairman Rooney and trustee which one so the the issue is is that we this is a a binding agreement between the school districts and our Clinic um kind of sets out the rules of the road um the consent form is the same that we use in the clinic we can do something different but then it would be an adjustment to this Contracting process and it would be different for the students that receive care versus the the folks that they were to walk through our Clinic okay thank you okay very good um yes you mentioned the slightly scale stuff parents would have to be involved at that

082point right because you have no income and so forth right so they couldn't get into the sledding skills stuff and those parents were involved is that correct chairman Rooney and um trustee Bowen absolutely so their intent families would be involved that the providers would actually and on initiation would meet with the patient and the families as much as possible we actually have um some very Innovative things that we would like to do we would like to actually provide Telehealth services but in a very different way it will be something that we can actually um we may nationally be the first one to do this is we actually want to use Telehealth in Reverse so where we would have a patient along with our provider on the mobile unit and we would actually Telehealth the parent

083in so that the parent would not have to leave work they could just step away from their desk attend the appointment with their child virtually go back to work and the kid goes back to class so that is something that we would like to investigate in order to make Health Care as accessible to everybody and as Community as possible and a follow-up question yeah as far as the insurance goes um it's been a number of years since my battery was on my insurance but she did never carry a card and so generally students I don't think have a card so parents would not be involved again insurance is involved absolutely thank you very good any other questions um trustee Ashby do you have anything no all the questions by somebody else thank you okay all

084right yes this I do have a follow-up question because I'm not sure I understood the sliding scale part so you're saying then there isn't a scenario that you can think of or maybe there is and so clarify sure where a student might want care that their parent might not want them to have and they can keep that from the parent or Guardian is there a scenario like that in this situation because that's really what was my intention is that we make sure that um and I do understand and I think I misspoke earlier about us getting you know involved in the in the in the care of the patient I understand that this is a mobile unit separate from our district but the fact that we're asked to vote for it tonight is allowing it

085in our district and I I really believe that we should always um make sure that our parents and and their students that there is transparency there and that we are not in enabling students to keep things from their guardians or their parents so can you answer is there any scenario area where a student would be able to keep something receive care and their parent Guardian might not know about it with the exception of the three instances that are protected under state law so um chairman please um so here's how the so there are a lot of operational issues to be worked out but let's just run a scenario the family comes in and does the paperwork and establishes Care there's a consent that's signed which allows us to treat the patient and we then do

086an uh a review because it's no different than they came to the seeking care in the clinic we would do either accept an insurance card um verify insurance or then what we would do is if they don't have insurance then we would do a financial assessment if the family is willing to do the sliding fee application which is obviously income based very much like the same sliding fee sale that it is for free and reduced lunch so at that point then we put them on the slide and then for those care so that qualification is then good for the full year right we would have to do that insurance and or financial screening every time unless there's a change that the family brings forward and so as as far as I care that that's then

087separate right so that that screening process we don't have to do that each time and then it moves towards just making the appointments with the between the family and the clinic and then the gardens the patient and the provider at the actual visit is that how Madam's here yes please clarify I appreciate you explaining how the the financial side will work but I'm curious more about the care site if a student walked in and said that they wanted um they wanted to be tested for oh I can't even think of an example but if they wanted something and they maybe didn't want their parents Guardian to know about um is that a viable possibility in this scenario so obviously without adding something to the consent form where the parent can specify please don't treat for

088X Y or Z right so the the interaction with the the patient at the time of the consent is signed right we don't require the signature of the consent each time so it's a signed consent so the patient would come to but that is still a relationship with the guardian and so if for whatever reason um that that was a request those that information would then be followed back up with the guardian because at any point then if we say it was a I have XYZ and I need a medication for example that medication would need to be dispensed in the name and in accordance to whatever their insurance is so that follow-up would happen between our clinical staff and the family should the family not be present at that particular moment okay thank you

089very good I'm really happy that you touched on the innovativeness of bringing um parents to the to the uh appointment we have several families that have struggled during my tenure in the district um in trying leaving work and getting their child to uh to the doctor my mom worked three jobs it was very difficult for her to leave any of them to go to bring us in so I'm super excited about that and and again how long has HealthWorks been providing these services in Cheyenne exactly the same way complying to State Statute um and and all of the other regulatory um individuals that you report to how long have you all been here so chairman that we were um developed and it actually came from a place of need in the community um in the

090late 1990s where we were identified um and formally applied for the federally qualified Health Center designation in 2004 and we opened our doors in 2005. so we've been in place we are um it's like any other Healthcare environment we are very heavily regulated not only by Medicare and Medicaid but also by hersa which is our funding agency so we just actually completed our on-site visit for our federal survey that we go through every three years and pass the flying colors very good and again this is a service that's being provided to our community and our families at no cost and um and it is optional for um parents and students to participate so um are there any further questions yes trust you falling uh which sites are have you decided which sites you're going to

091be at coordinating that with Dr Crespo as soon as there is no not yet not yet again is Mrs farmer here as well um I thought she was nope nope all right that's all right I was just gonna have our our you know we quit taking uh we quit we ended up not doing throat swabs anymore in the district and we had there's over the years there's been a lot of things that we used to do that we don't do services that we can't provide um in the district any longer so um I'm very excited to to have that opportunity for our for our kids and our our families to participate in if they would choose so I was just going to have Janet speak to that need across our district because as a parent

092I I know that that's been out there for quite some time so Tracy do you have anything else that you would like to add no we're very excited to get started well and it's Dr presso thank you for um bringing that conversation together with them and and also um elevating this has been something that's come across parent advisory on and off for a while and um but it's never been able to at this point to really get the gas to get all of it together so it took some great people in the room and a lot of conversations I know trustee Herman was on that um in those meetings as well as well as us several of your staff and and I want to thank you and um the district for doing this and Dr

093Creswell well done Tracy well done um at that time if there's no further questions we'll call for a vote thank you Tracy all right um hearing no further discussions all in favor say aye aye aye opposed no motion passes yes so now that it's been approved I just want to take a quick moment and say how absolutely grateful I am for Health Works the work that's been done the partnership like the meetings the attorneys um just the opportunity for our kids to have access when parents don't have to leave work and to be in school and to be swab like I got strep is just going to be really really incredible so I just want to say thank you and the Gratitude and our communities gratitude and our peeps organization that has really been trying

094to help with this as well I just want to say thank you and thank you to the trustees for bringing this service available for our kids so welcome thank you moving on then trusting leaders fun um we have the um at this point in time thank you if you're not up you're good all right you're ready okay yeah I'm sure I move to have a budget amendment for the fiscal year 2022 in the general fund transfer 2 million five hundred thousand dollars from instruct directional support to fund transfers special Revenue fund transfer 1 million two hundred fifty thousand dollars to instructional support two million dollars to General support and 250 000 to fund transfers from instruction trust funds transfer seventy five thousand dollars to instructional support and one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars to

095General support from instruction second is there any discussion yeah can we have somebody kind of do a general overview of this because it's just a it's hard for somebody that hasn't been through this process multiple times today yes thank you madam chair um so typically at the end of the fiscal year we'll go through a considerable amount of work to do adjusting entries and close out the books for the end of the operations um as we do there are a couple of areas that these budget transfers seek to address the first is um within our general fund resources um you'll recall that we budget for technology projects as well as things like bus purchases um a couple of factors there when we have obligated funds within those technology budgets we will put those towards the

096one for one student device Reserve that we know that we have a significant obligation that the district will have to meet once those devices become obsolete so that's our our Reserve fund to meet those needs this allows us to use unallocated funds to help meet that need and kind of close the gap secondly you'll remember a number of years ago the State Department of Education changed the replacement cycle for school bus purchases um as good Steward the Bissell dollars we prefer as a district to purchase buses as opposed to lease saves the state reimbursing for the least fees associated with that with that change in that replacement cycle it puts a considerable amount of buses into a replacement cycle further out and so what we've done is again utilizes unobligated funds to meet what will

097be potentially a large number of buses that will need to be replaced right about at the same time the second budget amendment that you'll see there with regards to the special Revenue fund is all with regards to the enhanced or additional funding that we received through the cares Act and the Esser funds I recall that we did not receive that answer three allocation until late winter and so as we budgeted for those expenditures we had to move those into those different appropriation categories lastly the trust funds um you can imagine manager at the beginning of the year when we project and estimate and appropriate to those areas we don't know exactly who's going to take advantage of our retention programs and those type of things that will separate from the district receive that funding so

098we do our best to project that based on prior past practice um we have to move that knowing we might have some Transportation Personnel or custodial or teachers or instructional support staff and so that last portion of that amendment's just to align those Resources with the people that separated from the district very good any other questions any other questions trustee ask me oh man okay very good um Mr ciccarelli thank you so much we're going to see you here shortly so thank you um with no further discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed no emotion passes thank you sorry I'll wait a little longer thank you trustee Ashby all right at this time um we're going to recess our regular meeting and can be in our budget hearing so I will uh turn that

099back over I I told Mr secretly not to get very far away because he was going to be our our uh our individual is going to Enlighten us about our our budget so and I'm excited so thank you thank you madam chair Dr Christopher Lambert of the board if you'll give me one moment to get presentation materials up Mr sicarelli is our Chief Financial Officer for the district and um I I we all rely very heavily on him and appreciate all the work that he's he's been through throughout the last several years that I've known him in the district and um I just I really want to comment at this point in time when we took office in 2018 at the board level anyway um the budget has really um it's grown in the not

100only financially that way but I mean the presentation of the budget and um just how it's it's um the transparency um and how it's presented to the public and to the board members and and bringing us along and having a really clear understanding what the budget is I would say that um it's it's come a long way in the last four years and I think that was under um Mr ciccarelli's uh work and and his staff and and Dr Crespo so thank you very much thank you madam chair that gave me just enough time to thank you um so I'll be in tonight to to write a summary of our proposed annual budget um again this is the financial framework for the upcoming fiscal year 22-23. uh certainly it's difficult to capture um eight more

101than 80 Pages worth of information on our district Financial operations uh I would just mention that we do have a more comprehensive detailed accounting of our fiscal operations available on board docs um as I kind of move through and summarize these five major funds uh that the district operates I'll certainly get into some of the detail on our sub fund level but um I do want to focus primarily on some of the data points that have changed since the preliminary budget was presented this March now in large part those are changes from the red the legislative session uh certainly the the various mechanisms that we utilize to determine our funding model allocations but equally important is we're a final fiscal year 21 and 22 data ends and that gives us a starting point as we

102build our budget uh for your consideration tonight um so starting with kind of the high level and bringing it down to some more detail as I work through this um our total Enterprise budget for proposal is 352 million dollars now um there again are a number of different components um within our operations uh general fund is typically the one where we spend most of our time discussing our resource allocation that is a primarily our operating fund now there are a number of other supplemental funds that all have different rules and regulations and stipulations on how we can utilize those resources I mean I'll summarize those here as well but that overall Enterprise projected budget of 352 million represents about a 12 million dollar increase over the prior year now there's a lot of factors again

103there are some areas that we will receive less resources I'll talk about those in a moment but we'll also receive areas of increased allocations primarily what's driving that 12 million difference is going to be the answer funds that I mentioned earlier were not approved until late winter last year through Department of Education and then things like additional Appropriations for Capital Construction for pilot Ridge and others now again I'll get into some of those details but primarily again that general fund represents the largest proportion of our District Operations you'll see here represents about 63 percent of that 352 million dollar budget keep in mind that on a normal year without the additional uh covid-19 response funds or Capital construction projects that's typically around the 80 mark so getting into a little bit more detail I mentioned

104that there'll be some some data points that were updated since we discussed the preliminary budget so um starting with those particular changes uh the fiscal impact of enrollments and our funding model impacts are Paramount as we develop develop and build out the budget for the upcoming year we've also Incorporated uh the ratification of the negotiated agreements um you'll recall that the impact of steps and lanes for staff as well as the funds that we've allocated towards a classified labor market study and adjustment are all profiled within this projected expense budget we've also addressed other things like the cost pressures around health insurance we mentioned in the previous budget presentation in March that we're expecting a four percent increase in our health insurance premiums for the upcoming year um but we also um take efforts to

105ensure our district is positioned to address um what you'll see here is again yet another reduction in revenue for the district ahead um for the year we just ended um we will post about 214.3 million dollars senators in the general fund um that includes about five and a half million dollars of carryover encumbrances now I bring that up because it is an important part of how we budget that budgetary budgetary Authority comes from previous Appropriations and then is reallocated into the new year and I'll I'll go over that a little bit more detail here um our estimated fund balance um is approximately 40.2 million dollars there's a lot of nuances that accompany that 40.2 million dollars and I'll I'll touch on those as well foreign so this next graph albeit a little bit noisy um

106is important in that it represents student counts in three different levels excuse me the three different methods of counting for students um now the reason that I start this um this presentation with an emphasis on the student counts is that this is one of the most um important and impactful numbers that influence the level of resources that we receive as a school district and so you'll see we have a pretty strong historical trend of growing enrollment figures until we hit the pandemic where we did incur about 400 student drop in enrollment and how that has been kind of articulating through the funding model is very nuanced and important to not I'll I'll draw your attention a little bit to where we are with the year that we ended and where we're going so if you

107look at the year we ended 2020-122 our funding model looks and funds us from prior your actuals so that dot you see on the far right the black dotted line represents the model funding the level of resources that we'll receive for the upcoming year but it's important to look at this Top Line This is the enrollment Counts from an October snapshot so this pack doc past October our certified enrollment was 14 000 and 10 students those are the students that were enrolled within our district regardless of their full-time part-time in and out of the school district out of the number of students that were enrolled on October 1st the number below it is the Gray Line This is what we call average daily membership this takes into account the number of students that are in

108the district and who transfer out who might be taking less than full load at the secondary level um and is usually about 97 of our total enrollment now this next line that you see here which is hidden bear with me one second I move it is the actual model funding that we'll receive for fiscal year 22-23 so that's 681. now kind of the takeaway here is that as our enrollment is increasing we will be funded for fewer students so it's a little counterintuitive ideally the model allocations will catch up in a year but as a result of kind of the averaging of those enrollments over the past three years um this contributes to uh what I'll explain is about 5.1 million dollar decrease in the level of resources that we'll receive as a district for

109the upcoming year in our general fund so manager starting with the the revenue impacts in addition to that that impact of the decreasing ADM again um noting that we are increasing enrollment to continue or expect that that growth to continue um we will also see a reduction in the state health insurance allocation um I provide some detail on this during the preliminary budget so I won't uh get too far into the weeds but just noting that um the level of resources we receive is dependent on the state plan that is provided to State Employees um that'll reduce our Revenue about by about 1.5 million dollars um on the plus side um you'll see kind of the adjustments here there's the external cost adjustment this is where the legislature examines the cost pressures on our school

110Finance system whether it's in Personnel supplies or materials we received only an adjustment for non-personnel um for for 1.3 million dollars and that'll be time limited that'll be taken away next year um it's certainly a plus it's adding to our Revenue at 1.3 million but it's far shorter than the 5 million that we would have received as a district if it would have been fully instituted uh the next component you see there is the reimbursable model components these are for those areas of like transportation and special education um right now certainly we have a lot of time that we have to do um reconciliation before we submit these reports to the state department education but we're looking Flats last year which is the first time since I've been with the district that we haven't had

111that adjustment um either up or down um the next piece you'll see here is education and experience you'll recall that our funding allocations also look at a composite of our staff in certain categories how much education uh educational attainment our certified staff our administrators have how long have our staff been with the district those adjustments um as you would imagine with um what continues to be a challenge for Staffing with the district means that we're holding staff fewer years less experience as we progress and so the state will adjust our funding to reflect that composite within our district that adjustment alone will be about a decrease of 1.6 million dollars for the district as a whole uh the last key point that I wanted to talk about with revenue is what we call the at-risk

112proxy um our school Finance system identifies students that are at risk of academic failure by using a proxy it doesn't mean that these are the students that are to receive these Direct Services it's just a measure one of those key components components is the free and reduced lunch um count for our school district as a whole and again referencing some earlier conversations that we've had with the board when we started the pandemic and we're fortunate enough to provide Universal feeding to our nutrition services program um it it didn't provide the incentive for those applications to be turned into the district without those applications the state is reducing um our funding for key positions and pupil support areas like counselors um social workers um tutors um and other certified staff fortunately the federal government can also

113tie a lot of our allocations to these accounts have provided hold harmless provision that's whether that's impact Aid or Title One they've identified that need and helped navigate that that decrease by providing some assurances and hold harmless adjustments um that hasn't been the case with the state funding that particular impacts the district alone will be two million dollars so the culmination of these impacts is about 5.1 million dollars as we started to build out the budget Appropriations and recommendations for the upcoming year by speaking to the cost side of the the balance sheet a little bit um again I've mentioned the pressures that we're seeing of course on fuel utilities and some other areas property insurance continues to be an escalating cost for the district like many of us we know it's getting more and

114more expensive to ensure house and car and Cheyenne Wyoming the school district is the same way we continue to see a dramatic increases in our property insurance costs we do take measures to work with our Brokers to prepare the lowest possible price that we can we also work closely with our risk management team here in the districts to develop different programs and areas that we can impact our our property insurance and our risk Assurance in a number of different areas but we we will continue to see cost escalation there again um the the impact of the health insurance um impact from negotiations that I mentioned mentioned a special education contracts um we are seeing an increase in particular uh with the two charter schools that operate within the district um they are providing more of

115their own more special education services uh through the school as opposed to uh Contracting that back through the school district there's an interesting Dynamic there where we have to pay the charter schools for them to provide their own Services um it's just kind of a remnant of the state funding mechanism and so that increases our expenditure side but it is recouped uh when we get reimbursed from the state um the next piece you'll see here um in order to mitigate kind of the impacts of 5.1 million dollars Less in Revenue um and increasing costs of approximately four million dollars uh we have uh further pulled back on our Capital Equipment purchases uh we have reduced um considerably the level of funding that we've provided for those ongoing Capital needs um we've also reduced our transfers

116to our other post-employment benefit programs um I'll talk about that a little bit more when we get to that portion of the slides and the nutrition services as trustee Bolin mentioned earlier um with the additional Universal feeding we've been able to stay the transfers from the general fund into the nutrition services for the last two years we expect that we'll be able to do that one more year and then we'll have to return back to uh the supplemental operations of the general fund providing uh enough support to the nutrition services program to operate um additionally um resources for the first year of operations for new schools we know Coyote Ridge will be coming online uh because again our school Finance system works on prior to your actual data um it'll take a full year of

117operation before the state recognizes Tayo Bridge as a funded school um so we have to make sure that we have the resources available for those incremental increases and operations whether it's Personnel supplies materials equipment um so in order to meet that need what we've done is use previously allocated resources to address that first year of operations for Coyote Ridge uh the other piece to that is certainly worth an important mention is um vacancy savings for the school district um it has been significantly more difficult for the district to um retain staff um I think we're not alone um in Wyoming or school districts Across the Nation but you can imagine as those positions go unfilled um we have to still budget and appropriate for those those positions so that we can fill those um so

118when a position goes unfilled that means we're not providing the salary and benefits and that can often impact our bottom line as we as we approach a new fiscal year and Madam chair I've mentioned just to put that a little bit of perspective I believe right now we have 45 to 50 um unfilled certified position um that can represent four to five million dollars for the district alone um another uh important aspect of our our funding operations for the upcoming year um is our ad valorem tax collection and I need to take just a moment to talk about the portion of our operations that are funded through local property taxes our district receives about 30 of our funding um from local property taxes the other 70 comes from state aid um of the 30 that

119we receive roughly 30 to 40 percent of it comes from mineral production so add the lower taxes on the extraction and the property valuations of of those minerals now um as was mentioned earlier Madam chair uh in 2020 and 2021 uh there were two bills that significantly impacted the way those resources are collected uh not only for us but other local governments as well now um this has been a significant impact on how we catch lower operations um earlier on I believe about this time last year I talked about the risks Associated of not collecting the the property taxes that were projected um and where we might as a district struggle um but also mentioned if we over collect uh the complications that that can result in and I'll talk a little bit about that

120and kind of how that works um but those particular bills again um what they did was as we transitioned to more of a month to month on property tax assessment and collection there was a transition period so with calendar year 2020 production and calendar year um 50 2020 the full amount that is due to the state for 21 was deferred over 13 years now kind of the Baseline for this particular statute statutory of change was that um all the mineral producers would be kind of forced into that deferral and they would have to petition the County Commissioners to be able to pay earlier we've seen kind of the inverse we've seen virtually every mineral producer pay on the old schedule and so what that did was impact our funding since our system is based on

121anticipated tax collections um and it sounds like I'm over emphasizing this but this has been very very important as we develop and the interplay between this year's budget and the upcoming 22-23. now so these large swings between the estimated and actual tax collections trigger what we call tax excess and tax shortfall adjustments from the state now um when we came into this particular year there was an under collection our district received about 2.1 million dollars in attached shortfall adjustment and we talked about that that's kind of a temporary fill until those those collections became game um collectible and then remitted that the system would catch up now for the year we just ended and I'll go over a little bit more in figures here in a moment our district collected an additional six roughly six

122million dollars in local taxes for fiscal year 22. um this is really a result of the um the option or the the the preference of the mineral producers to pay early now um what does that do for a district as a whole is complicated um and I'll talk through that here a little bit if you'll bear with me one moment I've I've got our high level summary that's contained within our budget book that provides a little bit of detail and I'll I'll reference back to that here in a moment but um let me start by just walking you briefly through uh this column here we see estimate this is for the fiscal year that we ended um you'll see that we budgeted about 216 million dollars in revenue and we collected 226. so in addition

123to the additional or the The increased tax collection we also um had additional Federal impact Aid uh we also had some funding model adjustments after the formal approval of the budget and then things like indirect costs from those Federal programs and those cares funds that we mentioned earlier and then we have seen uh not a dramatic but a small increase in some of our investment earnings so um if you follow down um you'll see the actual expenses including the prior Year's carryover it's about 214 million dollars it's about a decrease of two million dollars compared to the prior year now the results from our operations of that single year kind of looking at it from a cash basis is an increase of about 12.5 million dollars now when you take into account the previous year's

124fund balance um the interplay between our purchase orders that carry over from one year to the next the fund balance was 46 million dollars um but it wasn't um because that 5.8 million dollars that you see there that's footnoted as an excess tax restriction is an advance on next year's funding so that money that we received as a district in excess of those collections is next year's funds and so there's a statutory requirement that those funds have to be restricted and the state will pay us next less for next year this is very important um as um you know a school district that maybe um opted to utilize those resources in the years they received doesn't realize that they have an obligation to the state later and you can see how that would be very

125problematic so um the net fund Reserve is about 40.2 million dollars and you'll see when you get to the far right top column there that our anticipated revenue from the uh for the upcoming year is significantly less about 20 million dollars less this is primarily as a result of those funding model impacts and other areas like the loss of that tax portfolio adjustment that I mentioned earlier in some other areas so when we um budget out the expenses for the upcoming year with all those impacts and adjustments that I mentioned earlier um there's a net change from operations 18.7 million dollars but as you can kind of follow down that column you'll see that the fund balance returns to about 32.8 million dollars now so that's more in line with um where we are from

126year to year so we have that kind of navigation of what are some very impactful nuances of this this fiscal year that we just ended and how that that relates to the upcoming budget for the for the next year so again that was kind of a long explanation of a very important aspect of what we're trying to deal with um but as if we've moved through to the more detailed level I just wanted to provide that context so on the next page um Madam chair the next slide um what you'll see here is how we appropriate our expenditures um we're required to appropriate expenditures at a major function level and what that means is you see these six categories and they categorize the expenditure and the activity of How It's incurred there are six major

127categories so you'll see them here the first is instruction which are really any costs representing activities dealing directly with the delivery of instructional Services then we have instructional support those are things like student guidance student guidance Counseling Services Social Work Health Services other support type Services General support or for operating costs certainly it includes school and administration but it also includes things like facility custodial technology and transportation HR and staff services Transportation with regards to bus services all of those things are a part of that particular category um the two categories that you see Zero these are um capital outlay and non-instructional support most of our Capital outlay costs those are things for acquiring land and buildings and those type of things are reflected in our Capital Construction or special building fund which I'll touch

128on briefly um the other category that you'll see here are transfers that account for enter phone transfers to other funds and again this is one of the areas um that the district is allocated Less in an effort to about the budget going forward um all those categories can be further subdivided into what we call Objects um whoops um this uh the previous slide to provide kind of the information on the instructional areas and the functional areas um really this gets into the purpose and the object of those expenditures so you'll see here the vast majority of our district general fund expenditures are for personnel uh typically 80 to 85 percent of our budget is for salaries and benefits um last year we had purchases for curriculum and software and those type of things so you'll

129see a little bit of a decrease in areas like supplies and materials compared to last year's services and certainly there's the other aspect which are the transfers to the Charter Schools um so as a school district we act as the flow through from the state funding mechanism for the two charter schools that operate within our district okay uh ma'am chairs I near the end of the slide deck I've got probably the most difficult to read um so I'll do the best I can to summarize here but this is similar to the previous slides on where you see the object of the expenditures and the functional categories um rather than walk through these um through the budget book what I'm going to do is just kind of hit on a few of the high points for

130these what we call supplemental funds um so if you'll uh look at the the second column there the special Revenue funds um again these are detailed in the book in more detail this includes things like Student Activity funds our district wellness program scholarship funds but the the vast majority of this particular fund is our federal education grants um most notably was would be the increase in our cares and Esther allocations uh that's comprised as a majority of that 60.4 million dollars that you see there um the next column you'll see is our major maintenance fund now our resources are available through a formula grant from the state construction department and this is for major repair and facility maintenance and ongoing costs that are not necessarily routine in nature now um right now we have a

131profile amount of about 10.3 million I expect that to be a little bit less by the time a final student counselor formalizing with the Department of Education but as I mentioned during my my budget presentation last year and probably the year before uh there was a significant change in how we re received those allocations as well and so our facilities and planning and construction teams have been working to kind of navigate that change and start addressing those important facility needs um so you'll see about 19.4 million dollars expense as the expense Budget on this particular line again these are resources that are restricted only for that purpose uh the next column you'll see is the Capital Construction fund um this includes 30.3 million dollars remaining for the Coyote Ridge project but there are other Capital

132construction projects related here um security modular leases um in addition to the operations funding that we provide as flow through to the two Charter Schools we also provide or act as the flow through for their facility leases so the buildings that those two Charter Schools lease they are approved through the state construction department and that money comes to us and then in turn is provided to uh the two charter schools uh the next column you see is the special building fund um this is where we have costs incurred for our Cheyenne community recreation District um as well as things like I previously mentioned uh the future replacement costs for the one-to-one devices for our student technology um Career Technical education equipment music expenditures and those bus purchases that I started on a conversation with this

133evening now the next column you'll see is the Enterprise funds now accounting principles require that any fee for service whether it's nutrition services or other Enterprise type or business type operation be represented in an Enterprise fund so um as you're looking at the budget book there is a new Enterprise line it's the preschool Enterprise fund what that is is where we will account for the revenue and extensions related to our preschool program as an Enterprise operation uh it's important to note that this is not a profit Enterprise for the district it's simply a break even um uh accounting for those operations the state does not provide School District resources for a preschool program so this is where the accounting for those programs will take place um lastly is the trust funds now you will call

134a couple years ago we had formal action to create legal trust for two of our again um acronym opeb or other post-employment benefit programs for early retirement and our retention incentive fund um today the district still carries about 10.7 million dollar liability on the implicit side of the health program uh 28.6 million dollar liability on Anonymous or the the the not excuse me the implicit not explicit portion and then 13 million dollar liability for the retention program and this has been a long Endeavor to meet that liability and so you'll see those funds here as well and we'll budget expenditures based again on those current trends um and then we could adjust if there's increased utilization of those programs as we come into the next fiscal year um and then Madam chair before I pause

135for question um I just want to uh recognize you know our team for what really has been a Monumental task I think nearly two years ago uh we came to the board uh with a request to explore options to modernize what we call our enterprise resource planning system our Erp um it's been a Monumental task a lot of people too many people to mention um but on July 1st uh we had a very important Milestone we went Fully live on the core financials um we still have six months to go on our implementation and a lot to do with regards to that but we're positive that it's going to reap strong benefits for the district as we move forward um but as I conclude and certainly open it up for questions I just want to

136recognize Mr McKinney for the technology team and all their Hardware Mr harson on the purchasing side uh Miss Thompson on the HR side they solve a lot of work to do um and then um of course Mr Knapp for the transportation folks that have been vital on the Enterprise assets Asset Management portion of that that project so a lot of work to do but we're certainly glad we're we're moving in the right direction on that as Matt you're happy to address any questions thank you and well done to your staff as well um and um we're all very excited and I know that that's been a long haul um just briefly Jed can you say um kind of pinpoint what the Erp does as far as kind of you know maybe the biggest impact that

137it's had on the district um in in how we manage our resources absolutely Madam chair um so the Erp system is really the backbone of our support operations it covers everything from our fiscal management um to as I mentioned earlier our procurement policy processes managing contracts payroll um onboarding off-boarding staff um managing our Capital assets uh we uh are working on I don't think anyone would really object uh to me saying what is an Antiquated system right now um we recognized early on that it wasn't meeting the district needs we've identified trying to identified a lot of efficiencies not to say we haven't struggled with some of the new functionality and figuring out how we utilize it but this uh this program has allowed us to re-examine our business processes and align those more with

138the function of work that we do as a district on the support side very good thank you for sharing that at this time any other questions I have a question Mr trustee Bolin had his hand up quicker than you responded so um let's go ahead and let him and then I will call you in thank you trustee Ashby thank you that's not a question I just wanted to say thank you to everybody that's here today because normally we we approve these budgets can be over 300 million dollars as they are this year with absolutely nobody here but our staffs I appreciate all the public that's here to watch this we're doing your business and it's a big a lot of money that we're spending tonight so I appreciate all you being here to watch all

139right any other questions about the budget trustee Ashby yeah so just a quick question about the ad valorem taxes and I I think we've had some of this conversation before but what exactly was the legislature trying to accomplish um with the changes to the ad valorem taxes and if they're paying them ahead of time is that actually happening Madam chair trustee Ashby I think the impetus for moving to this new collection cycle was um to allow uh these these taxes to be more collectible um there are situations where there's abatements bankruptcies notice evaluation changes that can all impact the level of collections that we're able to realize not only again as a school district but the state and the other local governments so um by collecting it in a month that the production happened um

140there's more likely a success in collecting the full tax liability um now as far as the the overall impact of the district and how that will transpire it's not that the the taxing hasn't been collected within the guidelines of that new statute um the problem is uh and again just just from my own point of view uh that these these companies might not want that liability for 15 years sitting on their mouth sheets and prefer to pay in advance and not have to deal with the Deferred payments and I think that's kind of the main reason that we're seeing an increased level of question is on the front end of that deferral schedule any other questions or follow-up Brittany so is there any conversation at the legislative level about I realized we just tweaked it

141again last year but tweaking the legislation to make it because we're not the only ones having the the swings and the issues along those lines is there making it more of a feasible option for those that collect the lorem taxes Madam chair uh trustee asked me certainly um myself other colleagues around the state um have you know provided testimony of joint Appropriations joint Revenue other committees um to help maybe um uh steer some of that conversation into ways that we can remedy uh what we'll most likely be a multi-year impact to the district um at this point in time there have been some adjustments um this last session we saw some changes that um uh clarified that if there's a change in ownership over those mineral production rights that um those taxes become full and

142due at the time that that changeover happens and a mandate lack of a better term to uh the County treasurers and others involved in this tax collection process to track those that we can project where we are going forward um I'd probably just um uh caveat that by saying I'm certainly not an expert when it comes to the value of mineral Commodities and what that looks like going forward um so even after this transition is over it's going to require School business officials like myself and others um it's a really good handle over what the future collection of oil and gas and cobal is going to look like and that's going to be certainly I can speak for myself outside of my daily wind but we're working on on how that's going to look long

143term so trustee asked me yes we're actively engaging the policy makers on how this might look going forward but I don't pose or see any changes in the near future thank you all right any other questions I had a question Mr sicarelli what what's the time frame on that pass through for our Charter Schools um what how long does it take for that money to to for us to be reimbursed Madam chair um so there uh as I mentioned there's two different aspects we have the normal operations um we will pass through the funding for the block grant model portion uh monthly on the same schedule that the state provides resources to us so we'll receive about 10 payments from the the State Department of Education for our entitlement payments um so I will pay

144the two charts shortly thereafter um it's based on a number of different inputs just like what we do for the district we're kind of running two separate funding allocations within our district so three total um so those are provided monthly and then we will back out any contract related Services we provide transportation nutrition services was something we mentioned earlier what used to be special education services some hiring and Staffing services and other areas technology and that allows us to kind of capture those funds and then flow through the remainder on the lease facilities um that can vary um it depends on the lease term in the agreement with the landlord and the two schools um so we recently saw those buildings expand they added on some athletic facilities to those two schools and so that

145triggered an adjustment with the state and that was a little bit of a process to work through the Appropriations and then back to us but we'll make typically monthly payments on their lease payments as well okay all right very good I I don't know that every citizen knows that there's a that partnership between the district we provide a lot of services for our charter schools and a lot of support for our Charter Schools as well as managing that making you know that pass-through of that money and then you and your business office obviously um um and with our superintendent monitoring those funds and making sure everything comes together like it needs to besides and that's that's in addition to the accreditation process and the the extension that several of us board members have have been

146on on their approval so um a great partnership there so thank you very much and and obviously a large lift for the district so any other questions all right very good um at this time we have an opportunity for public comment um in our budget hearing so I have uh the rules are still the same I'll just go through these quickly State your first and last name keep your comments two to three minutes please and um so others have a time to have time to voice their comments keep your comments General in nature not directed to specific individual or individuals and suitable language and content for K-12 great students uh no explicit language and additional information or perspective if you could do that that would be great try not to be redundant so at that

147time I have um Aaron weskowitz um uh is my one individual signed up for our budgets Aaron are you here and there or is she online do you see her online Kyle she's got her hand up there good deal so if you could just go ahead and unmute there you go thank you Aaron welcome okay can you hear me yes ma'am excellent my name is Aaron waskowitz we tend to the society to think that more is better more technology new technology the shiniest new curriculum books more programs and more program directors is better the more that more of everything will raise test scores improve literacy and increase math proficiency if you take a step back from the money and the temptation of more you might see that it's not improving anything from 2017 to 2022

148the lcsd1 budget has increased by over 51 million dollars attendance has decreased by 61 students and test scores have gone down or remained virtually unchanged but has the money gone to I'm here tonight to ask you to stop with the idea of more is better and simply get back to the basics there's something seriously wrong when your attention is focused on new and more while allowing what I can only describe as pornographic books into the hands of our children instead of spending your time researching the newest technology and the newest programs I'm asking you to focus your attention on what's currently in our schools why do our children have access to pornography in schools in our schools currently at South High School the book titled the V word true stories about first time sex is

149available do children I'm not going to read experts from this book but I can tell you that I Read 50 Shades of Gray and there's more explicit descriptions of sex in the v word than in that adult smut book you'll receive a copy of information on this book so you can see for yourself what our children have access to at school don't misunderstand me I am not for Banning books first all of us should ask why kids are being exposed to an adult activity sex has no place in schools what's next how to properly properly shoot tequila I'm here to point out that your priorities are wrong instead of voting for Wi-Fi on school buses and purchasing an expensive 24 7 virtual tutor with no with no real human connection you should hold special sessions

150to review library books you should hold a special session to update policies on books to include an opt-in form for pornographic books in seven opt out in closing I ask you to vote against this budget vote against more high-paying admin jobs vote against the pornographic books this budget pays for vote against doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results and vote four getting back to the basics for our children's sake thank you it's very good thank you that concludes our um public comment for the budget hearing um at this time um I'm gonna get my sorry excuse me there's no um the public comment is closed um we are at this time thank you very much there's pardon we have we have policy on signing up correct Dr Crespo I did

151double check with this with our we have a policy for signing up for public comments it is on the board docs it is on the district website thank you sir I appreciate that at this time I will reset adjourn our budget hearing and reconvene our regular meeting foreign chair I moved to approve the Laramie County School District number one budget for a fiscal year 2023. second any discussion hearing none all in favor say aye aye close now emotion passes Madam chair I moved to approve the appointment of Andrew Hall in the position of access and opportunity coordinator and to place him on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule effective for the 2022-2023 school year second is there any discussion pertaining to the motion yes Adam chair could um could Dr Crespo or someone

152give a brief overview for the audience what position this is going to what duties this position will hold Madam chair trustee Claussen in this position if you remember we had a position in a year and a half ago that was a retiree Patty peretta is retired through our community feedback we felt it was more appropriate to have someone related to access an opportunity for all students that position through Community feedback was filled as an interim with by Mr Drew Hall that was approved early in February and at that point we opened the position went through appropriate hiring practices and Mr Drew Mr Hall was able to um you become the candidate that we wanted to move forward this was added in the very beginning of the meeting as the addendum to the agenda based on

153the fact that we are starting the school year and trying to get those positions that we've been hiring so there's kind of all this this process that's happening that position has existed in the past very good Madam chair yes Dr Crespo for yummy but what how do you foresee them fulfilling their job because as I understand it from as you walked us through the history I do recall that um that that position's job description was going to be changing and what what do you mean by access for all and those kinds of things like how will they their day-to-day duties look thank you so very honestly the trustees already approves the position prior and at that time we shared that the access and opportunity work would be working with the mcss team working with our

154oveis and our safe schools coordinator to provide opportunity for all students who are accessing through at-risk behaviors or through extension or expansion our kindness program was part of that and that position has been doing and then additionally our work around the Grant and the sources of strength um he would he's a team member of that group as well very good thank you Dr Crespo saying no further discussion all in favor say aye aye aye opposed no no motion passes um at this time I would like to um just give a round of applause to all of our employees and welcome them in their either new positions or new to the district so if we could do a run thank you everyone um the next future or the next regular board meeting will be held on

155Monday August 15 2022 at 6 PM a work session will begin at 5 PM the business of the district is done at this time we have public comment um and uh again we'll go through those quickly um please State your first and last name keep your comments two to three minutes so others may have time to voice their comments keep your comments General in nature not directed at a specific individual or individuals and suitable in language and content for K-12 great students no explicit language any additional information or perspective we appreciate try not to be redundant um so at this time I will start with the first four individuals that I had and then we'll pick up for non-agenda items so thank you for your patience and continuing to stay at this time carry all

156mathia and I believe she's on Zoom foreign do you see her Carol if you could raise your hand s you see her Kyle Cherry zoo and she should be able to unmute pardon okay very good Carol can you hear us yes all right very good please go ahead you have three minutes thank you um Carol matthia board chair Rennie and trustees thank you for the opportunity to speak I would like to state that I'm in favor of the current board policies related to school library materials they are fair to all families with the current policy parents that want their children to have access to a what broad range of well-reviewed books do have that access their children can read widely which is what they want if parents object to a few authors or titles they

157can opt their children out of those items very easily other parents might want more control over what their children check out the district allows them to create personalized reading lists to send into the school library staff will only check out items on that list to the student as you can see this is an exceedingly Fair policy that respects all parents rights some community members want to move to an opt-in policy for what they consider mature books The Librarians select books using reviews from professional journals that provide grade level ratings for books the reviewers for these journals have a wealth of knowledge about both children and children's literature and consider factors such as the age of the protagonist topics address and reading level of the book when making a grade level determination parents should not have

158to opt their children into items deemed grade level appropriate in professional selection tools some parents have said that their children might still be able to find a way to access the books that they don't want their children to have at school well that is the discipline issue for that family to deal with and should not affect the materials that other students have access to again that is allowing some parents to make choices for other families with that logic it seems like the board but also at some point need to regulate what independent reading books students could bring in from home lest they share an item with another child talk about stepping on parents rights please leave the policy as is it is a fair one I encourage families who want to limit their children's selections

159to band together and help each other create lists of books you do like focus on finding books to build your children's love of reading and stop worrying about policing other families choices remember what one parent sees as pornography is not necessarily what another parent sees we should not let one parent's views decide for other parents if you really think our libraries contain pornographic books you have a right to challenge them thank you Ted Hanlon Ted Hanlon thank you if you could come up to the microphone here sir that would be great thank you very much thank you for recognizing me absolutely um I've been supported by teachers and professional staff in Montgomery County School District number one since I started kindergarten at ARP Elementary in 1964. foreign a whole new generation of excellent Educators supported

160my children when they went through school all the way from kindergarten through High School in Lima County School District number one so it's time for me to support them these people are in this field because they love working with children and they want children to be successful and I think the awesome graduates of all the high schools and Cheyenne every year are an indication that what we're doing right now works pretty well those that would like you to uh ban books or change the policy on books our attended parents we know that because they're so engaged so I'm quite sure they're going to monitor what their children read and they're going to keep them from being exposed to nefarious plots um so this whole thing is really not about protecting their children it's about taking

161rights from other people's children that's just not the Wyoming way in Wyoming we believe in personal freedom Above All Else we believe that we Live and Let Live so anywhere in this country it's not uh it's not right to think that we should be able to decide how somebody else thinks but in Wyoming I think that's particularly despicable and so what I'm asking you to do is keep the policies the way they are let our good Educators go through the long process they take to decide what books are going to be in their curriculum what books going to be in the library and let parents decide what books children are going to be able to read the uh last thing I'll leave you with since around this whole thing I've heard the term Liberty a

162whole bunch I'm going to leave you with a line from Princess Bride you keep using that word I don't think it means what you think it means thank you is Susan here did she go online she was here Susan Graham um I'm Susan Graham I live here in Cheyenne Wyoming and I wanted to commend trustees tonight for allowing a level of transparency and discussion that I hadn't seen um in the give and take between various trustees especially when it comes to very significant allegiances that and decisions that are made on the behalf of us but thank you for that um and that's what I have to say this evening thank you thank you Mrs Brown Catherine you may repinski Catherine or Kathleen is she here or anzu and it's s-k-a-r-u-p-i-n-s-k-i [Music] okay um at that

163point then we will move on to Michelle thank you hello my name is Michelle tanaccio tonight I'm here to express my concern and frustration about several books that can be found in lcsd one school libraries in the last few months I've reviewed dozens of books and tonight I chose the book a court of silver Flames by Sarah Moss to highlight my concerns I considered reading some heavily censored excerpts out loud so the Board of Trustees and the public could understand my frustration and concern but it will still be too graphic to read aloud so instead I have printed out a few uncensored excerpts from the book and have a copy available for each of you in the handout basket after you read the handout you will see that there is no doubt that this book

164is inappropriate pornographic in erotica there are nine different sections with very graphic descriptions of sex this book explicitly describes this couple having sex nine times in one book it also narrates I'll change this word to self-pleasing and details filthy thoughts as the author says over 20 times in other places of the book one sex session went on for over 15 pages in quite a few sex sessions described rough sex some people disagree and deem that books like these are in fact age-appropriate stating that we have not read the whole book and they're we're just taking excerpts out of context like I mentioned I have fully read dozens of concerning books and reading the whole book does not make the question excerpts any more appropriate and actually in some books it gets worse as you read

165on like this book a court of silver Flames it is full of erotica basically half of the book is sexually explicit the storyline or the conclusion does not change the erotic passages and words within the books they are inappropriate whether stated alone or within context the bottom line is this book and quite a few others available in school libraries are literacy porn I am not looking to ban books instead I along with many parents and community members requests that the district ad in opt-in option for questionable books this keeps the books in the libraries and available for those who choose to read them with parental approval maybe we should consider creating an upon a request section in libraries I am aware of the opt-out system but under this system right now children are able to

166freely access sexually explicit books in school libraries without their parents knowledge or approval an opt-in system would establish a safeguard for children whose parents do not want them to acquire these books and it respects parents who want to limit exposure of certain subjects and in opt-in system would also allow the books to be accessible to those children whose parents give consent thank you for your help thank you good evening my name is Susan Edgerton last excuse me last month's meeting ended in a board member speaking out and saying that those library books with questionable sexual content should be Revisited that there were more than two board members that were interested in taking up that issue as a board and seeing if the Board needs to address that through policy knowing what the current policy is

167so since that last meeting there's been a group on Facebook I'll call it providing PSA announcements in regard to the library books with the graphic sexual content in Laramie County School District One schools as of today I count 18 books now on that book watch site not just a couple and I'll let you know none of them call for book Banning they're just informing stakeholders as to the sexually graphic nature So based on that I have a few questions for you so I understand there's a policy to opt out at the opt-out form with me on that it will it asks you what category you're opting out of so I would put sexually graphic or erotica in that for for my student how are these books going to increase academic performance do you have any

168data on that what value do these books bring to our students education what exactly are these books teaching can anyone tell me the dollar amount spent on the books of this nature when the books were purchased were they following the procedures listed in chapter 7 in the instruction subcategory two followed by examining them before deeming them appropriate has anyone ever asked what reading these types of materials does to an adolescent's brain one study I came across says reading adult sexual concept con content doesn't just arouse your private parts it also stimulates your brain just like when you experience a new and exciting encounter it releases oxytocin and dopamine reading these types of books releases those as well the article ended saying that the effects of reading these are similar to that of cocaine to your

169brain are not asking the district to ban these books I'm questioning the selection process the benefits to the academic learning and the necessity to students I ask that the board tonight revisit these policies currently in place thank you very much thank you I'm Carol O'Day and I live here in town according to the American Library Association website the term young adult literature first found common usage in the late 1960s oddly enough to same day that brought us the sexual Revolution why a literature refers to fiction set in the real world IT addresses problems of interest to young readers aged 12 to 18 in Target School libraries and it is essential to the healthy development of our youth I remember reading an article about 10 years ago regarding the alarming increase of profane lurid sexual and

170just plain ugly scenarios depicted in this category known as young adult literature recently I've spent a considerable number of hours reading books found in lcsd1 libraries that sadly give Credence to that disturbing analysis books like sold crank lucky and beautiful just to name a few books that contain scores of examples of gratuitous sex violence brutality and profanity books that describe in great detail such Horrors as drug abuse and addiction rape sex trafficking proponents of this genre claim that it helps 12 to 18 year olds who might have been traumatized by actually having to live through such Dreadful experiences but I question that thinking does it really serve these young people well to give them more of the same torment in the books they read Emily Dickinson told us there is no frigate like a book

171to take us lands away and she's right you know books have the ability to show us what life is like in the world but tragically far too many young adult novels are given grotesquely distorted portrayals of life to our young people I understand there's an opt-out form and a procedure available to parents who want to keep what they deem as inappropriate content from being checked out by their child the problem I see with that is many parents aren't even aware of what's available to Young students in school libraries they have unwittingly put their trust in the experts to do the right thing unfortunately for many of us that trust has been broken perhaps the policies currently governing the purchase and placement of controversial context content can be Revisited and changed to reflect a more Equitable

172compromise of the views beliefs and opinions of all lcsd1 stakeholders I'd like to close by sharing the words of a man named Paul in a letter he wrote to the residents of Philippi many years ago whatever is true whatever is Noble whatever is right whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things and whether for our own homes or for school libraries let us all think about these words when we're buying books for our children thank you Lilia and I messed that up I apologize again thank you my name is Lilia lejnik I'm here to read some of the content in the book called titled tricks by Ellen Hopkins available at libraries in Central South Triumph high schools book contains drug abuse sexual activities like child rights prostitution and violent sex

173acts that's very fair right I realized some may argue these types of books will somehow help a victim Common Sense will tell you assisting a child in such situation is complex and one book about objectifying Girls by sexual violence is not the solution these issues must be addressed by the parents and professionals the presence of this book in a school library undermines the family units I will censor myself as I read some of the language or excuse me as I read some of the language in the book because it violates your rules regarding language so one of the pages says cost you want me to pay for it he pushes me inside I don't pay for sex even if I did I wouldn't pay for you you junkie female dog here's all Predator now and

174on me scream but his hand is already all over my mouth I shake my head look into his eyes the wall has made him on his mind he takes me down so okay give it to him I hold him no heat screens fight you guys don't fight or I'll kill you no fight no fight left in me f me kill me don't care he wants both his male genitalia stops me his hands log around my throat air no air black Air my lungs grab it suddenly I flop into gray light crawl onto my side vomit so there's another page that says I was so young the first time I didn't know what it meant only that nothing had ever hurt so bad Walt tore me up and I bled and bled and when I screamed

175nobody came and he left that's it little baby scream for your daddy only he wasn't my daddy at all my daddy was a brave Soldier fighting away I went to close by stating this content is made available to girls and boys as young as 14 years old therefore I'm turning in this form 85. they have to have this book reevaluated for mature content and educational value and in response to the idea that this is fair child rape is not fair in exposing children to such things without a follow-up or supervision this isn't about banning books so everybody needs to get a better line than that one this is about making good choices for our children thank you thank you I need to address the board again you were on one and then on the second

176one so don't normally do that but I wasn't quite sure we're good okay thank you very much that concludes our public comments and uh next on our agenda is the executive session recommendation Madam chair I moved to go into executive session at this time prior to adjournment for the purpose of possible student long-term suspension expulsion potential litigation and Personnel second all in favor say aye aye opposed no motion passes um Brittany I believe that uh Kyle will be sending you and