UCSD #1 June 9, 2026 School Board Meeting

001So you over there, Jenny. >> You were on the show, huh? >> All right. So where was David during graduation? You know that show up, etc. You want one? Sure. >> Good. >> You know what I mean? I'm surprised almost >> remember she came up and said she didn't have anybody to do it Right. >> Charging. >> They're good. Don't talk to That's right. All right. We would like to welcome everybody to the UNA County School District number one meeting. And I would like to call this order or call this meeting to order and then have you join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. I

002need a motion to adopt the agenda. >> Madame Chairman, I move that we adopt the uh agenda as presented. >> I second it. >> Okay. We have a first and a second. Any discussion? >> Madam Chair, second. Uh John, >> do you want me to repeat that? Who who that is? >> That would be helpful. Okay, that was Dave and John. Um all in favor? >> I >> and those opposed. >> Okay, motion carries. >> All right, we're going to move on to the consent agenda items. >> Madam Chairman, I move that we approve the consent agenda items as presented. Okay, second. >> Second. >> Okay, that's Dave and Dan. >> Yeah. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I. >> Those opposed? >> Okay. Motion carries. >> All right. And now it's the

003recognition. >> Madam Chair, members of the board would like to recognize Timber Fitch. To do that, Scott, you want to come and introduce Timber and >> Okay. Mike, come on up. Here it is. Uh, my name is Mike Fel, Coach Fel. I'm a track coach at the high school. Uh, his address 313 uh, Saint Street in Evston. Uh it's my pleasure to cover today to introduce Timber Fitch. Uh Timber is a extraordinary athlete we have on the track team. Uh this year uh 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles, state champion coming in. Um I have a couple other stats here for you that I want to put out here. Uh we keep track of our top 10 list from as far back as we can track results back. And going through here, uh, Timber amazing athlete coming

004in here. He's all over this list with different things that he's done. Um, just this year he decided he wanted to try to run 100 meter dash and he ran a couple of them. Ends up sitting he is number three on our all-time top 10 list. Uh, sitting behind Gabe Hutcherson who broke the the record from Reggie Hudson which was back in 1989. and Timber is just slightly behind Reggie's number and is number three of our 100 meter dash. Uh this year he is number three on 110 ple with a time that uh still got a little ways to go to move up into that for that uh I guess record place behind Tanner Davis. Um that's sitting from 2000. He said he ran 1468 this year 2026, but he's also a state champion and

005won 10 hurdles. Um, kid was pretty amazing with this. Uh, just dominated the hurdles all the way throughout uh, regions and in state uh, state champion hands down very easily. 300 hurdles. Uh, this young man went off and he is our school record holder as of this year. um in the 300 hurdles and this one in the race that he ran this year. Um he won very easily. Uh left everybody in the dust. Um I think he was already hands up celebrating before second place even cross the finish line. The kid was was flying through there. So um he's also on our record holding 4x1. Um this team was actually set last year, so his sophomore year. uh set with a group of kids that were pretty hard to replace. But then he ran it

006again this year and he's on number two, the team that's number two all time. So with the 4x1 uh right there. So young man is a very hard worker. Uh he comes in, coach Barker works very hard with those hurdlers times when Coach Barker has not been able to be there because of other track meets that he has to go to. He puts Timber Fitch in charge. Timber takes control of that and just runs the hurdle practice. So he's very important. aspect to our team. Uh, a heck of a red devil and quite a hard worker. Number 15. >> What year is school? >> What year are you? >> I'm a junior. >> You're a junior. Okay. >> Coming up. >> Yeah. I'm going to be a senior this year. >> Going to be a

007senior next year. All right. >> You can do it again. >> That 4x1, how long was that? Uh, >> 400 meters. >> Yeah. Just >> Were you the anchor or start? Anything you want to say? >> Um, just thank you all for coming. Thank you for being here. >> Do we want to get a picture with coach? >> Are you nervous >> up here? We'll have you come up here. >> Congratulations to you and >> the old man will take a picture. Coach faces. >> Thank you. >> All right. And now we would like to recognize Special Olympics and Coach Burgerer and the Unified State Track Champions. Come on down. >> All right, Madame Chair and members of the board, Superintendent Thomas and uh I'm Ryan Burgerer, uh 60 Washki Drive and Wyomi and distinguished

008gentlemen and ladies, other distinguished people. Uh it's been a great season, been a great year for uh Special Olympics and Unified Sports here in Evston. We're really proud uh of our team and their accomplishments. Uh just to give you a little feel of what uh what we do. Uh we start out in the fall with bowling and we get going uh right away. Uh Coach Drew and Coach Cox coach that sport in the fall. Uh then the winter comes quick and uh coach Cox and myself we end up doing winter sports which is snowshoeing and and and we have a great had a great season there and both those seasons it was awesome. And then uh and and then in the spring, coach Drew up, Drew Drew and I, we uh put together the track

009team, the unified track team and unified sports team. And um uh and we, as all you know, we've they've held this event Wyoming, the state of Wyoming has put this event now on for 3 years. We actually participate in Special Olympics the whole season. And so we do still do our Special Olympics stuff and then we go to the state track meet where and we do a uh participate in a track meet here and and then we go to the state track meet and we perform for a state title like all the other teams you know and we compete against other schools and now for 3 years uh we have been three P champions. Um that is a great thing but more importantly it's more than just being champions. It's being champions of your community.

010Uh being champions on and off the field of sports and competition, which these athletes truly do, and it they're amazing. Uh they're not all here today. We were able to take 14 to that event this year, which was amazing. Uh and we had some amazing events. Just to give you a little heads up, out of all the heats, uh, in the hundred that we ran, uh, we had, uh, the two top places in each of those, we had the top three places in the long jump. Uh, we've prided oursel in the 4x1 and we won that relay. So, we were three time state state champs there. We we we've done that really well. uh those members on that team. The shot put was uh although we weren't first but we were we still uh placed

011about uh five people in in the shot put which was really awesome with stacks on points. Um it's it's been great. Uh we love these kids. Um we love our unified core partners and our athletes. So athletes again are those with intellectual disabilities on IEPs and partners are those who don't have intellectual IEPs but want to be a part of the team and want to be a part of us and still come out. Uh some are brothers and sisters or siblings or cousins that come out and do stuff with us and some are NHS kids and some are just kids that want a place to fit in. Right. And that's what we offer. And that is the best part about Special Olympics is that fit in and that buy in and uh just fun time

012that we have with these kids. Um couple highlights here. We have uh Benny Chamberlain who is a an awesome shot putter but runs 100 really well. Does a great job. Does all three seasons. He's amazing athlete. Gwen uh Clooney, she's a freshman. She just started and she's uh a partner uh with us. Um and she did uh uh she did bowling. She did all three seasons. She was a part of all three seasons. She helps out her brother and just love and helps out all the other athletes. We have um Quillin. Uh he uh he's been a part of Special Olympics. Now this is your second year. >> Second year. He's a sophomore, right? >> You're currently a sophomore. Going to be a junior. uh he mostly uh helps us out. He's a great diver

013in in this in the spring or in the fall and then helps us out with track in in the uh in the spring and just does amazing. He's always in the hallways. He's sees our kids all the time. And this is uh Dylan Curry. Dylan Curry is um has been with us now for a couple years. He finally we finally convinced him to come out for uh um Special Olympics. He's loved it. He's done um bowling. He's done um snowshoeing and he's now he's doing uh um uh the the springport and shot hood. But more importantly for Dylan, one thing the Special Olympics does for us is it opens up to the world. And we've had kids go all over this country and all over the world to represent not only their community, their families,

014but the state of Wyoming. This year, Dylan has been chosen to represent team Wyoming at the USA Games, Special Olympics USA Games. We fly out next week on uh the 19th in uh Minneapolis. Uh and we'll be in M Minneapolis, Minnesota. And uh we'll be there competing all week. We'll be on ESPN for the opening ceremonies. That's on Saturday the 20th. So, we'll be around the last team coming in cuz we're obviously the 50 50th state in the union. So, the host team will will they'll get to come in last, the whole state. And uh but uh we're excited. I was uh asked to be the team Wyoming's head track coach. So, I'll have mostly athletes there. So, I'll be coaching uh track and I get the honor to coach Dylan uh one more time

015in track. He has graduated from high school and he's a senior. He just graduated and he gets to still continue his last part of his career in high school and representing his community, his state, and just it it's just a great opportunity. I can't wait to be there. I know Coach Drew has has done it before. Four year years previous he coached the basketball team. I'm excited to try. Um they only bring this event every four years. So, uh we're excited and it just opens many doors for all of us. How you qualify for that? You just have to win a gold medal at an event in Special Olympics and then they'll put you in a hat and draw your name out and then follow and see if you can make. So that's that's the

016opportunities and it's wonderful. So we're all excited. Um these guys have been great. The huge highlights about Special Olympics too is my my thing is when we get to go to the state track meet and not only showcase our skills, but we get to see our our our uh comrades out there and they've loved watching Mr. Fitch win his championship. That was so much fun. We they he got to share that experience with uh our athletes uh and all that on on the on the competition field. It was just a fun time. So other than that, that's pretty much I know I'm longwinded, but that's that's what it is. And it's just amazing. It's amazing group and we just love it and we keep going. I know we're not all here, but boy, we got

017a good representation here tonight. I appreciate all they do. So with that, I don't know, Kurt McDillan, I know maybe Benny might want to speak. He he'll have one more year. He's been in this since really when we got going. I call it the new era inception cuz when I was in high school, we had Special Olympics and then it kind of went away or just didn't get going again. And then we got it going about 11 years ago. I remember Benny when you first came in. What grade were you in? Remember? >> I know. >> Sixth grade. He was in sixth grade. So we were doing basketball, all of it, weren't we? So you came in. >> And a lot of changes. >> A lot of changes. What's your favorite part about Special Olymp?

018I guess the bowling was a lot of fun. >> We all likes bowling. >> Yeah. >> Gwen, what's your favorite part? >> I also like bowling and then hanging out with Scarlet and William the best. >> Oh, great. Scarlet and William. Scarlet she helps out with and William is her brother. >> Uh stay state. >> Going to stay. Yeah, that's experience huge. Dylan, what's your favorite part? >> Going to stay. Awesome. >> That is awesome. Appreciate that. Fantastic. Thank you. squeeze in there. So, you're all There you go. >> Perfect. >> Smile. >> Awesome. >> Hey, thanks for coming. >> Hey. Hey, Dylan. When you go, you need to understand when you go to Minnesota, the state bird. Do you know what the state bird of Minnesota is? >> It's the mosquito. >> So, take

019some spray with you. >> That's good. >> And maybe we'll come back. >> Yeah. Report. That'd be great. >> Yeah, please do. >> Will that be the first Tuesday? >> Third Wednesday. >> Third third. >> We're going to Wednesday now. >> No, just in July. >> Budget session is the third Wednesday by law. >> The third Wednesday. So we'll >> we'll send you an invite report just with me and alumni either >> 22nd or >> he'll let you know. >> Yeah, we'll we'll let you know 22. >> Thanks guys. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> And we might head off cuz we have a meeting right now with Special Olympics. >> You missed the budget report. >> Yeah, you need to stick around for that. >> The budget report. >> Thanks for coming. >> Thanks

020for all you do. >> Thank you. Good luck, Dylan. >> All right, we're going to now move on to our discussion items. >> Madam vice chair, members of the board, invite >> Hey, you're missing the most exciting part of the meeting, people. >> Exactly. We wouldn't lie to you. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Matt Williams will do his uh budget presentation. He's a little late, >> right? >> Because he was gone um when it was his turn. So now it's his turn. So Matt, the time is yours. >> Okay. >> All three minutes of take two and a half >> minutes. Let me spray my face with water. See what happens with him. >> Where's your compadre? >> I need to text him then. >> Oh, I'll I'll get him. So the board

021can see it so you can start. Good. Start. All right. Um the board Thank you for having to be glad to be here. Um I I mean that's obviously that's Young County School District number one all of these athletes. And it's the same thing when we have uh students that are in activities, athletics activities, whatever it is. I mean, that's that was awesome. That's the best thing, the best part about this job, hands down. That was that was a treat. Okay. Um I'm going to going to go over a few highlights and a couple things we're going to be working on and and um we'll get you guys through this and everybody that's listening and watching. So, I appreciate you all being here. We have an absolutely amazing staff uh in special education for Yuan

022County School District number one. Um if you need a service, we'll get it. And as we navigate students through IEPs, we we work with our certified teachers, our support staff, our pair professionals are phenomenal. Our certified teachers are phenomenal. Uh speech speech language pathologists, consulting teachers. Our consulting teachers uh take on the bulk of the case management in our in all of our schools and they really um they really keep the minutia of special education going so that our teachers can be teaching and be with the kids where they belong. Um we have a variety of counselors and social workers. Our nursing staff is is second to none. occupational therapist, adapted PE teacher, uh psychologist, one full-time at this point, but we have we have a another that is on contract, various interventionists to help

023us navigate kiddos through behavior components, assisted technology totaling 138. Then uh comes our contracts and some of a lot of these come through our state funded dollars also through our IDA federal grants. And so it just depends on on who you're talking about here. But it is it is paid for through those specific special education funds. We have a great relationship with with disability in UA County. They support our students getting out in the community, doing mock job interviews, um going out and shadowing, doing internships, preparing for that life after school, um and the world of work and and postsecary education. Um we have great services with for aiology for our students that have hearing aids um that we have a a wonderful person that comes in and does that. Um, LUCDA is a great

024partner as we navigate our our littles through their child finding process. They're they really help us make sure that we're identifying students at the earliest ages as they prepare to come to um kindergarten. We often times have kiddos, I guess not often, but there are occasions that we have kiddos that we need to take a deeper dive with their with their ELLL components, English language learners. And so we have assessment services to help us go through that. Uh deaf education support, orientation and mobility for students with low visual acuity, physical therapy. Like I said, school psychologist, we just we just do a heck of a dang good job navigating kids through difficult things and their families and and making sure we get the appropriate services in front of them. >> You guys have any questions?

025Just stop. >> Just a couple. Where are all these folks located? In all the schools, >> they are here and there and everywhere. So, we have some that are districtwide like our adapted PE teacher, Coley Freeland. >> What What does adapted mean? >> So, she helps students that aren't necessarily able to go to the to a general education PE classroom, and she makes sure that we navigate them through um PE standards that are more appropriate for their various needs. Okay. And then we also can push in and help within the PE settings as is appropriate. But some some educators are and providers are specific to buildings and some are specific districtwide and they go all over the place. Uh we have somebody come up we have some come up from Ogden from Star Valley. We

026just really contract in to do our best to make sure that we get services. And I'm sure there's going to be things down the road that we're like, I didn't even know we needed that until it's presented to us and then we navigate through finding the right kind of service for students as it's appropriate to the right. It's quite an amazing government package to make sure that we fully staff that way. Okay. Every year we have indicators that um we report to the state go from from academics to involvement in the general education setting to like we were talking about post-secondary um outcomes. And so these are the measures of effectiveness that we have. Now we always have to look back a year because our data is always a a year away from the current

027year that we so we're looking at 2425. So the indicators that we met participation um in our assessment for students with disabilities uh we had a great showing for our kids. I believe it was 100% uh was able to participate in those proficiency rates. All but one tested grade group met or exceeded the state level and that was awesome. So, our students, all of our students work their tails off with their teachers every day to meet those to meet those levels of growth that way. We're always worried and and very concerned about our students that might find themselves in a tough situation. And just because they're in a suspension or an expulsion situation, we that should not eliminate them, we cannot eliminate them from accessing their special education or assessments that way. And so we

028met uh those those uh rates that are necessary. LR least restrictive environment that is making sure that our students are in the least restrictive environment for their education. The very least restrictive environment is in the general education setting with their peers. It's debatable what's the most restrictive environment, but it's somewhere between being home by on your own or jail. And then there's a whole bunch of other situations in between here. And so we missed this one, but I still wanted to put it up here um because we missed one aspect of it by 0.59%. I don't even know how you equate that to a person, but it wasn't by much. And so we're going to continue to work uh on all sorts of fronts to make sure that we always navigate kiddos into their correct

029environments for learning. And I would I would argue that I'm okay. Uh we we make decisions one by one and kid by kid. And if we're over by 0.59% then so be it. We're going to do what's best for kids to pass through the IEP team which involves the families and these providers that I was talking about. Um any disproportionate representation as far as uh gender or race or anything like that. We we met all those indicators that uh that we're identifying appropriately. transition planning on IEPs. By age 16, our students that once they turn 16, a whole another element of the IEP opens up and they have the opportunity to start talking about what's their course of study. What kind of outcome is that leading them to a graduation? Are they going to be

030a welder? Are they going to go into the military? Do they want to go into education? Do they want to go into the world of work? We need to make sure that we're outlining them or lining them up so that they can do their best to meet those meet those outcomes. Um, as a matter of fact, every every summer we call the previous year seniors and check on them that had IEPs and just see where they're at, what they're doing. Um, are they going to school? Are they getting are they gainfully employed? So that we can see are are we being effective as we navigate forward. And then I think one of the most one of the ones I'm most proud about is our parent involvement. Every after every IEP, we do do our very

031best to get parents to take a survey to say where did they have the opportunity to have meaningful participation in the IEP and and we hit that one great which is which is really um did not meet we missed our graduation rate by 1.34%. So again and then our dropout rate was over by about just under 5%. And so it is a constant um opportunity to work with students. And there there's some factors in these numbers that are a little disparaging that I talk about every year. Um some of our students that are in school beyond the age of graduation that by lawmak they're counted against us, which is a federal thing. It's not a state thing. It's ridiculous and silly, but it's what we navigate through. Besides that though, we're going to continually look

032at ways that we can reach all of our students and make sure that we're using that whole continuum of least restrictive environment to make sure that we're serving kids and keep them to be getting graduated that way. Um, one area that we need to continue to work on is when we talk about post-secondary outcomes, uh, there was a population of our previous year's graduates that chose to work and not go to college or some sort of vocational training scenario, whether that's could be a lot of things. So, we'll continually say, how do you how do we do both, guys? How do you go to school? something that that ups your hiring capacity, some sort of training while you're working, right? And so we want to help them do that. And then we want to always

033always always regardless of how how high we are, work on our proficiency on our standardized test. Besides the standardized test, our day-to-day learning, what what are we picking up and how is it meaningful and making that impact? A few accomplishments. We have the best nurses in equal white jumpers. They are from all of them. Um I watch them do so many different things and though they're not they're not funded through special education. They fall under my student services department and I just couldn't pick a group of ladies that are more competent, more loving, more caring, more fun and just know how to do their job and support kiddos. They hand out a lot of ice. If you see a nurse and you ever need ice, they have an avenue for you that can get you

034back to life pretty quick. And then way way bigger and uh interesting things, best related service providers, period. That's your speech language pathologist, your aiologists, your counselors, your social workers, your a lot a lot a lot of amazing people that do good by kids every day and by their staff. best certified classified special educators in the world. Um you go into any one of our schools and you're going to see a lot of adults and a lot of those are special educators, certified teachers and a lot of them are special educators, uh pair professionals and those individuals know the kids. They are kids specialists. They are relationship specialists and they know what's going on in their lives academically, social, emotionally, behaviorally. they're in the fabric of those kids' lives. I'm super proud of all of

035them. Um, we have an amazing summer elementary social emotional learning support that we do a friend camp first few days of summer and the the last few days of summer before school starts to get these littles. They're usually our little sorry K first, second edition in there and they kind of get that jump start to have a have that capacity to get back into school with uh running that way. Um mental health support districtwide. I can't I can't thank Eric Williams enough. And again, it's not funded through special education, but it falls under my student services domain. The amount of of support we give kids um before my son graduated, he had his school laptop open. It's been a few years ago and it had this anti anti-drug or anti-suicide or something like that ad

036on. I'm like, Jameson, you put that on your laptop. He's like, yeah, it kind of is just on all of our laptops. But I was like, oh, but I was I was I was grateful for how much we're trying to do to keep kids safe and to support families as they keep as we keep safe. Um, all teams are utilizing at every building the IEP process to ensure that least restrictive environment. We uh we do a lot of compliance training within the building through our consulting teachers. We have a lot of data support so that we know where kids are at. I I tell parents quite a few times that brain surgeons have it really easy. They get to scan. They get to operate. They get to do blood work. and we observe and we

037take diagnostic measures of how are you reading? What's your fluency? How are you how are you comprehending? Where's your math? And we really try hard to just observe and get get to the bottom of this case. Good job. Um a a big shout out to our consulting teachers for implementing trainings on the building level that I share with them and others share with them. They just do a great job. Um our team teaching supports. We have a lot of our special educators in the general education doing a great job making sure that that can be the least restrictive environment for kids and kids are really responding to that. Again, um our staff, I I just can't say enough about it. I love each and every single one of them. I appreciate greatly. I'm looking forward

038um to 2627. I want uh Dustin Blair, your new special education director, and I've been working pretty closely for 10 years and really really closely on on stuff that he hasn't had to navigate through the last several days as he prepares to to become our director in July. And I'm just really really excited about he's been our school psychologist for 12ish years, 12 or 13 years. and um he is he has woven been into all of our buildings. He's just had an opportunity to do such a great job that way. It would be a great um great spot for ongoing staff support in all aspects of IEPs and we want to make sure that we're implementing our direct instruction, direct services really well, continue understanding and and getting kids in that least restrictive environment. Uh

039we want all kids to achieve. We want them all to learn and we want to do appropriate review for where they're at with with regards to themselves and their disabilities and their abilities. Every one of our kids are just are are primed and ready to learn and help navigate through those scenarios. And then make sure we're giving adequate behavior support uh throughout the district um and specially designed instruction. That's the that's the part SDI specially designed instruction is the core of special education. and find the most effective grant manager. Does anybody have any questions on the phone? >> Um, yeah, I got just one. Go ahead. >> Um, when will when will we be able to meet Mr. Blair? >> Uh, he'll be sitting in that spot July in July. >> Um, so it could

040possibly be that third Wednesday. That third Wednesday, second. >> Um, if not, for sure in in August. Great. Um any Thank you, D. Any other questions? So, we're going to continue uh being a collaborative partner in the PLC process. Again, um navigate students through difficult situations with interventions and supports. Our elementary behavior support classrooms are phenomenal. Just doing a great job. Um standardsbased IEP goals and thinking. We want to align what we're doing with kids. I I I reference a ladder and if this grade level standard where they need to be at is here and they might be somewhere in the middle or or wherever they're at, those rungs of the ladder are the steps that we're going to navigate through to get them to grade level um as quickly and as appropriately as they

041can as we can that way. And we want to support the families through the process. And ultimately, I just want to say thank you. Um, I want to thank Mr. Thomas um and and the admin team. They took a huge gamble on me 10 years ago when they hired me for this position after interviewing. And it's been the joy and the hardest thing I've ever done in my life uh as far as uh professionally and and through employment. And I I wouldn't change it for anything. So, I just appreciate the board. I appreciate all the support. I appreciate my teachers and our community. Thank you. >> I just have I just have one question if I could. >> You've been doing this for 10 years. What has been the probably the biggest impact that you

042have seen from when you started to now? What what has been something that is just you know what I mean? >> Yeah. No, honestly, um, anything good that's happened through special education that may have appeared to come from Mount William's office is because Mount Williams is surrounded by amazing people. And you'll experience that with Dustin Blair. He's one of those amazing people and and it's just been fun to watch such a huge effort come down to the student level every single day. And it's it's so much more than the emails and the paperwork and all that jazz. We all get stuck in the ocean to building and seeing that direct instruction seeing that therapy going on whatever it might be speech or PT or whatever the case is to that mole and then see championships.

043Thank you. Matt, congratulations. >> Yeah. Job well done and congratulations on your >> All right. Now we will move on to our meet and confer agreement. Ryan, >> yeah, we're discussion items. This is draft budget. So I'm going to talk about the budget. A >> Oh, >> discussion items. We're just starting though. So >> Okay. So, uh, madame vice chair, members of the board, you recognize that John Williams is not here. Uh, he's actually been working with his group of business managers in the state and uh, uh, definitely very active in that group and has made some inroads that have supported all school districts in Wyoming. So, that's an important job that he does. um he has provided you probably more information than than you'll probably want or need in terms of the budget which

044will be approved um on the third Wednesday next month. So he's provided really everything. Uh for me the thing that makes the most sense is the um his budget message and he's included updated we provided you that last month but now he's included that budget message which is a narrative of the budget but it includes now the meet and confer agreement. So it's it is complete um pretty good uh it's actually a very easy way to understand what the budget is uh as compared to looking at all those little lines on those spreadsheets. Uh you can be very comfortable that uh John is uh very well along in terms of the budget for the next school year and we're in a good position. Uh John communicated with me today that there is an issue that

045you'll find later on the action item. Um that issue is the use of pre997 uh reserves. Um the lawsuit that ended in 1997 resulted in a pool of money that was identified as a reserve that does not count toward our other carry. Um we've not really used it. It sits there in reserve. Um, it's been really nice to have that buffer on whatever percentage of our actual carryover carryover is. For other districts, it's vital because there's lots of money in those accounts. Ours is roughly $687,000 in in that uh reserve account. What John is requesting because of some of the changes through legislation, the biggest change is that we no longer can use general fund money to support our facilities. And we have great civil facility issues that we need to support. So, John is

046recommending that we transfer that pre997 into our depreciation account um which has been set up for replacing the turf field. We put that in place, if you remember, back when the turf field first was put in there. You need to replace those every 7 to 12 years. We're hoping 10. Um, and so we put money in there to replace that turf field. Now, we'd like to transfer this money in there and open up that a little through your approval um to include the turf field, the domes, and our pools. Pools are very expensive and we're not funded um for pools. We can use 10% of our major maintenance money, but that doesn't even cover what it takes to operate pools. If we don't transfer this money, it moves into our regular reserves and counts toward

047our 20 I think it's 30% this year. We're still okay if that does that, but we lose the ability to use any of those rever reserve funds to support those facilities. So later you'll be asked to transfer that money, indicate the depreciation account is for those specific purposes, the turf, the domes, and our pools. So, that's the information uh John wanted me to provide to you. If you have any questions on those spreadsheets or those reports, give John a call. He loves talking about that stuff and he has the ability to read those small lines. I don't know how he does it, but uh um again, very knowledgeable. We're very lucky to have. So, with that, any questions about >> approved that in July? >> Yes. Third Wednesday in July. >> Okay. Um, moving on

048to our meet and confer agreement. >> Let me find that. Um, as always, we have gone through the meet and confer process uh kind of later in May than normal. Uh, the process was good. Uh, probably what made it good is we had money available. So, um, I'll actually project this so you can see This is the actual signed meet and confer agreement. Um, I'll make it a little larger. Uh proposal one was salary. You can see that certified staff received two steps which is $1,500. If you remember when we put the certified staff salary schedule together, it's $750 increments but our commitment is two of those or $1,500 a year for experience. A base increase of 8,000 which means moves our starting salary to 61400. This does move us probably a little above the

049average in the state of Wyoming. So even with that much money, we're just a little above the average because many of those districts started way above us in terms of that average. Um we are going to follow the agreed upon placement rules that we approved last year to make sure that we uh support our employees compared to those coming in new. The total increase is 9,500 which is an average in increase of 14.3. kind of the misnomer in all of this issue has been the legislature and their position of what they claim they've provided. They claim they provided everyone a 20% increase. Um this is the maximum increase we can provide our staff according to the law because we had a commitment to get to that state average. Weird law. The idea of why couldn't

050we give more? Well, we only could get a certain percentage, 10% or to the average, and that's what we did. So, if you look throughout the state, some districts gave as high as 20,000 Teton, and some gave as high as a step, $1,500. So, we were way above that. Um, it kind of illustrates what we've suffered the last really 10 years. Um, and so that's brings us to the average. We're hoping next year we'll continue that. What Wyoming needs to do is provide another increase exactly like that which brings us closer to our competition in Utah. It still won't overcome but we'll become closer. The support staff you can see there. Number two is we provided a step on their new salary schedule which is 50 an hour and then a base increase of $2.70

051for a total increase of $3.20 an hour which is an average increase of 16.0%. the administrators, just so you know, their average is 12% roughly. Um, so little less. Um, but anyway, that certified and support represents $3.7 million. So again, appreciative of the new funds the state provided, the legislators provided. There's no way we could have pulled that off without it, of course. Uh, you can see that the certified general fund salaries, how much that was, and support salaries. Um again just information for you. The next uh oh probably an important caveat that you see is this understanding because of this wild nature of the silos. We're not really sure how they will impact us in the future. We do have some money left in the silo not a significant amount around 300,000 but it

052can't be used except for instructional staff. So we don't know how that will work in the future. So this is a statement we've included with all salary increases probably for the last 7 years at least. E understands and agrees that a base increase and/or a step is not guaranteed and is a permanent reoccurring cost and may result in a reduction of staff salary and/or benefits for next year 2728 school year if student enrollment declines and revenues from the state do not increase. Um the state provided roughly the same amount of money for next year. So that money is already in the coffers, but that just maintains the current baseline. If they don't provide an ECA, there'll be no new money coming in. So we have to plan accordingly. The second proposal is the health insurance

053proposal. We actually committed $500 half a million dollars to the renewal of health insurance. be it taking our current program or doing something different. We went out to bid. So, we had that feed money sitting there um to to use just in case the bids came in more expensive and until this morning we thought they did. Um but I'll present a little bit about that later. It turns out that uh they came in better than we anticipated and we will have a savings this year. We knew we'd have a savings at renewal next year, but now there's a savings this year. Um, and so some some interesting things and positive things happen with insurance, but I'll spend some time on that later. The retirement um is the lifetime service stipen. Uh the only thing different

054with this one really is where it'll be funded. It'll be funded out of the general fund from here on out because we're taking the employee benefit fund and using that as our bank account for our health insurance because we went partially self-funded. So that becomes really a buffer to see what happens to premiums. Hope we have a great healthy year and we don't need to dip into that, but it's available if we need it. Um, highly recommended. That's John is the one who recommended that, Mr. Williams. That that's how we do that. So, from here on out, this lifetime of service typing will come out of the general fund. Um, the leave policy, no difference than it has been. We'll provide a leave incentive, which is $100 a day for unused uh general days. Uh,

055I think it's a great benefit and flexibility for our support staff to lo to use um sick time for personal days if they need it. I think it's a great benefit and we've done it from for years. Um, proposal number five is to allow one point on the athletic addendum salary schedule. One point for a coach is about $125 of an increase. Not a lot, but still it builds. Um, increase hourly rate. We've increased our hourly rate for our subs in all those categories. Uh, it's surprisingly expensive. We we spend a lot of money on substitutes. That's why we have the uh leave incentive is so we don't if we don't spend that money on substitutes, we're going to give it to our staff and that's worked out that way. Um retirement, this is basically

056uh the result of House Bill, you can see at 83 that passed in 2024. In other words, Wyoming retirement is put on an actuary defined contribution. I guess it's a determined contribution. um an ADC, an actuary determined contribution. In other words, our Wyoming retirement rates will go up every two years. Now, they say it could go down if the payouts, the premiums paid in exceeds the payouts going out. That'll never happen. Um so this year we received a 0.25% for the employee and the employer's contribution. and then in two years we'll receive another 0.25% increase for both of those. What it does is it keeps Wyoming retirement uh solid and healthy. So you can see both of those understandings. Um just to clarify for those um additional topics, we updated the administrator's director salary schedule

057as I mentioned. We took the base increase, just add it to the base, uh, changed their, um, step from 1,000 to 2,000, really exactly what we did to the certified staff last year from 750 to 1 to 1,500. So, we also added a column um for the instructional facilitators. Since the state values instructional facilitators, we thought we better have a salary schedule attached to it. So, we created one for that. uh based on what we pay a instructional facilitator. The other thing we talked about at meet and confer is the idea of exploring an online school uh hopefully to the idea of recapture an ADM uh due to homeschool or online students. My position if you want my opinion um we set a standard with the education we provide in this district. If we provide

058an online school, it needs to meet that standard. If we're going to provide a diploma either from Horizon or Evston High School, it should be the same standard. It should be the same quality of education. I haven't seen an online program that could do that. So, I think we need to be careful as we move into providing an online school. Um, I can understand providing online services to support students, let's say, with medical conditions or other conditions, but a full-time diploma coming out of an online school we offer, it's just not comparable. I think we would be minimizing the quality of education that we owe these students in Evston. So, that's uh that's that's meet and confer. We will ask you later in the action items to approve this agreement. Um 4.8 million is the

059total cost of that uh uh package. Any questions? >> All right, moving on to the EHS emergency project. Mr. Dennis, >> sounds like good news, right? >> Yeah. >> No. try skip. Madam chair, members of the board, um I've come to you tonight um as a result of a discovery that happened um on Friday. Um, our secretaries discovered some termites in Evston High School, which I didn't realize we had termites living in Evston. >> In Evston. Um, so we did have um our road come and take a look to verify what it was. They did verify that it was termites that were found in the office there and I hadn't put together a um proposed remedy of what that's going to cost and what would have to take place. Um unlike other insects where you

060can just go in and spray. Um, with termites, you actually have to go into basically the foundation of the building every foot and then inject um their chemical and then they'll fill that hole back in. And so as you think about the perimeter of the high school, just a few couple hundred feet that you're going to take care of. Um, long story short, what they're proposing is that they would come in and do that. Um they would then monitor it for the next two years. So we'd have basically a two-year warranty um to verify that they did take care of the termites coming in and that we're not seeing any more coming in and kind of go from there. Um the price tag for that is just shy of $200,000. I uh have visited with

061uh John Williams to see if this is something that uh might be covered under insurance and he assured me that when he gets back he's going to visit with our um the techler to see, hey, is this something that's covered by insurance, which would be a win-win for us um as a district because then we just pay um our $10,000. If not, then we will use major maintenance funds to cover this cost. So, I just really wanted to bring this to your attention um for two purposes. One, if you hear, yes, there are termites. Yes, they're taking care of it. And kind of what the cost cost would be. Do you have any questions? >> Have they gone beyond the office, >> right, >> perimeter to see if the termites are where they're coming from?

062Right now we have not seen it beyond the office. Um but once you get them in they are kind of secretive and they kind of like to stay in. So what I'm going to guess if they have because it was in the mill work in the office is where they were discovered. You think about all the mill work that's along our um our classrooms. That's probably if they have started to come in is where they're going to be. Mill work in. So they will in the office themselves right now they'll go in remove the baseboards do some um injection of some stuff as well but to permanently do it their recommendation is to drill on the outside through that >> nobody's working in the office area >> right now we do I've got um some

063secretaries who come in um >> so relocate them >> right now they feel safe >> I mean with the chemicals >> but once once the chemicals start then we will relocate them to where where we need to um during that process >> we basically have July where's August >> so and I've told them as we look at I mean we're now at the 10th of June almost by the time funds come through let's look at a July 1st start um to do that >> who's the contract tractor. >> it's a local company here out of Evston. >> Um, Road Pest Control. >> Um, Jameus Short is the one who uh >> who's doing that. We use him for a lot of our inside pest control. Takes care of the hands and other things. Other questions?

064How how is the the roof project at Davis Middle School? >> Roof project at Davis Middle School is moving right along. Um they just brought uh a semi-truck in last week um to start making the tin itself. So it's being manufactured right here to the correct size. Um so that um I'm going to say is about 50% right now is where they're at right now. So, they're moving right along. Our electrical project inside is moving right along. Starting to do the exterior work now. Um, we've got milling. Uh, the front parking lot has been completed. We've got milling done in the back parking lot. I've got a new water line being brought in um to Davis in preparation to remove the island that's back there. And then um currently digging for the exterior lighting along

065the parking lot and the outside. So that's going on. So lot lot is happening um at Davis Middle School as well as the the front of the high school where we're doing. >> So how much of the high school is going to be built >> uh right now? What you see completed is uh Red Devil Drive or that called the racetrack right in front all the way to the south parking lot. the south parking lot. So >> south parking lot >> two years ago we did uh the north parking lot >> up to basically the gym entrance >> and so now we're completing it. So that just leaves us >> in I noticed taking them all up on the hill and making more parking lot >> trying Yeah. So but uh yeah a lot going

066on. There'll be a whole new redesign on the um racetrack allowing uh for more parking which will be really good. >> Uh North Elementary um whoever you had do the work right on Washington. >> Oh yeah, >> it looks great. >> Fantastic. >> Um I just have one question is uh are you planning on putting a perimeter fence around that property for security cuz I know they still got the little creek in there and >> Yeah. Um that back contracted out. We're just waiting on them to that'll be completed before school starts and so they'll come up and do that this summer. >> But they did it looks very nice. >> They really cleaned that area up and um is a win-win for us when it comes to safety of our kids. Other questions? Okay.

067I'll keep you informed on kind of how things go at the high school at the next board meeting, but I just wanted to let you guys know what's there. And we've all learned something new. Termites do live in >> maybe they just live in the high school. >> Okay. Recommendation for health insurance services. >> Madam vice chairs, members of the board, this is to me very exciting. We do have um really good news. And if you look up here, you can see this was the comparison that we used with the insurance committee to come up with the proposal that we accept. And you have all this information in here. I wanted to make sure you see it. You can see the recommendation. I'm going to start with the recommendation and then I'm going to go

068to the actual cost that will show those costs. But the recommendation is starts roughly right here. After careful analysis, administration recommends that UN County School District number select Gibson Consulting as the district's broker of record and move forward with a partially self-funded health insurance program utilizing the Sigma open access plus PO network that is offered by EVHC as a third party administrator. Gibson Consulting presented multiple plan options utilizing use utilizing Etna Sigma and EMI provider networks. Following extensive review and discussion, the insurance committee and administration identified the Sigma open access plus PO option as the strongest overall choice for employees for the district. Um that is our recommendation and that's what will be approved later in the um meeting. Let's see. uh you have this document in there. I want to talk about this. Probably

069the most important part is this first bar across the top. You can see that current annual cost for insurance in our district is $8.19 million. Etna's renewal came in at 13.2, which moves us to $9.27 million. We anticipated that would be our cost plus the $500,000 I talked about before. Recommended EVHC cost is $8.2 million, which is an onpaper savings of $1.03 um million. Notice that it's roughly $46,000 above our current um amount, current premiums, which is for us a huge win. This savings that you see will be used to provide salary increases next year. Also a buffer depending on what happens. We don't know what's going to happen with insurance for really two reasons. We haven't been partially self-funded for years. And we have options that we've never had before. So we don't know

070how those options will impact us. You can see in this chart right here the actual costs and that's the breakdown of where those costs come from. I wanted to point out well I'll come back to that I guess uh and I'll point something out in that chart. Uh these are the rates you see in yellow this is what our employees currently pay and that's what they'll pay next year. So there is no net there's no increase to their premium but you can see this in black right here is a high deductible plan that we've never had before and I'm really impressed with it. It's a $2,500 deductible. probably don't have time to go into all the details of a high deductible plan, but if you notice, those premiums are cheaper. Uh roughly $78 a month

071savings if in a single picks the uh the uh high deductible plan for a family. It's $174 cheaper per month. So again, that's what we were looking for is a cheaper alternative to health insurance. um because of the cost of these premiums, we can also provide an incentive. And so I'm going to show that. So if you look at the plan design, this is a sideby-side comparison. Like I said, you have all this information, a sideby-side comparison of our new um open access plan, Sigma, and the high deductible sit side by side. Um if you went down the EVHC roughly it is a mirror of what we currently offer. So it is exactly what we currently offer in terms of our program for the same dollar value. So that's good. Uh there are some potential

072savings that we anticipated and told I think the board about potentially a million dollars at renewal next year. We didn't anticipate the savings starting, but it's there. One thing I want to point out is this high deductible plan. You can see that the district is going to provide seed money. We're going to try this and see how it works. In other words, if you sign up for a high deductible plan, the district will provide an HSA um $1,000 for a single and 2,000 for employees, spouse, employee, child, or family. That HSA is in their name. They keep it forever. Um so basically, it already starts them on this path to their deductible. How high deductible plans work is you have to expand your deductible before any of the insurance is hit into it. But the

073interesting thing is you can see um the deductibles for the regular plan is 3500. The deductibles for the high deductible plan is 2500. The difference is very few things you can get coverage without hitting your deductibles. This one you can't. But the max out of pocket is what's interesting. The max out of pocket drops for the high deductible plan. So, if I'm signing for this, I can look at a single plan um on a co-ay. That's $7,000 max out of pocket. If I go with a high deductible plan, it's $5,000 max out of pocket. Plus, I've been frontloaded $1,000 in an HSA. So, in other words, I roughly have $1,000 that I can contribute to that 5,000 max out of pocket. It is truly, I think, an impressive plan. Um, if you're not healthy, you

074wouldn't take a high deductible plan. If you're young and healthy, you may want to look at a high deductible plan. Begin to build up that HSA. And when you retire, it goes with you. When you leave the district, it goes with you. It's your money. It is truly a neat plan. We could not offer that before because we were fully funded and the law doesn't allow that. So, now we can offer it. So, I'm interested to see how many people actually sign up for this. Um, if you go down the comparison, you can see that the difference really is right here. For a primary care with the regular plan, you have a $35 co-pay and the deductibles are waved. The high deductible plan is you have to use the deductible. Uh, all the deductible has

075to be used before the 20% kicks in. That's the main difference and you can see that all the way down. Um, what is interesting here is if you're going for preventive care, there is no deductible. It's 100% paid for. That's result of current law or Obamacare. And then um continues on in the back page um you can again see the differences in those plans. One of the things that I'm excited about is since we're going with Sigma's PO, that is their national network. We actually increase our hospital networks along Wasach front. We've never had that option before. So IHC is included in the PO, the Sigma PO. We lost IHC years ago. We get it back. Of course, we keep the University of Utah Hospital Network a positive, a very positive thing for employees. More

076choice. Um, and then here you can look at the costs. So, this is the cost to a single employee. This is the cost to the the district. That's the total. And then you see how that works here. Um, if if it was me and I was going to take a high deductible, I would plan on probably keeping the same amount of premium, take that $78 savings per month and put it into my HSA. Once you get to $10,000, which is your max HS HSA, that is also your max out of pocket. You actually have money in the bank for your insurance. It may take you a few years to get there or you can turn around and write a check for $10,000 to reduce your uh tax liability, federal income tax liability. So, a lot

077of neat things with an HSA. We're going to have to spend a lot of time talking to our staff and teaching our staff about this since it's new, but uh again, a lot more opportunities for our staff. We do recommend that you approve this plan as you see. Any questions? Oh, let me show you one thing I need to show you. This is kind of important. Back to that first page. If you go under the recommendation, this is the recommendation from Gibson. One of the things that we are not um it says here in this this paragraph, the district contributes a,000 per individual member and 2,000 per family member to employee HSA account on the HDP option. Um, the way it makes it sound is that we do this every year. We're not sure if

078we can. So, we do it this year to see if we'll have the funds. That will be a negotiated item in the future. I hope we can. Uh, what a neat thing. If we can put $1,000 into these accounts, if you don't use your insurance for 10 years, you'll have your insurance paid for in that HSA and when you retire, you can take it with you. So, pretty neat account. Any questions? Sorry. All right. The staff satisfaction survey results. >> Okay, let me find that. Um, madam, vice chair, members of the board, you have all these documents. Uh, what I'm going to start with is this should look familiar. Um, this is our staff satisfaction survey and I'll go through it. You can see at the top we had 28 responses was which is about

07920 25 more than we usually get on average. Um you can see the positions, you can see the the primary work assignments probably an even split between elementary uh roughly middle and high school should be the same and then district administrator or district assignment. Um first question that's always asked is the focus of the school board on their goals, objectives and the strategic plan. You can see that stat some satisfied and somewhat satisfied is 84%. Somewhat dissatisfied or dissatisfied is 6.8%. I will show you how that compares to the previous years here in a minute. This is the work completed by the board 83% u satisfied or somewhat satisfied 8.7 dissatisfied or somewhat dissatisfied. Board's response to the wants and needs of the staff 78.9. That's the first time that I think in nine years

080we've dropped below 80% for these categories. Um and 14% for dissatisfied and somewhat dissatisfied. Superintendent focus on the superintendent on goals 88.9% um satisfied or somewhat 6.2 dissatisfied or somewhat dissatisfied work completed by the superintendent. Uh I think that's 90.4 um and then 5.8 8 is dissatisfied. Superintendent's response to the wants and needs 86.5 and 9.1. Um, focus on district goals is I didn't tally those up. Who's got a quick brain? Wonder why I didn't tally. But you can still see they're in the 80s. Um, and I can show you a comparison here in a minute. And then the climate is really the question we get to. 87.9% say they're satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the climate. And 12.2 um say they're somewhat dissatisfied or somewhat dissatisfied. I can tell you as the person who

081sends it out and gets it back, um really the only anomaly is there isn't any. I mean, I wish we got 600 responses instead of 200, but that's the way the surveys go. Um, if you look at the numbers of those that somewhat dissatisfied and dissatisfied, just as a glimpse, there were five individuals that were dissatisfied on everything. Um, and you had probably many more than that that were satisfied or somewhat satisfied, but it's just kind of a unique response to have dissatisfied on everything that's happening in where you were employed. U, but it happens. Um, let me show you the next thing in here. So, these are the satisfaction survey results compared over the last nine years. And it's kind of maybe hard to see. I'll try to make it a little bigger. Guess

082that's as big as I can get it and still be on the screen. So, this one of course is the current year and you can see that we're still right at that 80% which is right here. Um, we've had worse years, we've had better years. The highest year of course was during CO. Our staff was very satisfied with how we treated them during CO and they should and the board took care of them. Um so if you look at the differences it is kind of a drop in the number that are satisfied as compared to somewhat satisfied but the overall is above 80%. It still intrigues me that we have those who put don't know. So, but anyway, um the next one is the work completed by the board and similar again 3.7 is a

083little higher and somewhat but this is down a little bit still right at the 80%. Uh school board, this is the one that drops below 80%, you can see there's a big drop in terms of those satisfied with the needs of students, how the board responds to needs of staff, parents and community. kind of surprising. Probably need to look at the comments to figure out why they feel that way. Superintendent again um high8s for uh district goals, objectives, and strategic plan. Uh hits the 90s for the work completed by the superintendent. and um staff's response to the wants and needs of the community uh sits at uh kind of mid80s. This is the district's focus on goals objectives. You can see that it is uh in the mid80s like it was before and you can

084see how those compare. Like I said, you do have all those charts. So if you want to spend more time, you can. Were completed by the district. So this would be district level. again high 80s boards buildings excuse me buildings response to the wants and needs of stu students and uh community is mid 80s. Uh all of them are kind of you can see how they fluctuate. Not the lowest we've had but not the highest we've had either. And then the overall climate of the district um still in the mid 80s which in my opinion is unheard of uh to offer a climate survey and have your staff 85% satisfied or someone satisfied. We're doing pretty well. Um the question that I should have showed you, I did ask the question, is it time for

085a new satisfaction survey? The majority said yes. So we'll look at that moving forward. Um, I did also include for you the staff satisfaction comments. The way we've broken it out before, we don't go into those tonight. Um, that is really a confidential thing because names are named. If there were disparaging remarks about employees, I took the name out. I just don't think that's okay. you guys have access to the names, but in terms of me showing it in public, we're not going to do that here. So, again, just looking as an outsider, a facilitator of this, there are more positive comments than there are negatives. Um, the negative comments, there are probably much less, but they're longer. They have more to say, but they not as many. So, uh, some of them are, and

086I think I've told you this before, are disheartening heartening to read. Um, Some I understand, some I don't understand. Nothing is different than what we've seen probably the last five years. So with that, you could probably figure out what they're concerned about. Insurance, salary, um 4 day school week. Uh I think we had four individuals mention that this time dissatisfied. Uh there were some curriculum dissatisfaction but what's interesting is you compare it to the positive you see more people saying love the curriculum love what we do. Um it is just interesting the different opinions that's why you do these surveys. Uh Dr. Engles will provide a way for us to you guys to have that discussion in the future. We uh used to include it in the um retreat. Again that'll be up to Dr.

087angles, how you do that and how you use this information. But, uh, again, good information. I'm glad we have it. Um, that is the survey. I know I went fast, but I'm sure that's what you'd want me to do. But, it is there. You got months to use this to help us come up with strategic plan. >> All right. Thank you. Um, now we'll open it up to public comments. Don't everyone rush the pulpit. I am felt like this meeting was going a little short. >> Make it long. Jeff Phillips, 822 Main Street. I uh liked seeing the special education folks and Timber Fitch uh here today. And uh I also appreciated that they scadadled once we got into the business of our meeting. And that is because like all of our meetings, our meeting

088today is pretty boring. It's uh happens every single month and uh there are a couple of reasons why our meetings are so boring. We just saw the business that we have to address. It's termites, which is kind of fun. I mean, that's new. Didn't see that coming today when I woke up this morning. Uh, but even the satisfaction survey, not too controversial. It's a lot of the same thing that we've been seeing for several years. Uh, and that is because as a district, we function at a very high level. And a large part of that, a large reason for that is due to the incredible work of Ryan Thomas and Doug Rich and all of our administrative staff, but I'm obviously focusing on those two because of their retirement. It's not just that we function

089at such a high level, but it's also because of all the work that goes on that no one ever sees. I'm fortunate that I get to see just a little bit of it. Uh but most of the public doesn't get to see any of it's confidential. They work with students, they work with staff, and it's never ending. Uh it's hard hard work. Uh and uh but it's all confidential. The public never sees it. And I'm so puzzled right now that the state of Wyoming, our legislature, a lot of the public have not just declared war on public schools, but they've declared war on administrators. They sent that message with the budget that they just passed, and it was a clear message. It just blows me away because I see what two men like Doug and

090Brian do on a daily basis. the hats that they wear. They aren't just educators. Uh at times they're police officers, they're counselors. Uh they're not just leaders, not supervisors. Uh they have to be parents on a regular basis. And our school district wouldn't function without them. Our community wouldn't function without them. It's just a reality. uh we wouldn't have successful people in our state without public schools. Uh but for whatever reason that isn't being recognized right now and it's frustrating. I know it's frustrating for all of us. Uh but uh it's just absolutely true. Uh you know I think about my family. I've been here I started at Clark Elementary Preschool in and uh uh my whole family has grown up in this district, been impacted by this district and uh it really is a

091part of who we are and I can tell you that our district, you know, I talk about being boring. Our district has not always been boring. uh it hasn't but it is today and that is to me a mark of success and it is again in large part due to the work of Ryan Thomas and Doug Riby and all of our administration and our staff. Uh, it really is. Uh, I thought it was fitting at graduation that, uh, it was so dignified and so respectful and such a wonderful ceremony, something that our community uh, could be extremely proud of because that hasn't always been that way either. And I know that this isn't Ryan's biggest accomplishment, but at one point in time in our history, our graduation ceremony was an embarrassment. >> And uh it

092was something that uh was extremely shameful, not just for our school district, but for our community. And uh I just thought how appropriate it was that Ryan was able to give a speech that recognized all of the students. And I watched Doug organize all of the students, have them sit at the same time and uh just how respectful and appropriate the whole ceremony was. uh and no one felt like they weren't able to celebrate their graduating student but at the same time as a community uh what a how proud we were not just of our graduates but uh of the whole ceremony as a whole. I will say that my mom was furious at Ryan though because uh she wanted everyone there to give him and uh uh everyone in the district a standing ovation.

093But in typical Ryan fashion, he didn't give us that opportunity. He made sure the focus was on the students. We have to take that one up with my mom, Ryan. Um, you know, as I was sitting there thinking about the budgets and termites and all of the little things that we talked about in these meetings, I also thought about all of the lives that are impacted in a positive way because of the work that Ryan has done, the work that Doug has done, the work that every single person in our school district does every year, including everyone else who's retiring this here and everyone who retires every year, but all of these people, not just here in Evston, but all over, who have been through our school system and have an education, but more than

094that, have learned how to behave appropriately, have learned how to follow rules, have uh learned how to be good men and good women, and to be respectful and treat other people appropriately, and have stayed out of trouble. It's I don't know how you can measure those things. Uh but it's just uh it's the impact is just incredible that we have as a school district and uh that good leadership like uh Ryan and Doug uh have given us over the past few years. I am personally thankful to them and uh I want to thank them on behalf of the community on behalf of everyone in Evston on behalf of every touched over the many years. Uh I am excited about the future. I'm excited that we can continue to have boarding meetings uh which I know

095will be a mark of success. Uh and uh that's all I have for public comments. Thank you very much. No, thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, moving on to our action items. >> Members of the board, we do have two uh recommends for contracts. Of course, our recommendation is that you approve these contracts as listed. >> Okay. I need a motion to approve the contracts as listed. Madam Chairman, I'll make the motion to approve the contracts as listed. >> Okay. Do I have a second? I'll second. Okay. So, that's Dan and Jessica. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Okay. Those opposed. Okay. Motion carries. All right. B. First reading policy IHBI time and effort policy. I do need to tell you to ignore what's in assembly. Somehow that's not

096the right document. So you you don't want to uh approve that on first reading because it is not the right one. Um let me put this up. The screen screen is still active. I can show you. This is one of the policies that came about because of the legislative session required by law that we have for federal programs and for our own programs. um time distribution records for federal programs. So this is a new policy that's been created. It's a draft policy that I took from Wyoming school board. So uh it is straightforward. Basically the idea is how we do time and effort logs. And for us we've selected this right here appropriate annual semianual or monthly records. There's not much other choice. Um and we do all of those. So we may have individuals

097that keep track of their time and effort and report every month, every semester or semiannual or once a year and that's how they are paid for by these federal programs. Um we've always done it but we just didn't have policy saying we've always done it. Now we do have a policy. There's really nothing controversial. It's what we do now. Um like I said really pretty straightforward. I am comfortable either way. If you're okay with approving this policy as you see, I will make sure it gets into uh assembly for second reading. Um but I know you didn't have a chance to read it. Yeah. So, you can also table it if you choose. I'm okay with that, too. And we'll just approve it in July and August. >> Yeah. Just move on. >> I'm fine

098approving it. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, I recommend that you approve um Make sure I get the title right. Recommend that you approve policy. Come on. Come on. Uh IHBI time distribution records for federal programs as you see before you. >> Okay. So, do I have a motion to approve IHBI time distribution records for federal programs as we see listed? >> I'll make that motion. >> Okay. Okay. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All right. That's Dan and Caleb. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. All right. C. Approve meet and confer agreement. >> U. Members of the board, I recommend that you approve the meet and confer agreement as was worked up with the board's team and the uh EA's team uh and

099express appreciation to the board members that serve on that committee. Please approve this. >> Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the meet and confer agreement between the board and the committee? >> Madam Chairman, I move that we approve the meet and confer agreement. and I'll second that. >> Okay, that's Dave and John. Um, any discussion. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> All right. Item D, approve health insurance services for the 202627 school year. We do recommend that you approve uh um Gibson as our broker of record, EDHC as the TPA and their plan which is a Sigma PO. Um need opportunities for staff. Real excited about this and hope they will be too. Recommend you approve. >> All right. Do I have a motion to

100approve the health insurance services for the school year? I'll move. Okay. Do I have a second? that motion. Go ahead. >> Okay, Jessica is the first and Dave is the second. Um, any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, the motion carries. >> All right. And item E, approve the transfer of funds to the district's appreciation account. >> Um, I'm going to make this recommendation because we want to make sure it's specific. So, I'll just read it to you. I recommend that you approve the transfer of pre997 reserve funds which are 676 $6 678,000 to the district's depreciation account current balance of $650,000. These fund will be used for the maintenance, repair and/or replacement of the district's turf field, the domes or the DMS and EHS pools. The balance

101of the depreciation account after this transfer will be 1 32 million. >> Okay. So, do I have a motion to approve the transfer of pre197 reserve funds 678,000 to the district's appreciation account, which is $650,000. These funds will be used for the maintenance, repair, and or replacement of the district's turf field, the domes, or the DMS and EHS pools. The balance of the appreciation account after the transfer will be $1.32 million. Do I have a >> I make a motion to what you said. >> Okay. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second that. >> Okay. So, that's Dan and John. Um, any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Those opposed? >> Motion carries. All right. We have the superintendence report. Madam vice chair, members of the board, you haven't seen one of

102these before. We haven't had one. So, I'm starting a new tradition for Joey and wishes and I wanted to take this opportunity for the wonderful years that we provided. So, I got something to read because if I just say it, I probably won't get through it. I want to share a couple of things that I'm most proud of. And these are not my accomplishments. I think they're accomplishments of the district. And of course, we've done lots of little things, but we've done some big things. I could spend all day talking about these and why they're big things. And maybe if you're reading between lines, you may see why they're big things. First one I put is EHS graduation. In 2002, we had a board member report in the newspaper that EHS gradu graduation was a

103travesty. And uh um I was the principal at the time. Hit me really hard. We had a kid light himself on fire and uh it was just out of control. So in 2003, Mr. Ben and I put a committee together of parents, students, and staff, and we changed tradition. And that proof uh from 2003 on, if you have seen graduations since then, it has truly become a ceremony where we celebrate our graduates, not course, >> something that our community should be very proud of. Changing tradition, changing habits is very hard to do. something that the team that did that um and the district sticking by it because it was hard um but we pulled it off and it has changed the tradition and changed culture and now the culture is just like Mr. Philip said,

104and by the way, I would ignore some of his points, but um just like he said, it's something to be proud of and it just happens now. It is the culture that we do have a ceremony and we celebrate our graduates. Um it has been a positive impact for 23 years. Evston Middle School from start to finish, if you can look at that process, it's not just a school. We probably worked for 5 years first of all to convince the state that they needed to be replaced. They offered us a 56 building 55,000 square ft. It would have caused issues in our district that just unmanned. Look at Davis alone. 400 kids in Davis. They can't put 400 kids in Davis the way it's currently structured. So it took us 5 years just to convince

105them to do something different and um the team that was involved in that offered to renovate instead of replace. So because of the renovation we have 84,000 square ft of a facility that is very appropriate for what it was built for a middle school. Um that process was brutal on the board, brutal on our community. We had one bid. Um to me what it reflects is the leadership involved in that whole team to pull that off. We now have a facility we're proud of. Um it may be another 20 years before we're looking at another facility because of how their backlog, but that's something that we should be proud of. And it's just not Evston Middle School. It represents all the work that's been done in this district for our facilities. walk into the high

106school. Other than the the termite drums, it's something that we should all be very proud of in this community. Our facilities are first rate and we have a lot of people that work. Uh our maintenance department, our custodial department, how our teachers take care of it, how our support staff take care of our facilities is something that we should be very proud of and never forget how important they are to this community. Um CKA um again I think that represents in our district 8 10 years of struggling. Um it wasn't something that I recommended. If you recall, I actually voiced opposition to it, but we had three election cycles and every board member in those election cycles supported it. And we fought with the state. We fought with local individuals who uh just didn't support

107the law. We were the first in the state to pull it off. I do think it was the model for everyone that's doing it in the state and it was the board who made that decision to take that stand. But it's just not CKA. We want to make sure you understand that it represents everything else that we've done to provide security for our students. To get to CKA, we did I can't even tell you how many things we did to secure our facilities for our students and our staff. And again, first rate um security, safety. I can tell you I worried until the last day of school that one of our kids would be hurt. That's victory. Uh HRS um it's probably not for the reasons you think it is. It's nothing about the recognition

108we received. That's not why HRS has been important. HRS represents a systematic change since 2016. And to change a system is like turning the Titanic system this large. And it represents, I believe, the best and bright of brightest of what's happening in education. It's a model of school improvement that we followed consistently. And we haven't done anything consistently in this district the previous years. We were up and down, up and down. We stuck with it and it was the right thing to do at the right time. The payoff is the student learning. That's what it's all about. But it represents a great deal of leadership and effort and work by everyone in this district to pull that off. It's something that we should be very very proud of. The idea of a safe and collaborative

109culture. When someone voices opposition to HRS, I would really like to sit down with them and say, "Is there anything wrong with having a safe and collaborative culture?" That's where our uh professional learning communities came in. Effective teaching in every classroom. That's level two. The expectation is that every teacher follows a standard and it's a high standard. Three is guaranteed a viable curriculum. Not only are we doing the right things in the classroom, but we're teaching the right thing and learning occurs. And then standard reference reporting with the goal maybe in the future of that idea of individualized instruction, which is level five. Something our district should be very proud of and I hope it continues that level of school approval. Lawsuit. Um, I've actually been involved in both and it's something our district very

110bold. I can tell you that it's just not the lawsuit that's important. It represents all the work and effort we put into that before we decided to join the lawsuit. We did everything we could to try to change the legislative direction and still they ignored us. So, the board again took the I guess the vision and uh sued the state of Wyoming and we overwhelmingly won at the district court level. The $4.8 million we showed you is a direct result of that lawsuit. The $ 8.5% we got in ECA the previous year is a direct result of that lawsuit. So this community, this board improved education statewide for every child in this state. Should be very proud of that. Let's see. I did put the impact is real. Impact is not over. Improving education for

111every child. The other thing I'm proud of that uh takes a village is board relations. Um, I've been superintendent for eight election periods. That represents roughly 32 new board members. Every two years, the board roughly flips in half. And the the opportunity to work with those eight different board members has been truly a privilege. Challenging sometimes, struggling sometimes. Um, but I can tell you in the last I'd say eight years the board has been so supportive education this community. Again, our community needs to be proud of the services that the board's provided and being a part of not losing my job after two uh election periods is always positive, but eight is kind of unheard of and that's a positive for this community. Relationship with staff is probably one of the things I'm most proud

112of. I think we have done everything we can to show that the staff is our important most important asset and I I put in here that we have focused on what is best for our students by focusing on what is best for our staff and that is the thing I'm most proud of is the learning that has occurred with our students over the last 40 years. um you should be very proud of that command. So with that, I just want to say thank you uh for allowing me to be a part of this district and grow as a as a individual as an educator and uh I'll never forget all of you. So to the staff, it's going to be hard not to see you as often as I do, but uh they may be

113glad to see you as often. So with that, thank you for everything you've done for me personally. Thank you. >> All right. Um, so we'll open it up to board roundt. >> Uh, I I just have uh a comment. I I kind of wondered what I was going to say when this came to this point. And uh Mr. Phillips, thank you. Uh that's that's an act that I couldn't follow >> and just what you said uh just uh was great and thank you very much. >> Yeah, I agree. Um I can't top what Mr. Phillip said because that's my sentiments exactly. But um I've been with on this board since Ryan became superintendent and um I've seen a lot of improvement and we've been through a lot of struggles as Ryan mentioned and um I

114think we are in a great place because of you Mr. Thomas. >> And I have always had support for you. I just like to say u Mr. Thomas and I go back a long long time when I came here in ' 91 as the assistant principal. I had come from a school district that I cleaned up and I used corporal punishment and Larry Stick hired me but he never told me no corporal punishment. And funny thing was in 91 to about oh maybe 97 somewhere there the mandatory attendance in Wyoming was 14 and that was my key cuz I kicked him out of school and we brought him back in with the parents approval but it worked out and Ryan was in the classroom at the time but he remembers those days and appreciate his

115friendship. I appreciate the opportunity I've had to be on the board with him. He's been a great leader and a great friend. Thank you, M. Catch me >> and Doug. We feel the same about you, too. We're not leaving you out. Um, I've appreciated working with both of you, but the work that you've done for this district, both of you, is can't be measured. >> Madam Chair, I move that we adjourn. >> Okay. Do I have a second? >> Oh, yes. >> Okay. That's Dave and Dan and we are adjourned. >> Thank you.