001Well, her friend did not did not and and she said, "Look, that's not the way Google is saying." He's like, "Okay, let's go your way." Took her all the way to >> That's how Yeah, we say that. Good evening. clock says six o'clock. So, we will go ahead and begin this um board meeting for June 16th, a regularly scheduled meeting. And first up is pledge of allegiance of the stand. Thank you. Looks like we have all board members here for our student board reps. Hopefully enjoy your summer. Um, first off, order of business, I need an approval for the May 12th, 2026 meeting. >> We can't hear you. Thank you. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Carries. >> Are there any additional agenda items for
002this trial? Okay. Hearing none, we need to make a motion for approval of the agenda as presented. >> So second. >> Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> Motion carries. All right. Next, recognitions. Mr. Harris. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, excuse me. I wanted to recognize five teachers who've been selected as the teachers of the year for their respective schools. Um, again, at Peak, it's the amazing Kylie Drips. I don't know if you know Kylie or not, but she describes herself as a tiny human kindergarten wrangler. exactly what she does. She does it very very very well. She's an outstanding teacher. Um this year's Ganet Peak teacher of the year at Baldwin Creek Elementary School selected fifth grade teacher Neil Long who is uh he does climbing coaching
003as well. You might know him from Elemental, but uh he's climbing coach takes special pride in making sure his students at Balling Creek are learning within the natural context of the world around them. Whether that's bringing agriculture in the classroom, taking them out to do all kinds of things outside. um that's kind of his specialty. So, congrats to Neil. At Lander Middle School, uh they selected PE and health teacher Jordan Cooper as their teacher of the year. Uh Jordan was also the Wyoming Association of Health Education, Recreation, and Dances Wyoming Teacher of the Year this past year. Um he's going to be the president of that organ organization in the upcoming year. So, that's amazing for him. And if you've been in his classrooms, it's you you know what it's like. It's always high energy
004and uh very well organized. Even with middle schoolers moving at great speed, he knows how to keep them all under control. So, congrats to Jordan. At LBHS, they chose math and computer science teacher Hannah Durano for the honor this year from teacher leader. Hannah has a professional science master's degree in both applied mathematics and cyber security, which I found out reading her application. I didn't know that. And she's teaching a number of math classes in her new AP cyber security class this coming school year. Congrats to Hannah. And then last but certainly not piece, Pathfinder selected Josie Hulkovich as the school's teacher of the year. And if you were at their graduation ceremony last month, uh you got a sense of Jos's sense of humor and her her true heart for her students. She teaches
005social studies and is starting her 23rd school year at Pathfinder High School, which is an amazing run uh here at Lander. So wanted to say congratulations to all of those individual teachers. All of them are now finalists for the district's teacher of the year award. uh their applications are going to be reviewed this week by administrators in the central office and then we'll choose the ultimate winner um following that review and the winner will be recognized at the back to school assembly in August. There is a there is a cash prize with all of these recognitions but the teacher history teacher of the year one is of course the largest of those. Um look forward to announcing that person soon. >> Mr. Harris are any of those teachers here? >> Not sure they any with
006school being out. I'm sure they're probably >> okay >> any other questions or discussion. >> Next on the agenda is public comment. So in tonight's meeting, I have a feeling that most of the comments here are for the pool discussion. So we will have that during the discussion session of the agenda. So that would be item five and three. So, we'll have a discussion about the school funding and um proposed changes and having, you know, discussion on that and then we'll open it up to public comment. But if there is any other public comment that is not regarding the funding, please raise your hands now and we can go ahead. Sir, you're welcome to come on up and just state your name, please, and let us know. should be if you just kind of stand
007right there that way. >> Um, thank you. My name is Jonathan Weaver. I think I've met a number of you at this point. I've definitely emailed with each of you. Um, I was an assistant middle school ski coach this past winter for Lanner Middle School. I volunteer spare time as a high school ski coach and then in the summers, as right now, I am currently leading the summer ski camp for Lander Nordic Ski Association. Uh, I'm coming to you tonight with an issue that at this point I think you're each all aware of, which is that as of right now, the district still has multiple co coaches who have gone unpaid for the work they have done this past school year. Um, I'm not going to restate a lot of the detail at this point.
008Um, what I am here tonight to do is underscore that this issue is still very top of mind for each of these coaches. It is something that we are continuing to uh think about on a daily basis. We are hearing from members of the community on a regular basis. The question, have you been paid yet? Something that I'm asked weekly. Um, I'm taking this matter very seriously. Um, this is not something that casually joking around. It's not something where I wish, oh, it'd be nice. Um, this is very serious to me. Um, the fact that the district has unpaid employees is is a serious problem in my opinion. Um, that being said, if I've come across as direct, I apologize, but that has been intentional because of that seriousness. I have worked very hard to
009maintain professionalism through these issues, um, both in my communication with this board, members of this community, and district employees. Um, I have maintained that professionalist communication not just for my benefit, not just for this board or employees benefits, but for the benefit of the athletes that I coach. I think that's very important. Um, I'm here because of my love for this sport and also this community. Um, I love coaching. I love what I do. I'd like to be able to continue to do that. However, if I go unpaid for work that I've done, I cannot continue to coach for this district. Um, that's about all I have to say. I do want to add one more thing that I have been made aware that I'm not the only coach in this situation. And while I'm
010not going to speak on behalf of those other coaches, my request of this board is simply that all of those coaches who have gone unpaid for completed work do get paid. Thank you. Right. Any other comment in regards to Okay. Next on the agenda, reports and presentations. Board member reports. numbers. Madam Chairman, I'll give one. I was uh somehow selected to be on the University of Wyoming advisory council for career technical education and spent um good portion of last week down there in Larry working with people from University of Wyoming and I thought they had a put together a really good uh plan and that we were able to give them good ideas for career technical education uh training for teachers and and the pathway to the University of Wyoming. was going to head in
011terms of careers. So, it was honor to be there and to be selected for that committee and it was uh it was well done. >> Thanks, Mike. Sounds great for being on that. Good job. Any other board member reports talk about graduation. I attended graduation with the rest of you and I felt like it was a great ceremony and our speakers our student speakers did a great job as well as the TA speaker as always. Well done and this was an enjoyable afternoon and very proud of all of our graduates and their accomplishments. Superintendent report. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I was going to start with some comments about graduation. So, thank you, Miss Arms, for that introduction. U same things on my mind. I was just so impressed with the graduation ceremonies at both
012Pathfinder High School and Lander Valley High School. Hopefully, many of you in the audience were able to attend as well. They really have their own unique flavor, but both do an excellent job of um honoring the graduates, but recognizing also those who support them and enable them to get to that stage, specifically the parents, uh students, families, and our district teachers and staff. So, thank you to our high school principles, Cris Works here. I'm not sure here today or not. Um for organizing the ceremonies and making sure they run smoothly because they are they're timely. Like LBHS is a one-hour ceremony. you kind of count on if you can find at least two people. Um, and then on a second note, I was in Cheyenne for three days last week. We had the WDE L3
013summit which was which was subtitled embracing leadership language literacy. It was a required training for districts that are receiving the the comprehensive literacy state development grant or the CLSD grant which we were awarded. Uh, but even though attendance is required for those districts, I would have gone anyway. It was incredible the caliber of speakers and the the training that was available there. The conference focused on three distinct areas that are essential to improving our students abilities in the areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Uh we've done traditionally a lot of training around literacy. Um but we need to make sure that's the correct type of be. So that was one of the areas of focus of this training was making sure we are investing in practices that are scientifically proven to result in higher
014levels of student reading and better achievement. uh we've done a lot less training traditionally in the area of language and that was one specific focus of this training that was really fun to learn more about really language is one of the key is probably the main learning format that we use regardless of content we're always talking with students and asking them to talk to us express their thinking um verbally and in writing so language is at the core of that we'll be focusing more on integrating language instruction to our English and language arts curriculum in the coming months and years uh but that's going to happen throughout all curricular areas which is going to be exciting to see. And then the third of the L3s was leadership. It's essential but sometimes overlooked when it comes
015to teacher and administrator training. Uh we have to figure out how to help educators change and improve practices and that's a leadership dimension and have the best practices and good content but people aren't comfortable with it and aren't being shown how to do it leadership and not just administrative leadership but teacher leadership as well to get to where we want to go. That's another we're going to focus on training and professional development. So, we're going to be sharing a lot more about this this grant um in the coming months and years. This was just kind of the kickoff for those that were selected, but it's a 5-year process and it's going to have a huge impact on our district and on our students learning. I'm really excited to to see it take off. So, stay
016tuned about that and that's all I have. >> Thank you, Mike. Questions from the board comments. >> Superintendent, quick question for you. When are we going to get a sign out there? >> Madam Chair, Mr. Kale, I I do not know the status of the sign. Mr. Sweeney has been out of the office for a couple weeks on personal leave. I don't know what's being what's the hold up there. I mean, the frame is up. I think it's just a matter of putting the Jack King building signage on there that's already been designed and I'm assuming built to be installed. Specifically what the Would you maybe find out and let us know next meeting? Absolutely. Thank you. Appreciate that. doing a reception. Absolutely. >> Presentations. We have leadership Fremont County presenting um and sharing more
017about their organization. Are you coming up with that? >> Good evening, Madam Chair and the rest of the schoolboard members. Um Caitlyn and I are here tonight just to share about leadership Fremont County. we participated in this amazing leadership leadership event over the last year and we had to do a community service project and so we'll um Caitlyn will be talking about that here in a moment and I thought I would just give a quick overview of leadership Fremont County I believe Mara have you participated in it no I thought I saw your picture on there but um then you have a twin um so leadership Fremont County is um available to anyone in our community so I really encourage encourage um people to participate in this amazing leadership um development opportunity. It is um
018sponsored by our um Wyoming tourism, the um Chamber of Commerce for Lander and Riverton and the Wind River Reservation um tourism group also. And so the process is you have to apply to be part of Leadership Fremont County. This year we had um I think 26 members in this class which is one of the largest they've had. Um it does take a financial investment. Um it's $450 and so usually businesses or your employer will pay that for you and then you have 10 days that you participate. So you need um one Thursday a month off to participate. You have to attend all of the sessions in order to graduate from this program. And so, um, for myself, my husband's business, Legacy Phone Solutions, was the one that paid for it. And then, um, the district
019granted five days, and then I had to use five of my own personal days. So, um, and other businesses will pay for you to participate. Um, there were people from all over Fremont County. There were representations from the hospital CWC why um the Christian um college Wyoming Indian had um an elementary teacher there BTI High Plains Power numerous realators the Pioneer Museum and a bunch of small business owners and so it just gives you this opportunity to work and work on your leadership with people from our community. So many times in education, we go to these education conferences, which are awesome, but we're all there for the same reason, right? We want all kids to learn at high levels and be successful. Well, this just brings people from all over the community to problem solve
020for Fremont County. And so we talked about general public policy issues, economic and social diversity and challenges that Fremont County faces and what do we do to help solve um challenges within our community and make Fremont County better. Um over those 10 days, we visited businesses. We had an a day where we went to CWC, went to the A um center, and then we went out to a farm. We learned about agriculture in our community. We worked with Nolles on teamwork. We did risk management. We had um a day about lobbying and local government and how we get involved. Um rural rural economic development, conflict resolution, um tourism, leadership, history. We were able to go up to Dubo, go to the military museum, the Big Horn Sheep Center, and the Dubo Museum. Not sure if
021you knew there's a museum there, but we learned a lot while we were there. Um, and so I just think overall this program really allows you to work with different people, 26 different ideas, working together, solving these problems, and then just the incredible leadership of the people in our community that step forward to provide all of this training for us. So, it was a great experience. I would encourage you to look at the applications, do it. I also think it's very important that we have education sitting at the table with the leaders within our community so that they're hearing from schools on what it is that we're doing for graduates when people leave our districts and how can we help them um make our community better so that kids either want to stay here or
022go and come back and make Fremont County their home. So I'll turn it over to Caitlyn. Um so we were able to uh do a project. Our whole class um every class is required to do a project and so coming with those 26 people to you know get one idea is a little challenging but we were able to. Um and we really focused on kids and I think everyone in this room definitely can attest that that's so important. Um and so uh we did our project was lunches of love and so we're here today to present you guys um the Fremont County School District number one with a check. Um we were able the month of February and into March um we did a campaign raised money um for the angel lunches and uh we
023um brought together a little less than $8500. So um each uh it was broken up into student population. So each district in Fremont County got a check. Um and that's what we're here to do today. So that was fun. It was awesome. Yeah. Any questions? >> Thank you. >> We're gonna take a photo with Taylor. Okay. Do you mind? >> I don't know. We don't have. >> Thank you guys. Thank you. Now we have Catra again to come and share with us about the summer program lights on. So madam chair, members of the school board, this is my annual report on lights on. Okay. Like I hope you have it. All right. So, the way the grant runs, so this will be last summer and this past school year is our grant cycle. Um, go
024to the next one. So, we are a 21st center called Lights On. It's funded for our students in our community. And so, there is no bar to the students that attend Lights On. This is um annually we operate on about $465,000 to provide summer and after school care and you can see the um different grants that we have. It is a federally funded program. It is competitive. So they'll be opening up another cycle in January that we will be applying for because as you can see like cohort 15 we are in year four of five. So next year will be the last year that we receive that cycle of the grant and our grant runs from October 1st to September 30th. So uh that's the fund that we receive. Um again this is same information
025I share every year. We have three major grant goals. Um one is to help meet the needs of students in reading and math. one is to operate or um offer a wide variety of enrichment activities and then the third is to help get families and parents involved in their programming. Um during the school year we operate our early bird program. So this is at Baldwin. Parents can drop their children off at 7 um and they are supervised and they do different games and Legos and activities um in the morning and then in the afternoon we have two sections of our program. We have power hour and enrichment. During power hour, this is when students are working on grade level content standards. So, we created a system where the elementary classroom teachers communicate with our LION
026staff on standards that kids are currently working on in the classroom in reading and math. And they will identify certain kids that might need extra help on a certain that standard. And then the lights on staff gets that information every week and plans their math and reading activities around what the students are currently learning in the classroom. So we have a great communication system with both of the schools and all of those teachers. Um and then the second half of the program is um that's okay you can leave it there. The second half is our enrichment activities and they are a wide variety of clubs and activities that the kids participate in during the school year. This past year we were able to offer seven days um of full program days. Those were the days
027like the inservice days or maybe the day before Thanksgiving. We identify those days so kids can come to those um those program days. Um we've went swimming on those days. We also coordinate with the Friday backpack program. So they coordinate and drop off the backpack for the lights on kids at lights on so that they're not carrying those heavy bags on the bus or walking with them. Um and then we have worked over the last couple years with uh Mrs. Meyer on with title funds and those all those different programs where you have to have family literacy nights and we just do one big family literacy night and it is turned out really well. On average, we have over 200 family members attend and it's jam-packed with all sorts of events and Mr. Brown is
028usually there with technology and it's just a great way to share with our community about our schools. Uh this past school year, you can see our numbers um where we were at. And um one of the reporting pieces that we use is um students that attend regularly. So we had 219 students attend the program 180 hours of more. That's kind of the cut off which is really great. So kids we're not like we're designed for kids to attend um every day. And then we look at some um proficiency data and this is on grade level standards. So when we look at all of the kids K through six because we go through sixth grade of the kids that come to Lincoln um this past year 93.3% of them were proficient on their reading standards um
029those grade level standards that the district has identified and then 94.5% on math standards. Um and we you know absolutely attribute this to the classroom teachers and the amazing work they do there and their intervention systems. But there is a piece with us focusing on those standards after school to help reinforce that. Um, last summer, I should say 2025. I have a title. That's okay. Um, we run eight weeks in the summer. We were able to offer swimming lessons. We had various camps that you can see listed there. Um it is a scheduling nightmare, >> but I give much credit to um Vivian and Monica. They're excitement. I mean, they have hyper set, so they kids are going, where they're going, um what they're getting pulled out for getting kids to all of these different
030activities. Last year, we did a Disney theme, and you can see we had some fun enrichment clubs. We also run a three-week pre-K program that's going on right now for kids that are entering into kindergarten and it really is focusing on those readiness skills and last year we had 29 students attend that got one more and then just our um enrollment or summer enrollment data you can see last year we had 181 students and then we had 127 um meet that 180 hours we kind of in July see kids kind fall off, kid on vacation, those different things. Then we are able to have summer school teachers, which what we have done over the last few years is we hire some teachers specifically to come in and work with kids on reading and math. And
031so they look at the lifted students, identify the kids that have needs, and do some small group tutoring and pull out during um lights on. And so um and they all work on different areas depending on what the group of kids need. So you can see um some data here. So like if you look at kindergarten, they were working on letter names and sounds. And so um in the beginning there were 15 kids that did not know all their letter names and sounds. And by the end we had 14 out of 15 knowing all of their letters and sounds. Um adding and subtracting within five. There were nine kids identified that didn't know how to do that after kindergarten and we worked with them and we got seven of the nine um at that level.
032And so we are doing that again this year um with some carryover funds to provide that targeted intervention which we had found to be really great because the kids are there. They're here all summer. So, we might as well work with those students that need that extra support to help prevent that summer learning loss and get them to where they need to. And that is it. So, are there questions? Anything I can answer for you? Questions? >> Yeah, I have a question here. So, is the prek kinder readiness program capped at all? Um, in terms of participant numbers? >> Yes. So we do 20 students in the morning and 20 in the afternoon. So it's three hours long. >> And so we can have 20 in each section. >> Okay. And how are you doing
033kind of the outreach and marketing for that program? That just a good one. >> Yeah. So we send it to all of the preschools and daycarees in um the in Lander and Matt Jacobson helps with that. And then when they have the kindergarten roundup night at the elementary school, we have a booth there to get people to sign up also. And then we send uh an email blast through Infinite Campus. So we send it to people that have registered for kindergarten. And then we also send it out to families because if they have a kindergartener at home that they just haven't registered yet, we get that information out to them. >> Any other comments or questions? >> That's okay. Um I just wanted to acknowledge um the the passing of Linda Barton had actually started
034our program for our district and so it's just wonderful to hear how best has become and such a great thing and just acknowledge that hard work she did starting with us and how much we appre We just thank you for all that you and your staff do over the summer and the school year. I just listening to you hearing about just how intentional you guys are with learning and collaboration and communication. It's just really impressive and working on those specific areas of needs for students and it's just great. I know you're a big part of that, too. So, thank you all. >> All right. Next, we are into action items, personnel actions. Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion to approve personnel actions as presented. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded discussion. All
035those in favor signify by saying I. I. Motion carries. Now we are into policy review for second reading. Mr. Harris. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. members of the board. There are two well one policy and one regulation here that you may remember from May. Um policy JLG has to do with homeless children. We didn't make any changes from first reading. This is just to update our existing policy in accordance with what the state is expecting. Doesn't really change how we implement services uh for students who may be experiencing homelessness, but it does bring it up to SN as far as WD is concerned. just just a little bit further goes into greater depth than our existing policy did. Um and then on regulation JICA that has to do with drug testing for students involved in
036extracurricular activities based on the discussion at the May 12th meeting there were no changes recommended from first reading. So you won't see anything there. The main change is that uh we're seeking to decrease the scope and cost of our drug testing program. not eliminating it but speeding it back some trying to control the costs budgetary pressures down in some other areas. Um so in season and out of season testing will still occur. It'll be a random sample random sampling of up to 10% of the students in each activity and looking to offtheshelf testing kits rather than having sports our previous contractors through that process. That will also save some some cost. Thank you. Um, and have discussion. I do need to get the motions on the table. So, if I can get someone to make
037a motion for either one of these policies first. >> Madam Chair, I'd like to move that we approve policy JLG, homeless children, as presented. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion on this policy? Madam Chair, the only thing I'd point out is that the the term itself, homeless, is frequently seen as being quite outdated and our superintendent um used the more preferred um expression of experiencing homelessness. And I probably should have caught this in the first reading, but would people be in agreement if we changed the wording from homeless to individuals or children experiencing homelessness? >> I would support that change. >> Okay. So we're just considering changing the title of this policy J to children experiencing policy >> and references within the policies. It's been moved and seconded and discussed with
038a friendly amendment to make those changes. We'll go ahead and take a vote. So all those in favor of approving policy as discussed signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Next policy would be policy J I C H A the drug testing for students. Do we have a motion? >> Madam Chair, uh I'd like to move that we approve regulation HIKA R1 uh J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J I C H A R1 um as presented. Second. Okay, it's been moved in a second discussion. >> Madam Chair, Superintendent Harris, I'm curious if we have an estimate on how much we anticipate spending on drug testing. I know it specifies um up to 10% of students randomly
039tested and we are going to change how we do that testing. Do we have an estimate on that number? >> Scans just a second. Perfect. Sorry, I'm mistaken. I don't the actual figure. I know that the the testing kit that we're considering is called I come. If you buy those in bulk, I want to say it's like $10 a test, which is quite a bit cheaper than our existing what we've been doing with sports, which was like $75 a test. The variability will be how much of a percentage we test in each activity. But with the language in the proposed treatment up to 10%. So if we find we're hitting a ceiling in terms of how much we think we need to spend or should spend on this this particular part of our activities program,
040we can limit that and give maybe 5% of an activity or 7% or 3% whatever it happens to be. But I anticipate the end of the deal overall cost should be somewhere we're spending somewhere around 65,000 in the current year. I would guess now we'll be spending less than 10,000 so a sign. >> Um Madame Chair, members of the board, I have no concerns with the policy as written, but um in light of all the cuts we are making to sports would encourage the district to be as fiscally conservative as possible. I know $10,000 is way more fiscally conservative than $70,000 and $10,000 is still the pay of three coaches who we may or may not decide to rehire. Um, and would advocate for the value of coaches as people who can supervise and support
041our students and help make sure they develop healthy habits. Um, and so yeah, as written, the policy does not specify a certain amount. Um, it says up to 10%, but I know as there's limited funding and we are looking for cuts in other places, I would hope we can put money towards coaches and buses and students as much as possible. >> Any other comments on that? Madam Chair, while I um understand where uh Mar is coming from, um I'd just like to remind the district of why this policy went into place in the first place, which is that we saw increasing numbers of drug use throughout our district. Um it was it was a a scary and dangerous time when we saw drug use as in as early as fourth and fifth graders. Um and
042we've seen I believe very positive results with the program. The program was funded even when reduced still pro provides both tremendous deterrence for kids as well as a great excuse for kids to say I don't want to get into drugs because I don't want to get cut from this program. I think it's really important that um that we continue to support this program even at this reduced >> any further discussion. None go ahead and take the vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I motion carries. Next we have um consider approving the 2027 Fremont County Board of Cooperative Higher Education Services or BOI's budget. >> Madam Chair, I'd like to move that we approve the fiscal year 27 BOCI's budget. >> Second discussion. Just a reminder uh to the board since I'm
043the I'm the leazison I've been to one meeting at this point. Uh this money does come from uh from the taxpayers directly through a mill levy on our property taxes. We do have happily we do have enough funds um through Bochis to again fund our ACT which we couldn't do last year which is fantastic. Every kid in our student I should say that's a junior in our district um will be able to take one ACT uh without without cost to them. Uh it also allows for um some training for the Boheis I want to say professors but in some cases uh they act like professors because they are teaching college courses. Um so it does allow for some training for those folks um as well as um pay for the tuition over at CWC. >>
044Great. Thank you for being a part of that, Jerry. >> Any other questions or comments? Okay, all those in favor signify by saying >> I motion carries. Next one. Um, usage fees in school district for school district facilities. Mr. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the board, I'm not sure if you're familiar with Senate File 90 from this year's legislative session. Basically created some new requirements and parameters around the school district's in Wyoming charging for community usage of school district facilities. Uh basically just set limitations on how much a school district can charge in terms of usage fees for auditoriums, gymnasiums, that sort of thing. The statute basically says that these can't exceed the actual cost of the group's use of any facility factoring in the personnel, equipment, utilities, and all those other expenses.
045So the question here, we already have a facility use form that has some fees on it. The district has been a little bit uneven about collecting those fees in the past. There's certain groups that have been not charged have been charged. It's just been kind of all over the place. I think we are going to do this. It would be good to have some direction from the board that we are charging for community group usage of facilities or not. We had different rates for different types of facil for different types of groups in the past. Um whether it was related to school district serving school age youth or if it was a nonprofit or community group or if it was for profit we had different rates. Um I think what the statute is trying to
046say is we should have one rate if the community group wants to use it. That's my interpretation. significantly but some uniformity I think would be good if the board wants us to start doing that. It is. I will say also there is some cost associated there. We have someone using a gym or an auditorium utilities is pretty minimal, but the custodial is really the big one. Staffing time when people have to come in and clean up on a Sunday on a Saturday or something like that. It's not exorbitant. I don't think anybody's going to be overwhelmed with the cost of one hour usage, but this is something to consider. >> Mr. So currently what are where where would this impact us the biggest what organizations or groups are using facilities and >> um not sure
047I'm not exactly sure the which exactly but there's a lot of like club sports like the wrestling teams or basketball teams youth youth activities it's a big part of it there's other community groups like the Fremont County Symphony Orchestra auditorium from time to time. I don't even know what the full gam of groups is. There are several there are some that just kind of use it and have been using it that we haven't really paid attention to as much but um our facilities manager tracks student who's using facilities. >> So currently if I remember the process they just have to fill out a facilities usage agreement form it's approved by Travis. That's correct, Madam Chair. So, there's there's some conditions there. It has to be supervised. There can't be alcohol. There can't be open flames.
048You have to have liability insurance, that type of thing. So, pretty basic parameters, but we've been pretty pretty open to any community that wants to use facilities. Um, and some have been charged, some have not. So, I'm just hoping to try to get something consistent going with no open flames. It doesn't sound hardly fun. I don't know why you do it. Uh, but I do have a question. What do we have any teeth in those agreements in case damage is done to the property? I've never looked at those agreements. >> I'm just thinking we have two two brand new gyms and I worry a little bit about, you know, unsupervised use and and what could happen. Madam Chair, uh Mr. Kale, I don't see the current conditions for use of facilities in this document. Of
049course, the public is online district's website facilities to Ip a collection for damage to the facilities. Although there is again liability insurance but I don't think that coverage might be worth passing that by our attorneys to see if there's any standard for that language for that kind of thing and madam chair did the superintendent want some action on this thing Madam Chair, Mr. Kale, I was hoping that we could have some direction on on whether the board would like to direct the business office to create hourly rates for our facilities. Um, if that's something the board is agreeable to, if you'd rather table this for now and come back later, we can, but I think the initial step was to have the board just tell us, are you in favor of something along the lines
050of 90 in our district? And so we'll come back with some specific figures which you could then later >> just to clarify too I think Mike and I were proposing the agenda you know the discussion is obviously the deficits and our activities budget and just trying to figure out other ways of compensating. It sounds like, you know, there might have been some organizations that groups that were charged in the past. So, um, if the policy committee or if someone wants to work with Mike on this further kind of tweak that document and I can get some more direction from the board and then we can come back later and discuss further help what our thoughts are. Madam Chair and Mike, so your recommendation would be more of a flat fee for all users. Is that
051what I'm understanding? >> Madam Chair, Mr. Brew, I think my recommendation would be that hopefully the board would direct the business office to create hourly rates for different facilities. The LHS gym cost you this much per hour, the auditorium is this much per hour, and that those rates are the same regardless of using the facility. Madam chair, do we need a motion? Would move to ask the business office to come up with hourly rates for our facilities and also check in with Scott Coy about damages. >> Second vote. All in favor proceeding. Motion carries. I think next on the agenda is um using pur professional on the salary. Madam chair, this is a bit of a unique item to show up on action items since you all already approved salary schedules. There is a position
052at peak known as a music par professional which is not specified on the salary schedule for our classified employees. It's unique to get paid and it has responsibilities that are different and more substantial than the general pair of professionals which are paid out of column B on the current salary schedule. The request that principal park is making here is to have the music professional specifically named in column D. The difference per hour will be $120 per hour. Um her memo lays out some details about what that position is being asked to do which again it requires a little more independence supervisory authority skill than the general professional position. So that's the basis for her asking. >> Can I get a motion for this? >> So second moved and second in discussion. >> One one quick
053question madam chair. Does this come out of the the normal salary? But you said it was a unique position. this come out of the normal salary silo. >> So madam chair, Mr. K, this this was this is not within the instructional silo be on the operational professional position. It exists now. It's just being out which doesn't really reflect the level of responsibility for the position. >> Okay, thank you. >> Any other questions? It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I >> opposed. Motion carried. >> Going too fast. >> That's okay. >> Motion carries. Okay. Approve monitor monetary donations. We have two donations tonight. One from leadership Fremont County which we just were presented with the check for the angel lunch fund and that is for the amount of $3,9.74. And
054the second donation is from the Lord Foundation for the LVHS photography equipment and that is for $3,900. Have a motion to approve these donations. >> So move second. Any discussion? I do not. >> Um thank you madam ch. I don't say this will be the last donation from the lower foundation that our board will be able to consider. I want to say as superintendent, thank you to Foundation for all the support and love they've shown our district and our whole community. >> I'm confused about the the because of my hobby. I'm confused why they would want a large format camera photography uh department or whatever we call it. That doesn't make any sense to me, but it doesn't need to make a comment response. Mr. building their own cameras and one student in particular built
055his own camera and exhibited the camera and photographs using the camera at the arts symposing this past year. I think that's generated some interest at LHS around large format and developing film. I think that's great. All right, it's been seconded. So all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I motion carries discussion items. Public, we are getting closer to full discussion. We're one couple away. So thanks for your patience. Um we've got some policies for first reading. Mr. Harris. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Briefly, uh four policies up for first reading. Um, two of them are new. We'll get to those. The last two that we'll look at. EGAC is just an obsolete policy dealing with telephone services. It might as well read like telegraph or something, but doesn't need to be in our
056policy book any longer. So, we're hoping to delete that one. >> We can't make >> um the second one is GBL. This has to do with remote work. uh nothing was sub substantively changed on this potential revision. It's just uh this is one of the policies where the date got messed up because we were transferring from one word software package to another. >> So you see that there was a Christmas date on there. That's it was lost in translation between the two systems. I just language issues nothing changed on that. It's just updating the date and just making those minor changes. These next two JJI and JJIC are two new policies based on USBA's model policy which this board is a subscriber. So we get those policies for consideration. The first one JJI uh just
057clarifies several aspects related to school athletics. One that programs require board approval. We don't just get to have a school start team. Um membership in any athletic association requires board approval. in the Wyoming high school activities association but there would be another association the district wanted to join that would require board action um it also clarifies that students participating in 31 athletics or amateurs so there's no paying of athletes and then finally the training requirements are set by coaches in the school district if there are any additional training requirements for all the swim out that means this swim coach can make your child go to morning practices um they can have them do dry landing the swim team. Uh they can have weightlifting, running, different aspects of practice as the coach and school districts need
058and that's JJI. JJC deals with participation in high school activities. This must have come from some specific situation around the state, but it deals with uh high school sports are for high school students only. And there's some interesting language here about age requirements. There must have been a situation where there was a younger high school student wanted to participate. So this clarifies that you have to be 13 as of September 15th and still meet the definition of high school student in order to participate in high school activities. So there must have been some question somewhere about a student skip a grade or something. This would hopefully address those concerns if they were to arrest here. >> Thank you Mike. Any questions or comments from the board? >> Madam Chair, I I can't remember. Do we
059have a separate NIL policy? >> Madam Chair, Mr. Kale, we do not. Uh the state was considering uh some statute around NIL or some rules that WHSA specifically should have a rule and I think they table that proposal. So we do not have a policy on some >> I thought we had to discuss. Yeah, I mean maybe it was just a discussion to just >> because that was back when WHSA was really on the trail creating one because of the Gillette situation. >> Madam Chair, I remember the discussion this board had was about whether or not Mr. George should recommend approval of that rule at the WHSA meeting that he was going to attend. >> I don't think we actually had any proposal as far as policy. >> Okay. So at this time you don't
060think we need to add that to these >> madam chair Mr. I think that the the piece in JJI that clarifies that students are amateurs would take care of that. >> Okay. >> Madam Chair, I had a couple of couple of things on the JJI JJ. This is a little minutia moment. So um it seems like we've been moving more towards FCSD1 in the policies and the previous two that have been amended to be pretty carefully following them. So maybe ones that consistent and then my other question is about JJC and our homeschool students who participate in athletics. Um, so who will verify that their school is has a curriculum that's equivalent to that offered by public school district one high school? >> Madam Chair, that's a great question. I think if we read this
061policy proposal in harmony with some of the other state statutes that are coming out um I think you pretty much have you don't verify the aspects of the home program at this point we don't review the curriculum to see if it meets any particular requirement or standard. So I believe that if a parent tells us they're homechool high school programs that student policy they would be participate as long as they wonder if looking at the audience I it's it's dramatic ally different than the count when we do say a budget, but I think it'll take a little longer. I wonder if we could have about five minute recess and come back after. >> Okay, we'll do that. 7 p.m. >> resume this meeting. We're going to start with Mr. Harris just filling us in on
062some information regarding the pool. Once we have discussion, then we will open it up to public comment. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, first of all, just appreciate everybody that's come out tonight uh with concern interest in what's happening with the pool. Uh, nobody here, I can speak for the board. I feel very confident speak for the board on this. Nobody here, including myself or anybody working negative happen with the reality is we're up against some pretty tough financial situations right now. Um the school district is going through this now our sixth year consecutive declining enrollment and with declining enrollment means less revenue. Um that's a difficult picture to absorb as a school district especially when you have a lot of programs and what the state continually considers enhancements or programs that are in addition
063to what's required to operate school district. The school district owns and operates this Bruce Gresley Economic Center. Um, and in the past, um, we had the ability to do that with more funding because we had more students and we also had more flexibility as a school board within the block grant model that the state used to fund public school districts. That changed this past session. Uh, we now have a little more restriction, a lot more restriction on how the school district, all the school districts in the state can use their funds. They created what's called an instructional silo. The majority of our funds are for staff. the budget like almost 80% of it goes to staff costs. With the creation of that instructional silo, funding that's in that positions in that silo can only be
064used for those purposes for those staff members. We used to be able to borrow and uh kind of sort our funds as a school district into various budget categories to meet the needs of the community. That flexibility has been greatly decreased because of the instructional silos. Um so you combine that with the loss of revenue due to declining enrollment. We have the picture that we're now looking at which is declining revenue not only for the pool but for other unfunded things within the school foundation program including school resource officers including our school lunch program, our school breakfast program um including um a lot of what we do for activities. The state has a very restrictive number now that they would like you to spend on activities. You can exceed that, but you've only got so
065many dollars to play with. If you're going to pay more for activities, you have to spend less in some other area, but you can't touch what's in the instructional silo, which is where we fund teachers, instructional facilitators, tutors, and extended date staff. Um, everything else is what's called the operational side of the budget. And uh because of these competing priorities, it's getting very very very tight to figure out how to fund all the different things that we have traditionally funded in the school district. That's a brief overview, a picture that we're facing right now, but again, I don't think anybody wants to see anything that need to happen with the pool. We've already been talking with other stakeholders as a school district uh with the city with the ler club with the ler community foundation
066with the parks and recck or with the recreation board of which brew is a member uh to try to figure out we can call representative Larson to try to brainstorm with us on how to raise revenue to support the pool but again no one has any interest in shutting the pool down or abolishing a swim team or I've heard all kinds of rumors none of those are true we're trying to figure out what is the right solution, a combination of resources to ensure the ensure the longevity of the facility um not just in the short term but in the long term. It is a 50-year-old facility. Um so I I think it's time that lander starts looking at what we going to do when that pool is no longer viable. Um so all this is
067great. I appreciate all the energy and the attendance and I hope it can be sustained as we try to figure out how exactly we want to tackle these challenges. >> Mr. Harris, I'll just add a few things to that. Um, so we did create a committee as Mr. Harris mentioned. Um, Representative Larson was there. Lander Community Foundation, the Swim Club, um, Cheryl. Um, we had the mayor attending. We didn't have any city council members. Um, we also had Karen Harms and myself. And it was a really good discussion. We we I think everyone collectively understood the needs. Angela Gerson was involved with the the pool manager. Um and so we just are trying to brainstorm. Currently the school district as Mr. Harris said is 100% um funded by the district and the district only uses
06820% of the pool. So 80% of the school district or 80% of the pool use is public. Um we compared other cities around the state. Um, if I remember correctly, Powell is a pool district that or a town that funds their pool through their city and then the district brings back like usage and they use it about 20%. Green River has a different structure. They have a mill levy and some other funding. Um, uses a lot of community business representatives that help sponsor and they also have some tax revenue as well. So we've compared kind of how our model looks versus others in the state. Um and then just reiterating that um you know there was an initial agreement with the city um where that this would be funded and that started in the 70s
069and we're just trying to kind of um brainstorm how we can get back to a similar model of that agreement where the city helps fund the operations of the pool. Madam Chair, I would add, I also spoke with the mayor recently, actually was yesterday afternoon, and she expressed some willingness to look at maybe going back to a previous type of arrangement where the city was taking some money from its budget, combining that with the record board, and then giving that to the school district to help support the pool. That's a very early stage discussion, but she indicated that she was open talking further about that. Um, I also want to add that uh the school or the the city council and mayor uh the mayor informed me that they will have $25,000 that they'll be
070donating from the school district to the school district to help support the maintenance and operation of the pool. That'll be sometime in early July. So, as a board you all will approve that donation and we can direct that towards um the support of the pool as well. That's going to help. Every little piece is going to help. But again, what we need to try to figure out is what's a sustainable, reliable, year in and year out source of revenue. And it will be a combination in all likelihood of revenue from school district, the city, um, and other private sources and potentially a bond issue or some other form of public revenue. That's if that's able to. So that's kind of where things stand at this time. >> Madam Chair. Okay. Um, and members of the
071public, I wanted I swam for six years for Lander Middle School and LVHS. Several of my teammates are in the room. At least one of my former coaches are in the room. Um, and so, yeah, it hurts to see us in the spine about pool funding. And I know as well as I know members of the board know, as I know you all know, our swimming pool saves lives by teaching people how to swim and by people by giving people a community and hobbies and homes. So, I want you to know that we all know the value of the pool. Um, and I'm going to stray from the policy a little bit to talk about three lessons I learned from Bruce Gresley and that I learned by participating in the Lander swim program that I
072think are really relevant to what we're doing here. I like to say I learned all my best life lessons in the swimming pool. So, here they are. Um, but one, Bruce always emphasized that we would won as a team. No one player was responsible for a great swim team. And it takes working as a team. And we are living in this political climate that asks us to look for enemies. And I hope as we move forward as a community, we look for who our allies can be and bring in a large team to this. Um, the district has already started to do that. people have already reached out with ideas for funding sources and I hope that we can all look forward looking for allies in addressing this pool issue. Um, and sometimes that means
073doing things you don't love. Taylor or Madam Chair mentioned that other counties have mill levies, special use taxes, um, businesses chip in money. Sometimes it takes a little bit of sacrifice to sustain something. I think about all the years I swam the 500, which I hated for the good of the team. Um, and so there may be a time where we ask the community to step up somehow. We don't know how yet. Whether that's private donations or grants money or making other sacrifices or a mill levy. Um, just know sometimes you have to step up to fund something you love. Um, something else I learned from Bruce specifically is about strategy. Bruce, we talk about Bruce, how Bruce put forward a great work ethic, but he was a strategist and who is a numbers guy
074at the end of the day. And this is a numbers problem and I have full faith that we can figure it out by looking at it as a numbers problem. Um, but it's going to take some time to get all the right players on board. Um, and I feel very grateful that the district has a rainy day fund that we've already tapped into buy us more time to solve this issue. So, for the immediate year, we have funding and we're going to have to figure out the numbers and the strategy moving forward. Um, and then the final lesson is that hard work pays off. Um, and sometimes we don't know how that all will pay off. And what I ask of you all is to talk to people about how important the pool is to
075you. It's going to take our whole community to move forward. Um talk to not just us as a school district, but talk to your state representatives, talk to your county commissioners, talk to your city council members. Um it's going to take all of us supporting the pool to get there. And I believe that if we work together that we can come up with a plan even if we don't have that right now. Um, and then on a more practical note for our board, my recommendation would be the team, whether it's the team that met earlier or whether we revise a new team, that we come up with an official pool working group and that that be listed on our district's website along with all our other school district group so that members of the public
076who have ideas um or concerns can reach out to that group. and that that can include other members of the public. >> Thank you, Mara. Great points and great idea. I think we'll definitely add that. Also, we have some meeting minutes that would be pertinent because I know getting a lot of miscommunication and misinformation at times just when things are high emotions. It's, you know, you hear trans pieces and so it be nice to have one document or one place to go to to kind of get all that information and discussion. Um, further board member comments or discussion? >> Um, I have a excuse me, uh, I started at the pool on the swim team back in, if you can believe this, 1976. I think I was six years old. Bruce was a pretty young
077coach. U, I certainly didn't achieve the level of success that other people had achieved in swimming. Uh, my primary goal was to get to the hot tub after practice. I and I I seldom was allowed to do so. U I want to I don't want to quote Lloyd because I could never do that, but Lloyd Larson always he's kind of famous for this and and that is I'd like to ask for uh solutions. Um you I have a philosophy in business which is never go to your boss with the problem. Always go to your boss with the solution. You get a lot farther that way. Um tonight, you know, we face kind of an intractable problem, right? We c we can't as a district print money. We can't create money. It doesn't come from nowhere.
078I I federal government appears to be able to do that. We cannot. Um I wish we could. So, as we look at these things, we have we have one of two uh areas we need to focus on. raising money or where else to cut in order to u provide the funding that the school that the pool might want. So what I would ask for people who are coming up to me is to bring us those solutions. If where where can we find more money? Do you have a solution for that? And if you don't have a solution for that and you're asking for more money, then be prepared to tell us what you're what you want us to cut, what areas of the school district do you think we should get rid of in order
079to provide more funding to the pool? We talked about some of those, right? We talked about some of our sports programs we could cut. Um, that would save some money. um admin salaries comes into onto that side, but this year we've already signed uh signed our admin salaries, so we can't do anything about those at least for this next fiscal year. Um different activities, we've got choir, we've got band, we've got FBA. Those are things that we could cut to fund the pool. Uh minor maintenance. I mean, I don't think anyone necessarily wants us to cut, you know, cut cutting grass, but those are the kinds of things that that come out of this side of the budget. Uh, fewer bus options. I don't know whether federally or even by a state uh statute, we
080could do that. Fewer bus options that comes out of this pool. Our SRO's breakfast programs. What are we willing to cut in order to provide more funding for the pool? So, as you come up and talk about that, I'd like to challenge you to say, "Here's my solution for funding, or here's what I think we should cut to achieve the uh the desired outcome. I mean, I know that all the comments are undoubtedly sincere. Mine are sincere. I love the pool. You know, I've spent a childhood there. U but right now, fashion loans are not going to help us solve this problem. We need solutions." >> Thank you, J. Any other comments? from the board. Okay. So, at this time we will start um public comment. We'll just go do a little housekeeping. Um because
081of the time and the amount of people in the audience, this is typically what we do at most meetings. Anyway, we are limiting public comment to two minutes per person. So, we'll have a timer up here and Jared is going to keep track for us. When you hear that buzzer, just please respectfully try to end your statements even if you're in the middle of a paragraph or a letter that you've written. Um, when you also come up, please come up to this microphone so we can hear you and people in the audience and online can hear you. And please also state your name and we'll just kind of leave it open. Um, again, we won't do any like calling or just come up as you feel necessary and um, say your name and share share
082with us your comments. We really value public comments >> and I'll I'll sort of put my hand up. We have 30 seconds left. Thank you. It's always the first one. It's always on. How's it? >> I don't know if this microphone's on too. >> Do you need me to state my name? Okay. Jennifer Hudson Shaw. I represent the Lander Snow Club. I'm the head coach and have been for the last 20 years. I also grew up swimming with Bruce Resley. I started when I was five years old and I pretty much been part of the Miller school club since I was 5 years old with the priest while I was, you know, went to college, got married, all that kind of stuff. Um, so one of the things that I wanted to state was that
083SF90 comes in effect in uh July 1st. And with SF90, that uh Senate file, one of the things that is also states in there is that um one moment. It says that nothing in this um nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to require the district to charge any fee and the district may permit use without charge since the school district has been inconsistent in charging different entities. Um and since this is coming forward very quickly, um I propose that we also not charge all entities until it is uh you know confirmed by this board what hourly rates they would like to charge. So that's my first comment. Second comment is we do have lots of grants that we would like for the school district to go after. One of the things that is unique
084about this school district is that our grants person doesn't necessarily write grants. And so it's each individual person within this district who actually writes and that for therefore the like 11,200 or 11,600 lore grant that was approved at the December 16th meeting was actually written by me and there was another lore grant that was written by an even you do have a slew of volunteers who are willing to put forth the work to be able to help support the pool and any other school activity that is here. And then my third thing is um also in that December 16th meeting whether it was misqued in county 10 it's 30 seconds. >> Yeah. Uh that's that's the two. >> Okay. I was going to say that central administration and the board of education might want to
085look at their own budget and make sure that they don't go over as well. Jennifer next. >> Hello. Uh, my name is Cheryl Wise. I am the bookkeeper for the Lander Swim Club. I swim laps on Tuesdays and I'm the mom of Alex who's been a member of the swim club for 12 years and just swam as a freshman um for the boys team. Um so my message overall was really to tell you guys how amazing you are and I will get back to that in a minute. Um the pool funding issue is now here and it's out in the open. We know what it means. It's $500,000 a year to run the pool as is. We need a new facility and please don't let anything happen to the pool this year because we don't
086have the money. Um thankfully you guys have found a way to move the money around to have money available over the next year. Um and although financial decisions need to be made, what we need from you, the school board, um now is to focus on how to pull the community back into the role as much as possible. use this year in my opinion to keep the pool affordable, open and as alive as it has ever been for the schools, for the community, for the club. The reason I say this is because what we need to do is going to take a tremendous amount of work and we need buy in from the community. We need the community members to be excited about this, not scared that it's going to be taken away from them. Um,
087so you guys hold the keys to the pool. So, what we need to um for you guys to do is to bring everyone to the table, open all the books, identify the problems and solutions, talk to us about grants and bonds and donors and taxes and silos and recalibration until we understand it because this is Lander and you've met the swim parents. Um, we want to be here to help move forward. We all know that we want the pool to be open and to be available for the community. I read a comment about do we want to pay for the pool or pay for English teachers. Oh, let me finish the line. Um, what we want is to continue doing what we already do, which is awesome. You guys pay Alex's English teacher to teach.
088We pay her to coach because that's what Lander does. Thank you. >> Thank you, Cheryl. Hello. >> Go the other direction. >> This way. >> Oh, there you go. >> Hello. Hi, I'm Don Kurt. Um, I am the president of the board of the Liner Swim Club. I hadn't planned to be up here tonight, so my thoughts might be a little disjointed. I also have two swimmers in the district. Um, a high school swimmer can be middle school swimmer and then two club swimmers. Um, I really want to echo what Cheryl said. Um, I feel like with the pre97 funds that we said at the last meeting, that's enough to keep the pool and the food service going for one to two years. Um, so I'd really like to take that opportunity to maybe pause
089the brakes. We keep hearing um I don't know if we've heard it formally that our school rent is about to double. Um 18 to 20,000 school district budget isn't much, but for our budget that's substantial. Um that if we have to raise our dues that much that could keep some kids out of the program. So we'd really just like to ask, you know, we have the funding it sounds like for this next year and I know the district is in a tight spot, but maybe we can pump the brakes a little bit. We're in the middle of a fiscal year. um some of the levers we need to pull to make some of this happen just are already spent for the year. So, we're not opposed to paying more, but double is substantial for us.
090Um and all these people in the room would love to help you. Um I met with Mike recently with my parent hat on. Um and I love the idea of an endowment, right? Uh donors get into this this operations endowment that would fund pool operations in perpetuity. that would take the pressure off everyone, city, the district, everyone. That would not be an easy job. I would love to work on it. I think there's plenty of community members that would love to work on that. And um there's a lot of wealthy people here in Green County and Wyoming, all over the country who I think would be vested in something like this. We just have to have your blessing as a building owner to start looking at these things. So, that's one solution like to offer
091up a ton. And yeah, just thanks for listening and I don't know, just like Cheryl said, just give everybody time to get through this and get excited and I think we can get this stuff together. Thank you. Hello board. Is that still on? Okay, now the little lights on. All right, it was turned off the I'll be leaving it on for a second. Um, my name is Mary Mcnite and uh also from a big swim family. my little brother uh held the record at um for the backstroke for 18 years and uh I it's been um this year it's been 18 years since we lost him. So he has record for the last five but um we're very very vested in the swim in the swimming and the swim program. um if you try to
092um I'm also a mother of a a little boy. Uh he's four and um there's not a lot of activities for like little kids in our district, but this is one of those things that people can come and do. But whenever I mention it, people don't know about it, like if they've moved here and that's because our website does not point you towards the pool schedule. If you do a Google search for Lander swimming pool schedule, you will not get there. I mean, you can spend 10 minutes and you will not get to our schedule. you have to go to the district and then to the calendar. And then there's a little caveat within the calendar that if you don't know to click there, you won't have it. And if you look at the regular
093pool hours, that's inconsistent with what the day-to-day operations are. So, um, if we want that buy in that Cheryl was talking about, if we want this whole community to come together, we have to let people know when our pool is open. And that's an easy fix. You know, that's something we can do easily. Um, if we do double the cost of everything, we're more expensive for a year to swim here in Land Earth than it is to ski in Ireland. >> Like we're we're tipping um it's now becoming an elite um specialized, you know, much much smaller group. And I think that this that we'll be losing money if we're open more. Um it doesn't cost very much for a lifeguard. um the overall budget is a lot but um the more we are open
094the more we are used the more money is coming in. So, um I think that you know making it so that people know how to find it and um then having that pool open that $4 goes we get people in right now that's very very helpful you know double as a lot of people can thank Hello. I grew up here at Andrea Spring and I had my first job at the pool. I spent my childhood at the pool. I swam. I dove. My sister currently runs the Riverton pool and is having the same fight that you are. And my thoughts consistently go to why is our pool a legacy? And it's not a legacy because it's an elitist foundation for people who have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on a sport. It's a
095legacy because it was built for everyone. And we need to keep that part of our community. Allowing people to have access that's affordable and timed to be there allows us to build the legacy year after year. I heard a rumor, and it could just be a rumor, but there is no other swim team or other high school team that has had a 30-year record like ours in the nation. Great ideas coming at you. And I hear you say that you get this silo to pay for teachers. Why aren't we running our classes through the pool like we used to? When I grew up here, every grade had time in the pool and the high school offered swim classes. Then you would have teachers and you could fund the pool because you have teachers using it.
096That changed because we say we can't bust them anymore. And that might be true, but that's a solution. And the other one, and I'm going to be really like brazen with this because it bothers me, is that we've been adding more sports that are pulling kids that don't even go to our district, namely softball. I do have an axe to grind with it because there were few kids in our own district that participated and they had multiple coaches. So, you want a solution? Go back to the basics and fund the things that make Lander have the culture it has. So thanks. >> My name is Chuck Deets. I moved here four years ago. the first or second weight towards here I met I knew nothing about all I knew is when I reached before I
097moved here they had a spectacular swim boys swim team and that they'd won all these state records I did know that that had happened with the girls swim Jennifer informed me the whole thing walked me through all those pictures we were moving here and we had three kids are all they're all swimmers and it was the most amazing thing to hear that now you can see I'm wearing a hat I just had this hat matter of In fact, I had 150 of them. Didn't even ask anything. I just said, "I print it off." And I spent $3,500. Why? Because Lander has a swim team that's won 30 years in a row. Do you know how many places do that? And you know why you do that? You do that because you have excellent people. I
098know Sean real well. I know Jennifer well. I know Greg. You had an excellent program because I had an excellent foundation. And you don't get to partake in that everywhere. actually hardly do you get to partake in that life. Look back at the organizations you've been in. How many of them would you say were that excellent? And so I've got a kid that's at at a university and part of his achievement at school now is because he sees that excellence and he dealt with other kids in this town that were that focused not just on their swimming pool on their school. So you're right, Jared. It's just it's problem. It's a money problem and it's organizational structural. It takes a team of people that have financial skill. You report it on some of the metrics
099of other towns, other ways they're paid for it. It shouldn't just be the school paying for it because the whole school isn't using it. If it's, you know, there there's there's measurements of how many people in the town, how many people recreation, how many people visit in the summer and it's a it's a calculation and then it's tax it's tax revenue. You know, if you look at Gillette, if you go look at Laramie, there's tax revenue that comes in. some of it from swimming, some of it from school meets, some of from just the people that live in the city. And so business people do well on it. So it's something you kind of have to put the equation together. You have to fix it. And I think if you put a committee together, this
100can be fixed. Thanks. We want to hear say thank you. And there you guys remember that hand raise. >> I've been trying. Usually when I do that, everyone the speaker's looking that way. I'll I'll keep trying. All right. I'll try to do a quick bits. Um first the kind of emotional tie. My name is Stephen Mcnite. I I was a swimmer part of a big swim family and um ultimately met my wife there when I when I was a little kid. Um, I've been pouring over um kind of the original agreements with the city and the school district and there were there were these numbers that we've heard about how often this the public's using it versus how often the school's using it. But what really struck me about that that time, there's pages and
101pages of letters to the editor about how important the pool is. And we're starting to see that now, right, with uh County 10 and Lander Journal and just online posts about how important it is. Um my kind of my go-to line is that pool is um essential for keeping a lot of people alive that wouldn't be alive and out of jail that would be in jail if the pool didn't exist. So that's so staying away from this elitist uh elitist thing that that we're talking about is very important. Uh my my I I think the ultimate solution could be like uh was mentioned earlier is an endowment system. Um, and so I would urge you guys as as the main entity to be open to those discussions, open to um creative creative solutions. I I
102know that the city just approved this 25,000. Think about using that to open fully this summer. um allowing that to happen so that people can realize that the more time they're open and the more reliably it's open and the um you know keeping the cost down as much as possible, you're really going to see the use go up and ultimately that's going to be a great thing. Um let me see. Um I'm gathering some testimonials about the pool is important so contact me if you got if you want that on camera. Um, let's see. >> I think that was your time. Thank you. >> We should just all that. >> Still don't know if that's on. Okay. Okay, so I'm hand even I am swim and dive parent of two upcoming seniors on both the
103boys and girls teams. Both my kids work as lifeguards at the pool. And I think it's also important for this group to remember that um like my kids didn't come up through the swim club ranks. They didn't start swimming until they were in sixth grade when they were exposed to it as a middle school sport. Um one could quickly learn that diving was probably not for him and it was switched to swimming from then on. Um, and my daughter still enjoys diving today. I'm also the president of the diving club. And I just want to say I do think that this is a numbers problem. And I think that there's a group of parents and engaged citizens within the community who are willing to take a closer look at that and dive a little bit
104deeper. And I hope we can also look past the 8020 percentages that are also being tossed out as well. I think that there's probably some overlapping numbers in there or we can present that data in a different way to bridge the communities together and not see these as two separate issues. Um, just I'm not here to talk on behalf of the city of Lander, but I do just want to add on to Jen's comment earlier that we did receive a lower foundation grant at the city of Lander for $30,000 to go towards a feasibility study to help cover and explore options for the pool. So, I just want to make that known today that there are solutions on the back end being worked on and some funding to help make that happen. Thank you. Hi,
105I'm Jack. Um I'm speaking to foster a um focus group. Um and I don't know who's on that and I would like to be on it. Um as a parent of two former swimmers um we probably missed a huge opportunity when Bruce passed and didn't develop an endowment at that time. Um I agree with the endowment. I do think that we need to work um at getting the feasibility studied so that we can foster a sense of community's interest in having a pool and foster their support for it because if it comes down knowing you're paying you know huge more taxes for um mill levy it's not going to go well. So we need to have a focus group. We need to work on this as a team and move forward. My name is Don
106Jones and uh representing the old people that use the swimming pool. There's a lot of I like to see Jackie. She's kind of going to be one of us old people. So, I've been going to the pool for about seven, eight years now, three days a week, and there's a lot of old people that use the pool, plus the young people that use the pool. And I think there's got to be some grants out there that we could help get help from because I see them giving grants for everybody. So I need you guys to check with us with grant writers and see if there's any grants out to help us this year. If we can get it this year, maybe we get put on the ballot because that would be great if we could
107get it on the ballot. I'm active with the senior center here and we just got a living, okay? because we put it on the valley and we can put petitions up have people say we want this pool because the people we want this pool and we have a very successful swim team a lot of kids okay that never would learn to swim because we do have that pool so the schools have a chance to teach every kid he has an option to learn how to swim I paid to have my kids to swim and a lot of parents do and it's available it to us free here at our school systems. So, like I said, I think even the old people, I talked to all kinds of people and I say, "Hey, what if we
108get a petition that would you sign?" Oh, yeah. But there's a lot of older people that use pool for exercise. I know if I wouldn't have used the pool for exercise, I would have had to have me my knee replaced. I did it for five years. Now, I finally got my knee replaced. But it's the best exercise for people. and it's just just have to get through to that. It's one of the best exercises for everybody. Thank you. >> Good evening board. Thanks for your service uh to our community. I'm Chris Morgan, father of Micah and Nathan Morgan. When we moved back here, we're four generations Wyoming. My dad was born here in 43 in Lander and when we moved back five years ago um my oldest son I just started running cross country and
109a couple of the guys cajol him into joining the swim team and I asked him do you know what you're getting into he go dad it's like a big thing he came home crying most days that first year walk through eating practice lift quivering he like I'm not having fun um our youngest son's never doing that Nathan's like that sucks I'm not doing that So last year, Micah finished fifth in the state from breaststroke the year prior to third. Guys like Benny Kulo and the real champions took Mike under their wing. New guys in town. Bottom line what I'm getting into. Um it's been a huge blessing for our family, but it's one of those rare places in sports. We've been around a lot of sports where you don't have to be the star pitcher.
110You don't have to be the top five on the court. Anybody and everybody participates. And as our world gets more siloed with our screens and everything and we're more we need these community opportunities for everyone to participate whether it's the gentleman that's talking about being in his 70s and helping his knee or the brand new fifth grader getting in the pool and we bond together as a tribe. So it seems unreasonable for the school district to fund the whole bill. The city needs to put skin in the game. The county does. if we don't have a good workout center that people don't have to go pay a large monthly fee. Uh if we don't have a community rec center, we need to have this pool and more places like it. Thank you for what you
111do. It's been a blessing. Goodbye. >> Hey, couple more. Um, I'm born and raised in Lander. I participate in all the swim programs here. Um, coached for the swim programs, coach for the district, the club. Uh, and I was living in Riverton teaching. I was coming over and coaching for the club. And um, now my oldest son is in the club, but all of my kids have three boys. And um, basically what I want to say is I'm just saying this to show the impact that this does have, and I think you guys all know it, but um, I currently working for the University of Wyoming um, at professional learning. I'm in education. I'm in coaching working on my doctorate right now. And I can hands down say um of course my family got me
112there, but I will say Bruce and that swim program, everyone involved got me to where I am right now. And so I feel like I need to honor that by coming up and saying this, but also saying um we're staying one of the top reasons we're staying in Lander because obviously there's there's not a ton for kids to do and things like that. Um is because of the swim program, because of that pool, because I want my kids growing up in that pool just like I did. whether they choose to keep swimming in the programs or not, that is there for them to go do and things like that. So, with all that being said, I think there's a lot of us who are invested in this and um I do appreciate the conversations of
113solutions. I'm definitely solutionoriented. So, I appreciate that we're looking for solutions for this. Um I will say as also as a small business owner, like I'm going to just speak for myself because small businesses are hurting as well, but I am happy to put forward what we need to. obviously wouldn't be a huge but I think there are other places that would also feel the same because we feel so closely aligned to the pool. I think I can say for a lot of the community that we will work what we have to do to find the solutions. People will pitch in what they need to do to find solutions. Um I just think that there are a lot of people who are passionate enough about this who care about it enough that has made a
114big enough impact that they will do what they need to do to help out with this stuff. Um, and I appreciate the fact and put pressure on places that might need pressure. Whatever it might do, fundraising, whatever it takes. Um, I think there is a lot of people who are willing to do that and step up and do that. >> Hello, I'm Vanessa. wasn't planning on actually talking today, but happens. Um, actually, so I kind of actually want to challenge what Mr. Kale said a little bit earlier. We can come up here all day with solutions on what we think is best as far as community members, but as a voter in this community. That also was why we elected you guys and the city council um to help make some of challenges because we
115got other things going on. I do think community does need to set up, step up. I think city council needs to step up. Um, I also think the schoolboard can step up a little bit more on not just setting up a committee, but follow up with that committee. What's going on? Get out into the community, tell us what you need from us. Um, if you need private sponsors or if you need us to help fund raise. Um, you know, at the end of the day, we are concerned community members, but you guys are the plan of action. So, thank you. Hey, Heather, you're gonna be our second to last one. So, we have one more option or one more. >> Uh, yeah. My name is Heather Nielsen. Um, I'm actually a fifth generation Lander and
116I um am wanting to represent the the nonswim um side of things too for as far as safety goes. Um, my both of my kids right now are in the swim lessons. They're doing the two week blocks. It's awesome. I'm watching my little three-year-old get in there, get brave, and he can now crawl out of the pool. I think about that as I look at all the other kids and what if we fall into a body of water? What will they know to do? So, I just want to challenge you on that that side as well because I agree as um as it's been brought up, we we have to work together as a team. We have to come up with a solution. you guys can't print money, but this is important. And um as
117far as safety goes and bettering our community, it's important. It's important to do that. And I was also encouraged to hear Tom talk about I'm a physical therapist. I think there's a few of us in here. Um that the older generation is also using the pool. It's a great safe form of exercise. So, I just wanted to put that plug in there. I wanted to bring up that there's other people other than the swim uh swim club community uh and and our awesome swim team that the whole community finds value in. So, thank you. >> Last one. Jennifer, you're >> Okay. So, again, Jennifer Husb. This time I'm I'm representing the community of swimmers and people who use the pool, not just the Lander Swim Club. One of the things that I want you guys
118to know is that your budget report for the last two years has a statement in it that says, "As we look to the future, we are looking for ways for the whole budget to have less of reliance on the general fund." My question to this board is, what were those actions? And you can respond when you're ready. The second thing I would like to note is that um we did have a committee that met in April and came together to discuss what was going to happen to the pool. We knew the writing was on the wall that met in April. When is the next meeting more than welcome to respond as you are ready. The third one is that the pool budget, right, was misqued as saying that it was over budget in 2024 and
1192025. It was misqued. The budgets that were over, and this is in line item of other services and professional services were under central administration and board of education. Why such an increase in overbudget spending in those two departments? We're talking more than $8,000. My third question is, how is the dictate for the pool to increase um increase revenue at the same time as reducing staffing and reducing hours supposed to happen? There is no way that you can close the pool and expect it to double its revenue. So the question now, was the board aware of these fee increases? Was the board aware of these mandates? Was this board aware of the misquing of the budget? And when are we going to meet next? Thank you. don't have a lot of we don't respond to public
120comment, but from hearing a couple of those things, especially those last few, I feel like there's a little bit of inaccurate information. So, I'm going to chime in and I'll let other board members um I'm not sure where you're getting information about um board of education even having a budget. We are a voluntary board, so we don't have a budget. Um I'm not sure what the central admin issue is, but I want to just reiterate that we are a volunteer board. We meet once a month. So um we met in April as a committee with several other entities which includes the city and representative Larson. Takes a lot of work just to get that many outside agencies involved. And so I feel like that's a little bit of a rub for me because I'm a
121mom of three boys. I own a business. I do this on the side as everyone here does. Um, and so we also our general focus is educating our students. Um, and so yes, the pool is important, but it's kind of one of those things that fall in line when when time comes. um with the spring and having this new recalibration and having to figure out the budgeting with the state and the changing and silos. We were a very busy busy board and I just want to applaud this board um for the time and the effort that they put forth because um between emails and phone calls and stops in the grocery store, I know a lot of board members put in a lot of time. So, I just wanted to really quick address that. Um
122and then I think I'm going to hand it over to Mr. Harris just to talk about a couple of things. Um, as far as um, pool increases, that's not something that the board votes on. We don't vote on um, you know, increases to um, like the concession stand or anything like that. That's out of our our scope and curfew. Um, and so I think we'll we'll discuss that, but that isn't something that we have we formally ever voted on in the past or have voted on to date um, that I'm aware of. So, if there's any misconception with that, please fill me in on that. And then the last um thing I just want to reiterate it is um I appreciated the comment about you know separating this out and we shouldn't just look at
12318 and 20 because we are a community and I I wholeheartedly agree with that statement but I think it is important to realize that the school district and the board members that were elected to represent our school district which includes educating the students of Fremont County School District 1. Um, you know, we're looking at this as a big picture of what is this going to take away from those students. Um, and just reiterating that only 20% of that is used by the district. And so that's why we're looking at it that way because we have an obligation, we have a statutory duty that we took an oath at that we would um provide the school district. And so that's kind of has to be our first frame of that we're looking at. Obviously all students
124obviously is important but we have to look at all the students in Lander and um you know navigate all that. So um I will open it up to Mr. Harris to answer or comment and then any other board members. >> Thank you madam chair. I just want to let you guys know everybody who spoke up. Thank you for your comments. I got legal pad started with all of them. Questions to ask our business manager questions to ask myself board members here. Um, I don't have answers to every single thing that you asked. U, but I do have some of that information. I guess I'll start with just the the fees. Um, you know, we're we're not going to make money on the pool by raising fees and we're definitely not going to raise money toward
125this the district or for the pool by cutting programs or cutting lab swims or rec swims. Those two things what what Jennifer said is exactly right. You can't do both and expect to come out on top. What the school district's trying to do is not break even. We're not trying to break even. At our meeting in April, we did a little bit of math. We'd have to quadruple fees to even break even on what we're doing to cover the cost of the pool. Um the major drivers of of expense for the pool are staff. Um if you look at the budget breakdown, we budget about 320,000 325,000 for staff. Um it's expensive. The building's not that expensive in terms of the um the water or the utilities, but the staffing in our budget is $325,000
126for this fiscal year that ends on July or on June 30th. That is lifeguards, that's basket room, that's full-time employees, maintenance, all that kind of stuff that's associated with um you know, we're trying to come up with some some ways to do the district's part in terms of increasing revenue. There's there's only one way you can do that. You you increase fees. That's the only way to do it. What we've asked Angela to do is look at some increases to fees. It does roughly calculate out to be double what the current fees are. Um that's the proposal that we've asked her to look at. And in comparison to other aquatic centers, it's really not that unfavorable. Riverton's probably the closest in proximity to us. Their youth prices are going up to $5 as of July
1271. Their adult fees are going to $7 and their senior prices are going forward. Um, Pinedale, of course, they get subsidies from from local businesses and also from their tax structure. Residents at the Pineale Aquatic Center, the youth pay $3, adults pay six. Even with those subsidies, if you're a non-resident in Slo County, you pay four as a youth, 10 as an adult, and six as a senior. In Casper, the the family aquatic center is $7 if you're over the age of five. Um, let's see here. Uh, and I just looked at some other rec centers like And there are local gyms here in town if you want a day pass um at two of the most popular gyms in town. I won't say their names because I didn't check with it was okay to
128just leave them, but one is $10 a day if you want to drop in. If you want to take a class, it's 15. At the other one, I checked it's $12 for day access and 16 for for drop in. And those are forprofit businesses, so we're not trying to compete with them. We don't want to go that far. But I do think with the current price structure, it's one of the only levers the school district has control of. um some reasonable increase is probably worth considering and that's what we'd substantial to do. Um the prices that we have right now are locked in through the rest of June. So if a family wanted to get a one-year pass, for example, that would be at the current rates, it would be good for a year or
129a half a year depending on those those costs. Um the schedule that she put together based on on what Mr. between I asked her to work up is on the district's website and um if you search Lander swimming pool schedule on my on my browser that was the first result that came up was Bruce you click right there and get the the the fees and the the schedule for laps lessons and swims right on there. It's not the current one though because it changes every single week and so you get the general what I what I was referring to was you you can't get the the you you'll show up and will be closed. There's a different schedule that isn't that one and that's a problem. Excuse me. >> Okay. I'll have to look at
130the one I'm looking at here says summer swimming lessons 2026. It's a four-page document uh with times and schedules um for June and July. So, I I'm not sure. I'll look into that. >> Okay. Um so, that's that's that's kind of where we're at right now. I think if if we're looking for donors and we're looking for other forms of community support and a donor asks, well, what are the fees at your shoulder? They're probably with the current fee schedule, if I were a donor, I was someone looking to contribute, I'd say, well, your prices are low. I mean, in terms of market rates, I think for recreation facilities, we're low for a while with the current prices. And that's not that's not elitism. That's just basic market rates even for for other facilities, similar
131um similar types of facilities in our area. Um that being said, we're not wet at any particular cost. We're just trying to do what we can as a school district to increase revenues. We certainly don't want to price anybody out of the pool. We don't want to drive availability to such a low level that people can't get in there and enjoy the pool or use it. But we're trying to find this balance between knowing that we got to increase revenue to support the pool long term and like just sitting there doing nothing which which we don't feel is responsible as a public entity to just sit there when we have a lever that we can put some force on. Uh so just trying to figure out that balance. So that's what we asked Angela to
132do and uh that's what what the result was. I don't know if the board has any other further questions about that structure. It is linked on the website as mentioned. Um those fees would take effect on July 1st. So just to recap what those would be, regular admission to the pool for preschool would go from $2 to $4. Um grades 7 through 12, so secondary go 3 to six. Adults would go from 4 to 8 and senior citizens would go from 2 to 4. >> So >> again, reduce hours. That's the whole point here. Understand raising fees. The question is then when do you get to go if the doors are locked? >> Yeah. and also let them limit programs pretty much got cancelled. They lost their extra classes. >> We'll take all those. Thank
133you guys. >> Yeah, I do have Angela about what happened with the last and lesson the water class that you mentioned, but I'll defer to the chairman. Um and then one other comment that I just Mr. Chair or Mr. Harris, would you also address um that are just to clarify that our students enrolled in Fremont County School District number one do take swim lessons and are provided swim lessons. >> Um thank you madam chair. Yeah, absolutely. Our school district does have students enrolled in their districts and their schools come over for lessons. I don't know the frequency or like exactly how long they do that but as part of the PE curriculum we do have students going over to the aquatic center learning as well as second grade and then >> I don't know. >>
134All right, may I add it? Yes. Um, Superintendent Harris, I don't need an answer on this, but I'm curious if it could be looked at as we look at fees. I know CBC students used to get reduced rates at the pool. Um, there probably aren't any who use it, but does the Catholic College get reduced rates at the pool and should we raise those fees to match what the increase in rates to the public are? I don't even know if they do, but I know CWC, I think in the past has gotten reduced rates or CWC students. Um, and then um I'm curious, again, I know this will take crunching numbers and looking at schedules. I don't know need an answer now, but whether that $25,000 given from the city could help to mitigate any
135of the decrease in operating hours as a part of upholding community support for the pool this summer. Um, curious if we could put that money towards keeping the pool open longer. And then my ask for the public would be bring all your friends to the pool all the time to show them how great it is if we have the pool open for more hours than help fill it. Um, and then a final thing that I do think would be great to do at our meeting tonight, we have several board committee assignments posted on our website, and I'm curious if we could establish members of our school board to be on a for the next year or two on a pool committee. Um, and Superintendent Harris, you'd mentioned this earlier, but about the need, and it
136was reinforced again at our meeting tonight about coming back together and having a meeting with community members maybe in July to talk ne next steps for funding the pool and then figuring out, we kind of brainstorm together who would be a good fit for that, but maybe establishing a long-term working group kind of like the wreck board um or other boards that our district participates in that meets regularly so we make regular progress in so the community knows who to reach out to when they have concerns or ideas. Um, and I would be happy to volunteer to be on that board or on that committee. I think there's a lot of other great candidates on this board too for that. But I think having some sort of point people or established committee would be good
137moving forward. >> Thanks. I will have further discussion on that. Um, anyone else? Hey, we still have a lot of such to cover. So, I'm trying to be mindful of everyone's time. Um, the next item under discussion, excuse me, is special education training. >> Oh, thank you, M. I was hoping we have student services director to make it to make better. Um so I'll share what I know about this. There may be other things you can add in July at the next meeting. Um but basically uh the W Department of Education assigns every school district what they call a determination every year to summarize how long the district is implementing special ed requirements. Uh so this year determinations are based on data from the 24 to 25 school year. It's always the most recently completed
138school year. There's a one year lag because graduation rates are part of this. Uh you know once really well on the compliance indicators so things have to do with timeliness of reports to the state or how quickly we evaluate students with disabilities those types of measures. We did really well in that area like over 95% as a district on several of those sub indicators. But then there's another half of the determination report that deals with what they call results indicators and we did not nearly as well on that and that ultimately bumped us down to the third of the determination levels out of four. So we're in a third of those which is not great. Um had to do a lot with our graduation rate for students with disabilities. Again we're talking low uh numbers
139low size. We had 14 students who were eligible to graduate 2025 school year and only five of them did on time. So that's an on-time graduation rate that's only over 35%. And that's going to knock your score down quite a bit. And for each of those nine students didn't graduate. I know that our high school teams have poured over the data. I know all those supports that we attempted, but at the end of the day, nine students didn't graduate on time. That affected our score significantly. When they don't graduate on time, they're often counted as dropouts. So, our dropout rate correspondingly looks like we had nine of 14 students drop out of high school of our 14 students with disabilities who should have graduated. And that also is another knock on your determination score. Um,
140one of the most concerning pieces though is how our students are doing on a statewide assessment. We had a very very low proficiency rate. I don't remember what it was off the top of my head, but very very low. The lowest it's been quite some time. Correspondingly, we have a very high rate of regular classroom placements over 90%. So, the majority of our students with disabilities are spending time in regular classrooms, which is awesome because they're getting great exposure to the regular classroom instruction. However, we're not sure if they're really getting the best specially designed instruction in those settings because then when they take the statewide assessment, they're not able to show us that they're proficient in large numbers. So, we're looking at that very closely. The the areas that Mindy has identified as as
141ways to kind of address those deficiencies on on the results side, she started a special ed general ed collaborative group with teachers and pair professionals this past year. They're going to continue that. you're talking about high improve instruction in the regular classroom for students with disabilities. Um specifically, uh you know, a big part of difficulties for kids with disabilities and for any kid for that matter is compounded when they're not in school consistently. Uh so attendance is a big issue that we're tackling with Matt Jac, get them to school if they're not at school. Um if they're not there, we can't. and then when the test comes, they're they're not prepared for it and they don't they're not able to perform. Uh for our students with significant cognitive disabilities, Mindy is interested in participating in
142a pilot program with some staff from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They're kind of like thought leaders at the at the college level in terms of literacy and numeracy instruction for students with these challenges. So, that's going to be great. And then of course the the comprehensive literacy state development grant, the CLSD grant that I've mentioned several times. A big focus of that improving tier one instruction. So we have high numbers of students with disabilities in those regular classrooms and we improve the instruction that happens there differentiation. I think that's going to pay big dividends especially as we improve language and literacy. The language understanding and building students vocabulary roots and suffixes and prefixes. We see Jennifer out in the audience. she's an SLT. She knows exactly what we're talking about there. When
143kids understand what you're telling them and can tell you what they know, we see much better results. So, those are just some of the strategies. I think Mindy will be available the next meeting and she can share more about that report. There's there's not anything um punitive that comes with that. The state does offer additional assistance to districts in our category. Uh but we kind of already kind of know what we need to do. we were aware of the problems and and that before we got the report we knew that we were going to be down on graduation rate because we did the night we didn't graduate on time. Um so I guess with that I'll just questions I can I do my best to answer or pass them on to >> questions for the
144board. Madam Chair, Mike at Well, first of all, if we were a one and we were 95% of everything, then he'd be bored. She'd have nothing to do. So, this gives her a chance to actually stay stay gainfully employed. So, that's um has for the f for the districts that have won, obviously, they're doing something that's pretty solid. Have we ever sent folks to sort of observe what they do in their districts and and bring back best practices and things like that? >> Yeah. U Madam Chair, Mr. Kale, yeah, we have visited a couple school district programs. Um not necessarily only for special education all the time, but a lot of times just tier one, like what's the best most effective practice for middle school students, let's say, and we'll take a team to those
145districts and check them out. But one of the things that WDE does well is they they visit multiple districts for special education reviews and then they're able to come back and provide that assistance and say, "Oh, when we were in XYZ district, we saw this and it was a similar situation to what you guys are dealing with one. We think you should try this." Um, so that's really really helpful. We don't always have to travel to see those places. We do some of that, but it's a lot more cost effective to call the WD or have them out here when they're in the area and ask them, "What have you seen to help us with this problem?" and then they can share their experiences >> and madam chair and and uh relative to the parents
146of these kids how engaged are they is is is part of our problem that we don't have parent engagement with some of these kids or or do we have really good parents something else >> yeah I think overall Mr. Madam chair Mr. be able to answer your question. I think the overall we have high levels of parent engagement. The world of special education can be kind of overwhelming with the the jargon and just the process. It's very rigid just by law. But we do have there's a parent survey that's a part of that calculation on the results side. We have really high participation rate on the survey. For the most part, it was positive. I think where we can do a little bit better is just like explain the various facets of the IP and
147how everything fits together. A lot of times just washes over parents. >> Sure. >> In my view anyway. So just taking the time to make sure they actually understand exactly what we're doing with their kid doing it and how we're going to reconfigure things if it's not effective. >> Anyone else questions for Mr. Harris? Um, so what is on the agenda to meet with us discussions in or is it just needed discussion? Um, Madam Chair, I was just gonna ask if you would prefer to have this on July agenda again so she could speak to it like that's probably >> she might like since since she I don't want to say, but since it wasn't quite as high a score as maybe she hoped for, she might want to be able to come in, too.
148Okay. Um, we are now slated to go into executive session for matters of employment but um and personnel but I would like to just um skip ahead to upcoming events and reminders for the public. Um June 24th and 25th the meeting of the select committee on school finance recalibration is actually happening here in this room. So the the state members um the state legislators are going to be meeting here. So um the agenda is attached on our board docs. So anyone from the public wants to go and they're having two days of meetings. I think the second day is discussion of high school athletics and activities and things like that. So if people want to speak up about the recent changes with the Wyoming high school athletic association cuts and discretion, I would encourage you
149all to do that. And then on the 24th that first day overall budget there could be public comment then and a chance for you to speak with your legislators about that. And then July 14th, Mr. Harris, just want to confirm. So our budget hearing is at 6 pm and then the regular school board meeting is to follow. So 6 p.m. is the time. Okay. So board 6 pm here July 14th for our budget hearing and then our school board. And with that I made a motion for us to madam chair. Can I just add on? >> Okay. >> Really quickly that um am I correct in understanding we cannot print money for the pool but um the select committee on school finance recalibration may have a lot of power in terms of determining what money
150is allocated to whom and for what. And so if you have thoughts on a pool or any other school funding issues that would be a good place to share those too as they do have more power over the first streams than they do. >> Yes Mara that's a great point. Um, and just to reiterate that too, you know, the pool is an enhancement. So, like with the Senate File 90, that that does for regular facilities. So, I think that enhancement is is a different um and I don't know if they're talking about enhancements or things like that, but I mean, um, I would encourage anyone to go and talk at least about the silo because that's currently where the issue is that we're having. I would move to move to executive session now. back out
151to pretty much adjourn. So if you don't need that's why we held it at the end of the week so you didn't have to leave. Thank you all for coming. I didn't mention that earlier. A move to return. All in favor by saying I just one more reminder July 14th is our budget hearing and our regular school board meeting and if anyone can attend June 24th for that recalibration meeting here. >> I have a quick question. I have never like testified or made public comment. Do you have to sign up in advance? Does anybody know? It seems very scripted for a lot of these communities. >> As far as I know, you only have to sign up at double check agenda. They have to anticipate a whole lot >> because I looked at the agenda
152and they've got, you know, the activities thing and it's got the people that are going to present talk about activities and then it just has a line item public comment. >> So, okay. Well, that's how I understand it too. like if you're testifying or speaking on they have some sort of room to you have to but they do just have a public comment section so I think you can't just okay so you can go either later >> so I should just say sus bad control goodbye All right, meeting. I just really want to hit that again to get out how