001Do you have a request? Um, I am able to make the closest for the approval. Okay. Discussion hearing none. I'd like to get a motion for the adoption of the agenda. Second discussion. All those in favor? Hi. >> Hi. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Hi, Scott. >> Sorry, I'm late. >> You're good. >> Okay. Uh, Harris. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, several recent. There's been a lot that's happened in the last few weeks here as we wind down the summer. Um, first of all, we had all of our staff members back at LBHS yesterday for our back to school staff assembly. Uh, it was great to see everybody. a lot of positive energy. Uh took staff photos individually and then a big room photo which will be going up on the website. Um I
002said a few words and then we had a guest speaker named Christina Kousmich who you may have read about on County 10. You've seen some of her stuff online. Um that was a great dynamic welcome speech by her and she did a merit session last night as well. But uh very good to have the staff back. It's always a little bit weird in the central office when there aren't people in the schools and there aren't students. So this feels more like the real world. People start coming back. Um, along with that, I wanted to just welcome our new certified staff. We have a few teachers I want to mention. I'll just go by school again. Colobby Carr is a new kindergarten teacher for us. Rachel Kemner and Hannah Labuda will both be special education teachers.
003Kelly Spurlock will be doing academic intervention. And Gabby Vincent will be doing speech language pathology. Um, at Baldwin Creek, we have Marco on Austin Fazi. Did I say that right, Connie? >> All right. Um, teacher coming to us from Very excited to have him. At Lander Middle School, Betsy Belin will do special education. Bailey Casease will be our new computer science teacher. Carrie Dcler will do special education. Courtney Derby's got seventh grade science. Emily Nash will be doing family uh super science. Um Molly Olsson will be the art teacher. So those are the new LMS certified folks. And then a handful at Lander Valley High School. Way to Anderson being Otto. Megan Boyson is our new ELA teacher, English language arts. Michael Nelson will be teaching art, also at Pathfinder. And Michael Melson, if you
004see a really sweet mid70s baby blue Cadillac in town, that's Michael Melson. Immediately recognizable car, nice land yacht. Um, Robert Parker will be teaching band. Janera Cely be teaching special education at Eric Watson as a learning culture teacher. So that's our new certified folks. They're all super excited and the enthusiasm has gone off the charts. We do our initial contract teacher training that started last week. Great participation and engagement from most folks. Really excited to have them. And last but not least, our two new administrators. Nathan Butler is here in the back row. Uh our new assistant principal again at Peak Elementary. And then Matt George, our activities director, is uh also new in the district. And I don't see him. Hopefully, he's doing a two a day practice or helping a coach somewhere. those
005activities started up for the most part yesterday. So, um, welcome to all of those folks. Uh, next, the WDE did a couple of professional development events. Did the first part of August here. One was called Teacher Con and that was on August 4th in Laramie. We had great representation as a school district at that at that conference. And among those that were formally recognized by the state for different things. I'll just shout out a few of them here. Richard Atnet, LVHS science teacher, was recognized as a a finalist for the presidential award for excellence in math science teaching. Um Morgan Han, of course, our our 2025 Wyoming teacher of the year from LBHS, also a social studies teacher there. Rachel Peters, uh also LBHS math, she was a winner of the same award that Richard
006Atne is a finalist for, but in her previous cohort, so she was one of the national winners coming from Liner Valley. Stephanie Ryan, our peak kindergarten teacher. She received the first WDE Rising Star Educator Award, which is for an early career uh teacher in their first five years. Uh she was nominated by the school and won that over all the other competition in the state, which is really exciting. There's a nice picture on County 10 if you happen to to see that article. And then Lander Valley High School of course was recognized previously for the 2025 school of excellence uh as a school of excellence and they got a special recognition at Teacher Con for that as well. So congratulations to all those individuals and to those schools that that they represent. Very exciting to
007see that at the state level. A couple of folks mentioned it was just kind of embarrassing how often the they kept saying Fremont one from the state chmont one again. It's like when uh Schindler's List or something like that is up for an academy award just kind of sweeping. So it's kind of exciting. On the heels of the teacher con conference, the 307 principal leadership academy also took place in Laramie and uh several people from our district there did were represented and honored that at that function. Johnny Hordick is the assistant principal of the year for the state of Wyoming as you guys know. Uh but two of our administrators were presenters and are also serving as principal mentors for that group. Dedra Me did some sessions at the conference and Brad Nuendorf as well
008as a mentor and did a couple different sessions at that conference. So great to see that that leadership and that initiative and that recognition at the state level for our folks. We have amazing people here and these are just a few of them. I wanted to shout them out um as we're getting going on the next school year. Finally, we have a guest in the audience here. Dallas Meyers is the education director for Wyoming agriculture in the classroom and he's got a special presentation that he wants to make. this. >> Well, good evening community members, Mr. Chairman, board members. Thank you for giving us a few minutes. My name is Alice Myers and I serve as the director the Wyoming agriculture in the classroom. Along with me tonight is Sarah Bridge, our director of philanthropy.
009It is our honor. Please leave your applause for me. It is our honor wying a classroom to recognize Neil Bong as the 2025 Wing Agricultural Classroom Educator of the year. Neil has gone above and beyond in bringing stewardship to life for all of his students. His creativity, passion, and commitment ensure that students not only learn about Wyoming's heritage industries, outdoor recreation, tourism, hospitality, natural resources, and agriculture, but he also sees his role in shaping the future of our state for our students. On behalf of Wyoming in the classroom, we are proud to present Neil with this award along with a check for $2,500 in recognition of his outstanding dedication and impact. Please join me in congratulating Neil Wong as an educator who truly makes a difference for students. I think >> the sun's hitting you
010pretty heavy there. D >> turn this way. >> Your shadow. We want to be able to see that pretty face. >> Want me to come out? I don't know why the picture. >> Yeah, two baldies in the center. Different kind of baldies. >> Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. And if we could how about another round of applause and all of the wonderful folks that uh that Mr. Harris uh honored tonight. I think uh it just sure shows what a great district we have. >> You have anything else? >> I'll have plenty more next month, but >> Okay. All right. Fair enough. Uh, okay. So, public comment. Is there any public comment on items that are not part of the agenda tonight? >> Not part. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> You want to state your name?
011And >> so, I guess like part of it is sort of like a department, but it's not really part. Um, so, uh, Sarah Riley. Uh, first thing is I wanted to say thank you all so much for bringing Christina Kmitch to town. like she's been my idol for the last decade and I'm just like jumping out of my skin. She was incredible. So, thank you for that. Uh huge asset to the community to be able to see and hear the things that she has to say, especially since mental health is a top priority right now. Um and then the second thing I wanted to say uh which is adjacent to but not actually related to um the agenda was that I owe an apology to this board and this community for um a misunderstanding um
012of the way things were um presented with a new rule versus policy for CKA and um the language that was used um wasn't very clear and instead of coming to clarify it um which I should have done first I did not and it kind of created a little bit of kurbuffle for people um and not understanding what was happening and um I wanted to sort of take ownership of that mistake and thank you guys for your patience and understanding. Um it is never my intent to be a foreign side of this board or this district um especially uh by doing things uh that are factually incorrect. Um, so I just wanted to say uh a deepest apologies for any trouble that that caused and thank you all for your graciousness um and understanding when that
013happens. So that's all. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Any other public comment for things that are not on the agenda? Is there any public comment tonight on an item that is on the Okay. Hearing none, we can move on. Uh, board member reports. >> Yeah, Mr. Chair, I'll chime in with just a point of interest. Turns out Zoom doesn't uh allow you to connect to this meeting from out of the country. So, took me a minute to get a VPN set up so I could convince that I was in Miami rather than where I'm at. So, but I'm glad I could join. Thank you. Well, the uh your background makes me really curious. >> You're incognito for sure. >> Thanks for joining us, Scott. Mara, >> uh, I just wanted to share I joined
014a few days of the high school orientation for students who went rock climbing as part of their orientation and was just so inspired by I would call it apathetic trying to not be cool enthusiasm, but you could see the enthusiasm and was really struck by I asked them all what they're most nervous about for starting high school and almost every single one said their grades, which I think is telling of their priorities and really cool that they're nervous about doing well in school and not all the other things that can be scary. >> Great. Thanks. >> Others just a couple quick things. Uh first, I assume it's Matt that was primarily responsible. No, >> no, it was not. That was Edward Barnes, our project. It's all him. >> Well, to Mr. Barnes, I sure would
015like to uh issue a deep felt appreciation for bringing Christina on. That was a amazing event. I I was able to attend and uh she sure tugged a bunch of heart strings in that audience. I can tell you that >> we were Facebook attendance as well. That was absolutely. Uh the other thing that I need to bring to the board's attention, I did email send this email. I didn't get it until I didn't send it until today anyway. Uh and that is that we have on September each Thursday at noon from September 18th through October 9th, we have a free one-hour virtual workshop that we're um able to attend followed by an in-person workshop at the Hilton Garden in Casper on October 18th, which is a Saturday uh from 10:00 a.m. to 3. purpose of
016this series is to provide participants with the knowledge and skills to talk with legislators ahead of the recalibration process. Uh so that might be an interesting one for anyone on the board that wants to go to attend. The the board does have funds for travel expenses for those kinds of things. So I would encourage anyone that wants to do that to do so. Let's go ahead and if you're interested, please send Jenny your uh your interest and she can make sure to get uh to pay for these uh for both the virtual deals as well as the in person and then she can help us arrange some travel. If we could maybe get that done within the next week or so, that would be great. >> Mr. Chair, >> I guess that would be a
017good um segue. just wanted to share an open invitation and I'll remind everybody in our September meeting, but on the 16th of Hold on. No, the the wrong month. Sorry guys. The 17th of September um no sorry the 18th of September the state board of education is going to be meeting and we're here in Lander. Um, and so if anybody would like to come and listen to that and to like I said to segue off that Jared um I'm on the legislative committee. I'm the chair of that and we really have been discussing this summer and during our retreat the need for um the state board to be more involved with our legislators because obviously there are policy and decision-m effects as we've seen through some recent legislation everybody in the state. So that's would
018be a good time if there's any concerns that our board has or things like that. Um just working together to have those meetings with them before recalibration. And so >> and next meeting you'll give time. >> Yes. So we meet the Tuesday before. Um and then the the state board will be that Thursday. So I'll send a reminder and I'll have a little bit better information on our agenda. >> Okay. Cool. Thanks. Mike and I were talking a little bit offline about how we could become more engaged with our legislators here and maybe inviting them to a me meeting to present what's going on at the state or you know something along those lines might not be that >> bad thing to do. So we'll work on that a little bit. >> Any other reports?
019>> Dan, thank you for being here. I hope your summer has been awesome. What's going on? Uh, nothing much, Mr. Chair. Um, well, sports started yesterday, but there's been so much stuff happening over the summer. Our football boys have been out there every day. Volleyball's been practicing every day. Basketball practice for a while. Swimming's been practicing every day. So, there's been a lot of work being put in over the summer and hopefully it all culminates to be something really awesome this fall sports season. And then obviously school is starting Tuesday. And with that, our student council is working really hard to launch an Instagram. We had it last year, but it wasn't quite what we wanted. So this year, we're working really hard to really connect with our students and boost school spirit. And our
020goal would ultimately be to have the biggest student section in Wyoming and be the loudest one. So hopefully we can get there. >> And then musical auditions are on Tuesday as well. First day of school, I think they're doing all over. But yeah, lots of stuff happening and excited for the new year to start. Thank you. >> Very cool. Thank you. Any questions for Native. All right, Mr. Harris, superintendent. >> I was just going to Mr. Chair, thank you. I was going to rag from Bean. I'm not sure if you guys are all aware. um she's not only the uh representative to the board, she's also this year's student council president and she's also this year's National Honor Society president among all the other things that she does for her extracurricular. So I just wanted
021to say kudos to her and when you're hearing representation from her, you're hearing it from lots of different groups and activities because she's in about all of them leading most of things. So >> I like for your service to the school. >> I'd love to say I'm surprised. >> Right, Mr. Harris. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of the board, um, of course, we're barreling ahead toward the start of the 2526 school year. There's a lot of stuff going on. Wanted to provide you with a a brief glimpse into what's going on with our enrollment. I know that's been a major question and what's going to happen um for a lot of different reasons, but our enrollment as of this afternoon when I checked um I think two hours ago, we were at 1,510 students,
022so slowly approaching last year's total, but it's likely that we may be a little bit less than where we were last year. Still, it's looking a lot better than it did earlier this summer and even earlier this month. A lot of late registrations coming in. Um just a word about, you know, uh students with IEPs or students that that have uh special education needs. That number is holding pretty steady. We have 263 students with IEPs. So despite the overall decrease in enrollment, we are still maintaining a pretty decentsized number of students with IEPs. Um so just just a note there. Grade level enrollments vary widely. And uh just an example of this uh at peak alone in the kindergarten class we have 79 students registered which is abnormally low and in the grade level right
023above that first grade we got 124 students >> so almost a 50% increase from one grade level to the next it makes it very difficult um for a lot of different things uh planning of staffing food service uh supervision on the playground all that kind of stuff is a little more difficult when you got these these variances from grade level to level. So, >> just to hold a bunch of those back, take them back to kindergarten. >> I don't know. Some of them might be moving up. I don't um it'll be interesting to see where we end up. We we are seeing several parents came in today to register their children at the the kiosk that we have here at the district office. A lot are doing it from home with other places. So, they're
024coming in and we'll see where we're at. But, yeah, so far it's looking like not as precipitous of a drop as we might have thought. >> It's good to hear. Um related to that on on funding, of course the general fund is tied closely to our average daily membership, but federal funds um are related to that, but also like numbers of students with poverty, community poverty threshold and things like that. Last month, as late as our our regular meeting last month, we didn't know what was going on with our federal funds and whether we were going to have those funds or they were going to be uh significantly cut. And with by federal funds that funds, I'm thinking about like 21st century uh community learning centers, uh title one, title two, title four, those different
025federal funds that we uh really rely upon in the district. Uh we learned on July 23rd that our federal funds for lights on would be released. So the total awards, there's three different types of grants that combine for the total year award of $464,41 that we were looking at maybe not getting or getting to know. So, we were fully funded for that, which is awesome. That funds our afterchool program and our summer uh lights on program. And then on the 25th of July, we received word from the state that our federal funds would be awarded in our other title areas, which is a huge relief. Um, our title one allocation is almost 7 $656,000. So, that funds all are part of nine positions in the school district and addition professional development and resources and materials.
026uh title 2A that allocation is $175,137 and some change. That funds part of six positions including all of our instructional facilitators. And then our title 4 allocation came to $112,771 roughly and that funds part of two different positions. So as you can imagine, if we hadn't gotten those funds, we would be looking into other uh options to fund those positions. Those are the a lot of those are certified. The majority are certified positions. so that folks are on the contract and speaking with Chairman Kale, we we knew we were going to honor those contracts. But with this federal funding, now we don't have to dip into reserves or do something more drastic, which is really a relief. Um, so we're proceeding as normal after some stressful months there in the summer. The allocations came significantly
027later than what we normally expect, but we're in good shape and and that crisis is the year. If I can interrupt, I I can't remember from our budget session. Were those included in our budget numbers? I mean, were we anticipating those coming in? Mr. Chair, those are our our budget that was presented in July as our general fund budget. There was some reference to federal numbers in there. I believe >> they're in they are in there. >> Yep. They were those are part of that. Okay. Thanks for asking. >> Mr. Chair, >> yeah, >> I I have a question that I maybe should have asked during when we were voting on the consent item agenda, so I apologize, but I just have a question. Um Oh, actually, Mr. Harris, I'm sorry. Were you finished? >>
028I don't think you were. >> Okay, I'm sorry about that. Um, so my question, um, with the recent legislation with, um, homeschool reporting that that had changed, right, where families now don't aren't required to report. Is that correct, >> Mr. Chair? Mr. Jacobs. So, we were advised to send out those letters asking parents to let us know if they're homeschooling. Um, but there is no enforcement mechanism. If parents don't respond to those letters, we're not going to track down or >> Sure. >> I just ask because I see obviously that quite a few were sent and I'm wondering, you know, for time for our staff, it seems like that's probably pretty timeconuming to mail out those and send those letters and knowing that there's no enforcement of it, there's nothing really to track. It just
029was curious if we thought that's something and and I didn't know if it was part of childf find where we have we're obligated legally to you know reach out to those families or you know that's something that we should consider no longer doing. >> Mr. Chair, Mrs. Jacobs, yes, that is something that a lot of districts have been discussing and we talked about with our legal counsel because of child fine is one of the main reasons we're going to continue to send the letters. Um, but as far as like what we do if a student or a family doesn't respond, there is no enforcement mechanism and there is no longer any reporting of curriculum. So they don't have to furnish anything to the school district. >> So we'll no longer be voting on the when
030Dedra app provides us that list. Okay. Thank you. Just wanted to clarify that. >> Child, can you educate us a little bit? >> Sure, Mr. Chair. Child finding just refers to the the process by which um school districts identify students who may be needing special education services. So we're required to cast a broad net and try to locate any student who resides within our district boundaries that they may need special education services whether they're homeschooled, private school or enrolled in the school district. We have to try to identify those kids. So there's a lot of outreach involved. >> Thank you. If uh if you don't have anything else, I think the next thing on the agenda is executive session. So I need to get a motion to adjourn into executive session. >> So moved. >>
031Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any oppos? Motion carries. Hopefully this won't be too long. >> Mr. Chair, I'm going to call you from a different number. So just answer it when you see it, I guess. >> Out of country number. >> Yes. I'd like to uh >> What's up? >> oh, I'm sorry. Just being ablection. All right, I'd like to bring the meeting up to order. Could I get a motion to come out of executive session? Rejourn. >> Second. All those in favor? >> I motion carries. All right. And I need to get a motion on the personnel actions as presented. >> So move second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. All right, Mike, I'll have you present this one, but I
032need to get before we do that, I need to get a motion to for uh the use of Fremont County Bose funds as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Mike, you want to talk us through this whole? >> Sure. I can introduce it and Mr. Sme, if you got additional details, feel free to chime in. But um our new ad teacher, Eric Watson, is interested in getting some fence materials and supplies to refence the district's parcel um at the end of Dylan Drive, East Dill Drive. They have 60 acres up there as for the site of a future school if we needed it. Uh it's just pasture right now. Uh the fence is down on two sides and the other two sides are kind of weak and just barely hanging on. So getting to
033get those materials and then have students from the a classes uh learn how to repair fence, repair that, get it in closed so that it could be used for other things down the road. Uh here in the agenda there's for the materials. Lander Valley was the lowest of the local bids. Um, so the total amount if you all if you all were to approve it would be for $4,278.56 um for those materials from Valley Lumber and what's our uh current balance for the proceeds roughly 250,000 is over that >> it's Mr. Chair members of the board it's it's close to a quarter of a million dollars. It's been accumulating for several years without any any useful. >> Any other discussion? All those in favor? >> I carries. And then is the U and Lamb project
034separate from that? Mr. Chair, yes. It's the same funding source, but it would be for a different project also with LBHS a. So this is a partnership between the school district and CWC. Uh we wanted to use some funds from the Fre Pemont County Bosey's account to purchase 10 use. Um would be disseminated through AI and then we'd have lambs and the a students could use those to raise learn about raising lambs and then some of them would be used for show. Um so yeah, a couple different things trying to get some hands-on experience for some of our kids who maybe don't have their own lifestyle. For those not in aggro world, AI does not mean artificial intelligence in this particular demonstration. >> I think the internet want to look it up. >> All right.
035Can I get a motion or approval of using Bosey's funds for you profit? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? I would just uh my only comments. I think this is fantastic. And I think it's a wonderful wonderful thing for the high school tweeting. I appreciate the that our teacher down there bringing this project to the phone. That's pretty cool. All those in favor? >> I I motion carries. And now for my favorite time in the evening. I need to get a motion for the approval of a donation from law for a grant of $17,750 uh for the discus area improvements. >> So moved. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> Thank you to Laura. >> Any opposed? Motion carries indeed. Thank you, Lauren. And also from Moore, I need to get a
036motion for approval of their donation for funds for project graduation in this case in the amount of $5,000. >> Mr. Chair, >> yes. >> Sorry to clarify, is this from Laura? >> I'm sorry, I that's looking at the wrong line item there. Thank you. And I do have a question on this because um if you don't mind, not that I'm not going to approve this, but um we were talking earlier when we were having our discussions about the rec board. And so Mr. Sweeney, this might be directed to you, but we talked about how the rec board had to be used for community projects. And so I'm just curious how, not that I don't want us to approve this, and I think it's great, but project graduation seems like it's not necessarily a community project.
037It seems very specific to students at LBHS or Pathfinder. And so I'm just curious how we were able to swing that. >> Okay. And Eileen's not here. So I just thought that was part of their bylaws or or some sort of agreement because we talked about that with the pool that we'd only be able to subsidize what was public use versus school district. And and so that just made me think when I saw this, I'm like, well, project graduation seems very specific to uh to Lander students. So I just was wondering if we had a thought on that. >> Yeah. And thinking back many years when I was back on that board, this does seem like it's not part of the doesn't seem to meet the bylaws because everything that we did with, you know,
038whether it was the loas cover on their on their arena up there or the new bike paths out at Johnny behind the rocks or, you know, whatever it was, there always seemed to be a public usage piece, >> which again, I'm not trying to complain. I'm just curious because >> makes me wonder if we could >> tweak it differently. So, just a thought. >> Do we want to because I don't want to get >> crossways with their bylaws. Do we want to wait on this one and have Eileen check into it a little bit more or be comfortable with >> Well, I feel like they're the ones that wrote the check. They're >> they're the ones that need to figure that out. I guess maybe if as a board if there's questions later on, then
039maybe I don't know. >> All right. I think we had a motion and a second. Mike was Did you move it? I did make the motion. Second. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Okay. >> Any more discussion? >> All those in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carries. >> All right. And then we have I need to get a motion for the approval of amendments to fiscal year 2025 budgets. >> Oh, chair. >> Yes. >> I believe we have one more donation from >> lure education. Yeah, >> I don't see it. >> I've only got two. >> Oh, there's no PDF. Says consider donation grant from Laura Foundation in amount of $10,000 to fund expenses related to Lander Middle School's Wind River Education trip. September 8th through 12th. >> Okay, great. Now, I'm still looking just at
040the PDF. So, >> yeah, I apologize. The PDF for this item came in yesterday. That's why it wasn't attached at the published when this agenda was published tomorrow. >> Thank you very much. Can I get a motion as such? >> Second. >> All right. Um, Mike, would you talk about this program just a little bit? >> Sure. So, I can I'll tell you a little bit of general information and I'd invite Mr. Horton and Mr. morning to chime in since they're helping organize this way more than I am. Um, so this is a chance for Niner Middle School sixth graders to do some place-based education up at the Whiskey Mountain Conservation Camp, which is run by owned by the Game of Fish. Um, but they'll be going up in September for a couple of days
041and some some overnights uh to learn about a local um science, local science, cultural studies, social studies, um, a lot of different biology aspects. There's a whole lot of different curricular standards that we're going to hit through the trip and not to mention an awesome way to involve community members and hopefully build some camaraderie and some cohesion among the new sixth graders as they start middle school. So with some more detail, Mr. Horton or Mr. Morton could talk about the community partnerships and exactly what the activities will be. >> Mr. Chair, members of the board, super excited about Win River and appreciative of your support of the program. Um it is a really cool collaboration of a lot of community members in and around Lander. We'll be at a game of and fish site. The
042vast majority of the instructors are scientists from different organizations around town and around the county. Um Big Horn Sheep Center is involved. No is teaching a leave no trace class. Um Laura is supporting financially. I believe Kowanas is going to be supporting financially. Um but students will take eight core classes that are mainly science related um and draw from kind of the core of middle school science. So middle school science has a band of standards and um so yeah there will be acorn classes, a couple water cycle classes, um couple wildlife classes, there's petrol up there, so there will be like a cultural historical class. Um, one of the water class waterfall, the other water class is kind of down the the um, creek to the lake. Um, leave no trace leadership team building sort
043of class. Um, archery, learning uh, basic physics through archery. I think those are the core classes. And then there will be um, we we don't all fit on campus at one time. So, we'll split the sixth grade class in half. One group will go up Monday, Tuesday night, come down. Another group will come up say um Wednesday, Thursday night. So, they'll all get like two rounds of evening activities as well. Believe Dallas Myers is going to be teaching fly fishing in the evenings. Um our teachers going to come up and do like a mountain art project and um just other opportunities like that. So, um full on school. Uh it's definitely not like a camp or an extracurricular thing. It's science school. It's it's um teaching middle school science standards in a way that we
044can't replicate in the classroom. And we've got the commitment from our whole sixth grade team, our whole science department and our whole PE department. So um be up there with group as well along with myself and awesome. >> Any questions for the team? All right. All those in favor I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Cool. Pro. >> Okay. Okay. So, I need to get a motion for and I guess the motion appropriate motion would be be it resolved that the general fund in instruction budget 1000 program code for the 2425 fiscal year be amended to 17,750,000 and the food service budget fund 51 be amended to 1,8,000. That motion >> I get a motion or I make a motion to what Jar just said. I'll second that. >> All right. Uh Travis, any any discussion
045on this? >> Mr. Chair, no. I mean, this basically just exercise that we have to do for a lot of show. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I carries. All right, we're on to discussion items. Uh first readings we need to go over policy GCQC. Mr. Harris. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So GCQC has to do with the resignation of professional staff. And the way the original policy or the current version of the policy reads is that if a staff member certified staff member resigns after the contract period, so after May 15th, there are kind of graduated penalties uh depending on the lateness of the resignation. And currently what the policy states is that if you are in that first month after the contract period, it's actual cost of the employee and employer portion
046of health benefits for one month. Then the second month, it's two months and then after July 15th, it's three months. So the way the policy is worded now, that penalty is tied to health insurance premiums, which is confusing because we have had in the past some school district employees who looked design late but weren't taking school district insurance which made it kind of funny to link those two things together. This amended version um talking with Mr. Sweeney, talking with our board chair about this, the new version will base that penalty on a percentage of the employees gross salary. So 2% for the first month after the contract period, 4% for the second, and then after July 15th, 6%. Um, the other thing that does is it's sort of a graduated amount based on the uh
047length of time you've been in the district and and potentially the salary schedule for the position. If it's a higher paid position, there's a there's a larger number because you're paying more and it doesn't rely on the uh the health insurance in any way to to set that rate. So, we we thought about just linking it to a dollar amount. Um, but that might require more frequent revisions, especially if it's related to the health insurance premiums. So, typically increase year-over-year discussion thoughts on this car. [Music] You can hear me. Okay. >> Um, so I just got some questions like can we do our incentive? How many people do we incentive? >> Um, Mr. Chair, Miss Arms, I I don't recall off the top of my head. I think it's been pretty consistent your year. I
048think it's in the upper teens most years between certified and classified. >> I just I I just have some concerns. Um mainly like when people do resign lately, it's late. It's because of life events. And uh not all life events happen with the school schedule a lot of times. And so I worry that us getting into this policy, we're going to just spend a lot of time deciding which life events qualify or which life events we're going to say you don't have to. You know what I mean? Like that we're going to be just stuck manning this policy while rather than I mean I like our incentive. I think that gets a lot of people who know that they're they have plans. They're already going to leave or retire or whatever and our incentive gets
049the majority of those. And that's what we want because we want to be able to advertise early. We want to have the biggest pool. That's what we want. That's what our goal is. And so I just worry what is our goal with this. And then if people stick around because of this, are they going to be happy employees that we So that's just the concerns. Thanks. Other discussion on this topic? >> Mr. Chair, just for the board's reference, there have been the waiver stipulations remain intact under this version. And since this policy, this latest version was put in place. Um, in the fall of 23, the board said they considered three waiver requests. The boards granted two of those and and denied one. So, that's just a little bit of the history with the waivers.
050Any other discussion? Any any changes we need to make to this before we move to second reading? [Music] All right. Hearing none. Making the slow move. Okay. Hearing none. We'll move on. Uh the next issue is policy CKA. Uh just to make just to to clear up any confusion, we we have two two competing items going on and they seem like they're competing, but they're truly not. When the legislature passed HP 172, uh what they required is that if we want to continue to train or uh to train our our employees relative to concealed carry, we have to pass a rule. A rule is different than a policy. Rule has different pro promo promulgation. Probably said that wrong. um procedures, the 45day waiting period um after notification, blah blah blah. Um however, that said, we
051did pass the rule and the rule is now in effect uh for the district, which makes CKA redundant. Everything in CKA that deals with training is covered in the rule. Everything that everything else in CKA is null and void because it would contradict what the legislature did. So at this point really what we're talking about is just blanket getting rid of polic CKA in favor of that rule. Is that did I explain all that correct Mike? >> Mr. Chair. Exactly. Yeah. So the rule can stand alone. It doesn't need a supplemental policy. Confirm that with our our district legal council that the rule is sufficient. You don't have to have a supplemental policy. Um so all these other policies that were based on the previous state statute are no longer Okay. That is that clear
052as to everyone understand what's going on there? >> Thanks for providing that clarification. >> Any any discussion on this, >> Mr. Chair? So, do we need to go through and um vote to delete each one of these or can we blanket that and are we waiting till next meeting? It looks like it's under discussion. So, we need to go through this twice as formality. Okay. Yeah, these are this is the first reading this meeting. So, we'll still need to do this officially next meeting and vote on it >> and then we could during that it doesn't matter, but I'm just curious. We could just make a motion to delete all of those in one vote or do we need to vote? Okay. >> No, I think we can do that in one deal. >> Okay.
053>> Thank you. My only question and it's and it's very preunctry kind of a procedural thing is u you know all of these are lumped together in boards rules are a little bit separate is that right or will it be sort of like a policy and it says CKA >> Mr. chair. So it looks exactly like a policy. It just says CKA and it has rule in parenthesis. Oh, it's in word docs just like a policy. >> Okay. Okay. Is there any other discussion on that item? All right. I wanted to have a discussion about human resources. We have not had a human resources officer within the district. Um, and I think if my I just wanted to have a discussion I human resources if it would be worth bringing that as in as an
054administrative position. I asked Mr. Harris and Mr. Sweeney to put together a sort of a proposal as to how we could do that and fund that position, what that would look like. So why you wanted to move forward? >> Sure, Mr. Chair, members of the board. So this would be a a dedicated HR professional, someone with specialized training and experience in hiring on training, benefits, internal investigations like complaints, title N, title 7, that sort of thing. Uh hopefully to help streamline the process except one, uh the more we have those functions kind of spread out across, I think about four different people within the central office. Um, I surveyed superintendents to see how many other districts in the state have an HR director or a manager and they got responses from 26 districts. Of those
05526, 16 said they have a position in their district that does this. Um, and it ranged from very small districts to the largest in the state. One district that's about our size outsources its HR functions to a third party in a different town entirely, which I thought was interesting. I was not expecting to hear that. Um so that leaves 10 districts that responded don't have this position. The largest of those districts is Lincoln 2, which is Star Valley. Um but mostly the smaller districts don't have a position of those that responded. At least um Travis is reaching out through WPO to other business managers to see what those what those business managers have to share. Some districts combine HR functions with other positions. So they may have an HR manager who does HR and a
056small piece in addition like a federal grants manager. Um, one district ties it in with the business manager, which is not what I would recommend in Fremont one. We've got enough on Travis's plate. Um, I asked for job descriptions. I got a couple. I don't have nearly anything yet to I don't have enough information yet to really know what I would put out as a proposal, but I'm gathering more and more information. I had a good conversation with Torington superintendent. They recently went to an HR director position. Um, he had some great feedback on how that's been working for the benefit of their employees and their community. So, I I'll I'll get more information. I just wanted to share what I have preliminarily and then see if there's any other questions that you all have
057that I can answer for you. In the meantime, >> Mr. Harris, so you said there these responsibilities are spread over four people currently. >> I I I think it's it's about four. So, myself, Mr. Sweeney, Jenny Johnson, um Lisa Fouts, payroll and benefits. Those are probably the primary dedit, title seven. She's kind of our our officer in those those areas. So, I guess it would be five. >> Yeah. >> And and would you anticipate that we would that it would be worth the expenditure to consolidate that into one to one person? Is this is this going to be worth the money rather than other ways that we could spend it? >> Depending on what the cost is. I I I'm not really Mr. Mr. Chair, Mr. Jensen, I'm not really sure exactly what other districts
058are paying an HR manager or director. I'm guessing it's a significant amount. It's it's pretty specialized position. So, we would just have to look at that and see what the cost benefit would be. I think that for the people who are doing some of the HR stuff, it's not too much of an imposition probably now because they're they're used to it. that's been part of the job description, but it could improve. Um, you know, one of the areas I look at is onboarding and training. We have a lot of training that's going on at the school level, some through the central office. Um, but it's it's it could maybe be gathered together and made more uniform. Um, particularly in some areas around policy and things like that. Um, but that's a concern I have. And
059then the other concern would be like with internal investigations. If we get a grievance or a complaint, those things can eat your if you're an administrator taking all the time to look into that. If we had someone who could do that work and that's their their dedicated role, that might alleviate a lot of the pressure off off administrators to do those investigations at a high level at high quality without sacrificing other components of their job. >> Okay. I think just in principle, I think I'm I'm not sure I would support adding an additional position given declining enrollments and some budgetary uncertainty for the future, but but maybe I guess >> um I had one question which was the third party the school that had a third party in a different town. Was that still a
060district employee or were they hiring like someone at an HR firm cont? Yeah, Mr. >> Chair, Miss Gans, that was a a completely non-school district um entity, another external company based in a nearby city that's a larger city that has an HR company with services for hire. >> Do you know much about that price? Is it comparable to hiring a full-time person or >> Mr. Chair and Mans? I don't know yet. I just got that information today. Um and I'll I'll do a little research into that firm, find out exactly what they charge on, what services. Thank you. >> According to SiriusXM, $72 a month. >> I just get that all the time for whatever reason. Uh I, you know, I I appreciate I definitely appreciate Scott's comments and where he's coming from and I
061do worry a little bit about the the financial impact. Um my my concern I think is that we've got some very professional high paid folks in the administration area. Um and I worry that they're doing a lot of they're they're taking time away from what they need to be doing um and spending that time on issues that I think would be better. Um someone would be more professional at and I'm not that's not a negative thing. It's just it's a specialized thing um where someone could could focus on those items and allow current professionals to do things instead of some of these items. I also worry a little bit about the the consistency over time of our HR practices because they do get handed off uh here and there where I think if we had
062one person I think it would be really nice to be able to have consistent you know consistent ways we advertise for positions consistent ways to research people and look into their positions set up interviews do the hiring onboarding all those kinds of things I think would be really nice to have some that. So that's those are some of the reasons why I want to distribute. >> Yeah, Mr. Chair, I support everything you say and as a employer of our size, I think it is also somewhat our professional responsibility and we have a great team doing that by splitting that work up. But I think it is a more professional look to have one person who can handle all of that and then to not muddle some of especially when there is a within the district
063concern not muddle those positions with other job responsibilities here. And so I would advocate for if we can find a way to create money for it in HR person or I'm curious what we learn about a third party option just to add to that like just employees looking for information too if there's four different people that handle different and how are they emailing those people how long does it take them to get that answer and that you know time saved for them as well >> they just have one person Mr. Jim, did I hear somebody say that we would use those people to um to hire and run interviews? >> Set them up. >> Yeah. The administrative side of it, not not the >> We still have our building principles in charge of the >>
064Yeah. No, I wouldn't I wouldn't anticipate change, but this person could do the the footwork that currently are either our administrators or the the principles are having to do current. calling applicants and setting up. >> Yeah, exactly. >> Okay. So, what I'm hearing initially is that we're okay as a group to have Mike and Travis continue to to look head down this road and at least bring us a proposal. >> Yes. >> All right. Okay. Climate survey. Mr. Harris, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Um, so this is an updated draft that's linked into the agenda here based on the feedback that I received from you all in July and then also um discussing with the admin team at our first meeting of the year back at the end of July. We shortened up the
065survey a little bit. We um retained the demographic info but into each of the categories we have no more than three items and then kept the open-ended comment if you had in case there was anything else that isn't covered above that employee want to share with us. Um, so about 25 items. It's much shorter and I think still gets at the most most of the meat that you all have requested and that our administrators thought would be important for them to know as well. >> Are we still in front of a time frame or we still looking at the I think October is what we said. >> Cherry. Yeah, that was the the discussion last month was to have the first administration of the survey be in October on our professional development day at the
066end of the month. um and keeping the window open during a period of time on that date so that people can respond anonymously but not you know unscrupulous person would not be able to submit multiple responses. Um so that's that was the idea for the October and then I think we were still up in the air as far as the second semester to do that. >> Uh Mr. Chair, I think uh I like this draft Mike. I think this is uh this is excellent. I'd like to see this happen in October and then in the spring again. >> I have one question and one suggestion. Um a question, Mr. Chair and Superintendent Harris. Who is reading and reviewing these? Does that fall upon you, Mr. Harris? >> Mr. Mr. Chairman Scans, I think what the
067board's indication was last month was to have WSBA administer this survey the first time around to ensure that all of our employees know that it's truly not the school district. It's not me looking. It's not your principal. It's not the school board, but we would get results back and be able to take action based on those results. But I think that was the indication if I'm not mistaken >> with the hope long term that we might be able to eliminate that expense and just move to is >> probably the board chair. think would that's how Brett used to do it. That's how I think the first time it was a chair seemed to work pretty well. But I do like the idea of maybe having the first one WSB. >> That sounds great to me.
068And I would just advocate for making sure it's clearly communicated to staff who they're going to because I think that will >> dictate unfortunately I think that will dictate how people respond. Um and then I had one minor suggestion. I want to say thank you so much. I know a lot of work has gone into this. Um, but for the open-ended short response, I'm curious if there could be slightly more or a couple slightly more pointed questions. Um, and my suggestion would be something like question that says, "Some of the best parts of working at Fremont One are fill in the blank." And then question two, a way that Fremont One could be or could improve is fill in the blank. And then in other comments of just trying to prompt people when I see
069other comments, it's kind of a boring prompt, but when I see something along the lines of what do we do well and what could we improve on, I think that would help pull out strengths and weaknesses better and also encourage people to give constructive feedback, but also encourage them to highlight the things we really do well. So it doesn't just become a complaint section either. any issues with that? Sounds like a good suggestion. >> I would just say with that makes me think of the um I forget what that was survey and you've used it but Dr. Barker did too where you take those words that show up and th those words are what is that? >> Word cloud. Yeah. I mean that could I guess kind of help to you know use that for
070those two open-ended to see a word cloud for the strengths and weaknesses um that maybe we'd pick up on patterns too. So maybe having those two more directed and then the other as well would be helpful. >> Mr. Chair, Miss Gans, if you could you have three questions I think that you referred to openended. One was some of the best parts of working at Fremont one are blank. some some ways SCSD1 could be better are and then what was the third one >> just in other comments exactly as it's listed now. >> Okay, thank you. >> Yeah, and maybe you don't even need that third one. >> All right, other other comments on this topic. Make sure you're working on this, Mike. >> Okay. Uh WSB awards, WSBA awards. uh the Golden Bell Champion of
071Education and Outstanding Service Award. Those are three awards that WSBA gives each year. We've been fortunate, I think, as a district and proactive as a district to nominate people for these awards. Uh I don't know when they're Do you guys know they're due this year? >> M Mr. Chair and Mr. Jensen may have the exact date, but I think last year and the year before we approached nominees in September and their applications were due in October so that awards can be presented at the WSBA state conference in November. >> Okay. So, I would suggest that we have by next meeting come with your lists for each one of these. Go WSBA has a section out there about what each one of those awards u represents. So you can look at the appropriate category for people
072that you're nominating. Outstanding service award is a new one as I understand. Is that right, >> Mike? >> Mr. Chair, yes. And I I looked in WSBA's materials in their monthly or their weekly memos and I haven't seen anything about this yet, but I know that it is something that they're going to be talking about probably at the roundup. That's another another award that district boards can cannot take folks work. Okay. >> I know Eileen already has Mr. Chair. >> Yes. Go ahead, Scott. >> And that that that third award that's uh designed for somebody that fills the role of of board secretary. >> Okay. >> Sort of has a generic title, but that who because different districts have a, you know, different uh person filling that role. So, um you know, the role that
073Carol filled or Jenny is filling now. Um that's that's the type of person that that award is for. Well, I think we can probably get out of the gates early and say I'd sure like to put Carol up for that award. >> Great. >> I know Eileen has another person, not for that award, for one of the others. Unfortunately, I have neglected to uh recall who that is, but we'll talk about we'll talk about specific next uh next meeting. So, bring those names. Anything else, Michael? Mr. Chair. >> Okay. Anything else on on that you guys hearing? None. Upcoming events or reminders. August 26th is bring first day of school. I'm sure everyone's excited. Kids, this is all cut off on this list, so I can't really uh WSA fall regional meeting 6 pm August
07427th. Um, I don't know. Is everyone going with that? Anyone going? I'll go. >> I'm going. I don't know if we need to let Jenny know. I forgot. >> Okay. Round up. I'll round up. August 27th. >> It's in the evening at 6 p.m. >> Please let Jenny know if you're interested in going. Uh, she needs to get us registered and I don't know if there's a payment or not. So, she needs to get then September 16th is our regular schoolboard meeting. With that we are adjust