001is not able to make it. >> I have heard online laughing about how we keep tableabling that one item from him and it just I think he's going to be online. Okay. Yes. >> Recording in progress. I was trying to eat that before. >> This meeting is being recorded. >> Heads up. That's not Well, >> Eileen made it. So, now we can get started. Um, it is six o'clock. I'd like to on this Tuesday evening, I'd like to call the board of trustees to order for the public hearing proposed budget agenda of 2526. First order of business is the pledge of allegiance. You can all stand for one nation under God indivisible for all. >> Great. Thank you all. >> I see many young smiling faces in here. My my sincere apologies. We have to
002do the budget meeting before we do our regular meeting. So, um I know that you guys are excited to hear about the budget. I can see it on your faces. Bear with me for a sec. Um real quick like board member roll call. We do have everyone uh present except for Scott Jensen. Scott is on Zoom. Hi, Scott. >> All right. So, presentation of the budget, Mr. Sweeney. Thank you, Mr. U. You've all seen a copy of proposed budget 2526. Uh, but you do have a big credit. I'm trying to keep it short tonight. That's why that's why you want to keep it short, right? Uh so you can see that uh in 2425 we receive approximately 100 spent approximately 100.5% of our budgeted 29 billion. um we received a little over 100% of our
003estimated general fund revenues which equated to uh 30,700,000. Um for 2526 we haveed surplus of 111,000. However, there's a couple of caveats related to that. Um, I'm still right at the beginning of all state reporting. There's going to be some adjustments and some movement there. And the other one that kind of came out here the last week or two that I'm sure you're all aware, uh, some of our federal funds have been put on hold. Um, right now I'm estimating we're in jeopardy of losing little like $244,000 and that's just related to title two and title three. Um, another one that's in jeopardy, but we I don't have a good number on that one yet is our lights on program. those three uh federal programs are have not been approved and WDE ising that we
004don't uh allocate any future funds beyond what we have in reserve in each of those buildings. So we may need the 111 plus something. Um and that our budgeted amount does all the salary benefit discussions did vacuum or J. Um, as you all know, uh, we still continue to see declines in our ADM, which is the main driver for our general fund. Um, over the last two years, we've lost 688. Um, and as you know, we don't get real big. Like right now our ADM is 1520 but because of the three-year rolling average it kind of softens the blow but nonetheless we still cons continue to see decline in ADM. Um so we're just going to have to keep an eye on that and kind of plan for the future. Um food service is doing
005great. Um other than uh we've seen some increases to the subsidy food service and that's mainly due to uh increases in food costs which everybody's experiencing our salary or benefits that we passed along the last couple years. So uh but we'll we'll keep an eye on that. And um also at we're right in the middle of a recalibration process at the state level with the state legislature and there's a lot of talk. Um I've had two or three meetings with about doing something for food service through the state to maybe offset some of this subsidy. So we'll kind of see watch and see what happens there. um swimming pool we saw a little decrease verbage doesn't change much from year to year saw a little decrease in our sub subsid you know what I'm talking
006about subsidy to the pool um and as we continue to move forward we're still looking at ways to help you know offset you know decrease that that subsidies And what is that now? >> Uh for this year we had a subsidy of 398,000 and the last year it was almost 404. Uh transportation department's doing great. Uh special ed budget. Um you look you can see that um we spent quite a bit in spend this year and mainly due to two factors. One we had a considerable size lawsuit that didn't go in our favor. We're still we continue to pay on that. um as well as several high dollar placements for students that we can provide the services for. We'll continue to watch that as well. >> Sorry to interrupt real quick. High dollar placement. Want
007to let the board know what one of those rounds was Mike? >> Um I mean they can run 100,000 250,000. What was the number you telling me? 400,000 for what was that? They're just it's crazy. So that's one pupil, one student, one year. >> And we have to up front that cost if we don't recoup the cost till follow. >> Um we're still in good uh financial shape. I think our last I calculated our reserves were 26% and as you know you know we can have up to 30 and I think they extended that till 2028 we're still pushing to just get that permanent keep it at 30%. Yeah, and like already mentioned going through recalibration lawsuit is still in place. So there's a lot of balls up in the air as far as our
008general fund finances. So we'll continue to watch that and provide updates as as they're moving. If that >> Mr. Chair, >> thank you. Um, Travis, I don't really have a question. It's just a discussion that we've been having and I just want to get it on public record. Um, because I know that one of the proposals for when we vote on this budget would be to approve the mill levy for the lander district rec board and I maybe if you could just speak to that real quick as far as what that money means um for the public and how much that's allocated to the rec board and then maybe I can add a little bit more. you didn't mind. >> So, I don't know the exact figure, but it usually runs $200 to $250,000 a
009year for the one mill and that is diving out from the county to the rec board. Um, and then the rec board decides how to award the funds. And to clarify, those funds can only be used for recreational purposes for any community member. Like it can't just exclusively be to Ander students. Is that correct? >> That I would somebody on the right board may have to answer that question. I haven't seen by >> Okay. Eileen, do you know off hand? Okay. I was just going to say I do know that the the shape of the board is very different in different districts. There's some districts where the school board is actually the district board and makes those dispersements. So, it seems like there's a fair bit of flexibility in who, you know, makes the grant
010awards. >> The awards, as I recall from, you know, for a while, they it it can be to any entity that expends the funds for public recreation. >> That's how I remember it being it too. I guess I just want to make that clear for the public because um you know that's two over $200,000 that currently the district gives to the rec board that then they in turn give to the community. So some of that money you guys like the uh we have the lady legends here. So, some of that money they might be receiving through, you know, any um grants that you guys had through the rec board or when I was on the children's museum. And something that Travis has mentioned in the past, and I don't think the board has really necessarily
011understood it, and I'm starting to try to understand it more, but um we cover so much of the pool costs that the city at one time was supposed to kind of take over and and never did. So, what I would love to see and and push and consider and have, you know, the community understand a little bit more is if the um rec board would recoup more of the pool cost, then the district has more flexibility in our budget. Um, and that would be something that we could look at additional programs, maybe softball, you know, not saying that would be unofficial, but that's one way that I think that we could try to start getting creative is is putting the pool cost um into the rec board a little bit more because much of what
012we subsidize through that is um for community and public. So that's just something Travis has mentioned in years past and again I don't think the board has understood it or I hadn't and now I'm trying to understand it a little bit more and realize we have some flexibility if we got a little bit more involved with the rec board and I don't know how that would look but community also you guys um could reach out to the rec board too and you know share what your thoughts are on that too. So just use my plug right now that's all on that. There probably wouldn't be anything stopping the school board from making an official request. You know, just like any other entity puts a a proposal together for the record. >> We could always be
013one of those requesters. >> Mr. Chair and Mr. Jacobs, just on that point, I had asked the attorney about that very point and he said to the extent members of the public are using the pool We could re if the right board agreed and those rules were in place, we could have the right board cover that at least that that's public usage. School district has part of it for swim teams, but the rest that's swim clubs and open rack swims and lap swims could potentially be covered by that. >> Other questions for Mr. Sween? this uh when you talked about the reserves that doesn't include the depreciation. >> No sir. And that where's that sitting at? >> That roughly 36. You were you had it crystal ball. Where do you think we're going to end
014up? Are we going to still be ahead being all this once the Fed decisions all come through once the state issues all settled up? Well, the state the state issues I mean we probably we won't none of that will affect this for this coming. >> Okay. That'll be the following 26. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Or as far as the recalibration is the lawsuit, who knows? I could drag on um and with the fed thing really don't know how it's going to go. Um if it doesn't go in our then no won't be ahead. So we can see if well so deep sorry um so bring it up. We have a large percentage of those dollars tied up in the staff. So, if we want to continue to keep those staff, if we don't get the
015funds, then we will have to tip them to our reserves because we could swing anywhere from, based on what I'm saying here, we could swing anywhere from 111 plus down to like 150 negative, which in the grand scheme of things isn't detrimental. to the operations of the district, but nonetheless don't want to I'm sorry to take up my time here. Um, and we've when we think about those positions that have already been funded through title two and title four, we've already contractually agreed to pay those, right? So, so we can't really even if the funding was cut, we can't just cut those positions at that moment. >> I don't know. You'd probably have to look at your risk there may be because the funding's no longer available, but yeah, that'd be a bigger discussion if
016we got to that point. And I just want to make everybody aware that that could be >> other questions for Mr. Sweeney. >> Uh yeah, I'm curious when we look at federal do know yet the recent I think it was yesterday the Supreme Court case regarding the Department of Education. Are we at risk of losing more federal funding in the light of that? Um so from what I've seen Mr. Chair um what I have seen is the three programs that I've mentioned are the only ones that I developed that are in jeopardy. Um, I double checked. We have one federal grant that we don't go through WDE full directly through the bank and I got online and checked. We have been funded for that position or that program. So, yeah, besides those three, I don't
017foresee anything. But and with the cuts to the Department of Education, I think the plan, as much as I know about it, is they're parsing some of these out to different federal agencies, but the funding will help. anything we can do to support you better in terms of your budgeting and where we're at planning think so not that I can think of off top of my head I mean that's just big jug Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. >> And I believe anyone have comments regarding the budget before we call it meeting. No. All right. With uh given that Oh, uh public comment. Sorry. Is there any public comment on the budget? public comment. Okay, seeing none, we will adjourn the budget here and let me right here. So, uh then
018I'd like to call to order the Fremont school district board of trustees regularly. Uh we've already done the pledge and the board member roll car call. So with the permission of the board, we'll skip those. Uh and we I need to get a motion to approve the minutes of June 16th and approve the minutes of June 24th. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion. All in favor? >> I motion carries. Any additional amenda items? >> Mr. Chair, um my apology I've been for not sharing this earlier. I had some thoughts on policy EJ, but as I thought about them, I think they're actually a different topic. And I would love if the board could as we imagine EJ discuss how we can continue to support the LGBTQ community and schools as policies like this continue
019to erase them and recent sup recent court case orders have further eroded some of the protections for these students. And so I think it is worthy of having a conversation about what we as a board and a district can do to reaffir reaffirm our support for students. >> Is that an agenda item for this evening or is that an agenda item for August? >> I'm flexible, but I think it would be an important demonstration of our support for these students if I take away the right policy. EJ, we show and demonstrate commitment to seeing these students and respecting them. So, I think that could happen in either meeting, but I would push us to discuss that tonight as a sign of support to these students. >> Okay. So board members, we could set that as
020a G. Remember to help a bit that second. Does anyone have any issues with that? Okay, so we'll add Mr. Chair. Um, sorry. So, Mara is speaking about a policy that we were voting on tonight, policy EJ, which is under second reading. >> So, I feel it's appropriate to either have that discussion there or just move it under discussion items and it would be under item C for discussion items. I'm not sure where >> I meant C, not not G. Thank you for >> Yep. No problem. >> Uh, do you want to do it as a separate discussion item? >> I think that sounds great. Thanks for the suggestion. uh any other additional agenda items for the right hearing? None. I'd like to get a motion for the adopt of the agenda as amended. >>
021So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I I Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh Mr. Harris recognition. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh so obviously summertime is in full swing and our students are involved in all kinds of different summer activities. Um one of which is fast pitch softball. They have several members of parents, coaches, players, members of the League Legends softball team. uh various age groups and divisions, but they all were in Cheyenne for the state tournament this past week and uh had some pretty amazing results. If you happen to see the article on county 10 and they did did, I'm going to recap that a little bit. The 12U and 18U teams played hard but did not place um the 8U and 10U runners up. So, second place for those
022spots and then the 14U team took the championship for the second year in a row. So, a repeat. Um, Coach Martell is here, a lot of players. I just wanted to let you guys if you had anything to share with us the word about your experience at the state tournament or your season or anything like that. >> That would be great. >> Um, yeah, thanks for having us and thank you for recognizing our accomplishments. That means a lot. Um, the girls played really hard. It was an amazing fall. We played against um obviously cities from across um Wyoming and some of our tough toughest competition was for instance Larmy Rock Springs um Casper. As we were playing this weekend, we were talking about how all of those communities have high school ball and how we're
023still showing up and we're still holding our own and we're still rocking it out. And um I think it just continues to prove our readiness for that next step. And I know next year I'm ready to take my girls to the next level. We're ready to go up in rank. So right now we're a wreck team. We're ready to go up to a B team, meaning that we move up to the next level. But in order to move up to that next level, we'll definitely support us so well to have high school ball because it would give my girls three more months of five day a week practices and games and experience. Um, so we actually have a present for each of you. >> Holy someone still prints out pictures. >> Yeah. >> Weird, right?
024>> I know. >> I had to think about where to go to do it, but Yeah, you. >> And with this picture, we just want to say we're ready. We're just waiting on you guys. So, when you're ready, let us know. >> Mr. Chair, I have one more item if I could. Uh today is our first meeting with Jenny Johnson as the executive assistant and superintendent report. So she's been busy working with ropes her new position um but very excited with the work she's done so far and excited about her enthusiasm and her skills. So thank you J Mr. Chair. That's all I had. >> All right. Thank you. All right. So to uh time for public comment, this is the time when we ask for any public comments for items that are not on
025the agenda. Anyone have comments of items not on the agenda? Okay. Will anyone have public comment for items that are know that calls for public comment? Okay. Hearing none, we can move on to board member reports. >> Mr. Chair, I don't specifically have anything to um discuss, but I do want as a acknowledge unfortunately um we kind of dropped the ball last meeting. That was Carol's last meeting and we didn't get to recognize her. Um I guess there was some confusion who was last meeting with Finny. Well, some of us we some of us thought it was last meeting we've and then um so unfortunately I mean she's not here to be publicly recognized but I just again think all of us as a board would want to go on record that we appreciate Carol
026and all her years and her role and everything that she's done for the At meet up with her and give her her before it dies and her gift. Um, but I'm sure I'm not the only one that wants to speak on that. So, just wanted to open that up. >> Anyone? >> If I could Carol is still working. >> I know. >> I tried to talk her into coming tonight. She said no. >> I tried to too. >> So, but yeah, she is in the office. Maybe we'll she's in Is she in office? Is that where she's maybe we'll just pop in tomorrow or leave it for the >> Well, I would be remiss if I didn't say that. I don't know how the district um would have functioned as well as it did and
027certainly how the board would have functioned as well as we did without the incredible expertise and knowledge and institutional background that Carol brought to the table and you couldn't go whenever I would have a question how did we do this what did we do in the past um did we ever did we multiple meetings in this month she'd say well that's statuto we have to do it in in July for Travis's budget meeting uh those were all the kinds of things that Carol kept us on track for Jenny I'm sure that she will do a wonderful job um walking our footsteps But they are very large sheep and I think I probably speak for the board that we all extend our deep appreciation for all great things that Carol has done for us. >> Okay.
028Other board member reports. >> Mr. Chair, I've got a few things. >> Sure. >> Hopefully everybody can hear me. This past week I was at a WSBA board of directors meeting and came away with a few takeaways. um that uh that I could share with the the group. Uh first, there's there's several WSBA events coming up. First, uh August 7th through 8th, that's a Thursday and a Friday, I think, in Laramie is the law conference that they have each year. Um I'm going to try to go to that. I find those pretty interesting. Uh we have a regional there's a regional roundup meeting August 27th. I think it's a Wednesday in Riverton. That's the one where they uh feed us a bit of dinner and and talk at us a lot. Um, and then of
029course the state conference is coming up in November. So those would be ones to to keep an eye out for. And then uh just a heads up, uh, the open season for nominations, uh, is coming up in a couple weeks in August. So that that's the Golden Bell award that they have for, uh, that'd be for somebody that's made a significant impact statewide in education in Wyoming. Uh, the champion of education award, which we had several of those last year, which would be somebody that made a significant impact in our local district. Um, and then there's a new award this year which might be relevant for Carol. Uh, they're calling it the outstanding service award. And this is uh specifically designed for the person that fills um sort of the administrative role of board secretary
030in the way that Carol did for our district. In other districts, it might be a different person, but um it's uh it's designed for for that person. Although they weren't sure u that they would award it to somebody that has retired. Uh considering that she just retired, it might be worthwhile um maybe Mike you could put together a nomination for her for that. Um and then a couple other things uh that to think about um so unrelated to those awards, you know, there's the the the ESA deal that might be happening, the education savings uh account stuff. I know that's put on hold maybe, but that might start up this fall. Um, and I know we had think as a board we had determined we were not going to accept those students uh this school
031year with the complications and and what that might be. Uh, but at this board meeting there were other concerns uh voiced about what that might mean for athletics. So, I know we accept homeschool students participate in our athletic programs without any concern, but um there was there might be an issue with students that are using that voucher system uh participating athletics and um uh folks some some districts felt like they were going to have to have parents sign some kind of contract and the district would have to be a authorized provider uh for those kids to participate. So, I don't know. I don't know the details of that, but it might be worth um um Mike, it might be worth looking into to see um if that's going to cause a problem for us in
032the fall. Um and what else did I Oh, one other thing. Um with the change in the rules for uh homeschool students where they don't have to provide us with their curriculum anymore. Um, so it's my understanding we have an obligation to make reasonable efforts to identify students that are uh entitled to any sort of special service. Um, and that might be harder now without homeschoolers identifying themselves to us. And so it was suggested that districts might uh a simple way to do this might be just putting some sort of notification or links on our website um uh that make it possible for parents uh to let us know. So, you know, if we have a family move into the district that's homeschooling that never has any contact with the district, we might not know
033they're there, but um they might be entitled to services. So, um those are the updates that I have. >> Great. Thanks, Scott. >> So, takeaways from that, Mike, are you gonna we put something together, Carol? >> Yes, sir. I will. And then maybe look at getting those links out. >> Uh Mr. SH I believe DR's got that in the works that has already sent some notifications out of different places but yes website perfect spot. Okay, thank you. Thanks Scott again. Uh Megan is not here which I'm happy to see because it's summer and she should be out having fun selling. So I hope she is up and displaying although she very wet today. All right my superintendent report. >> Thank you Mr. Chair. Um trying to find the share here. So there it's okay. I
034was going to share my screen with you all. I mentioned a couple meetings ago that I was working on these exit surveys with our departing staff at the end of the year and u wanted to share some information with you um on those results. There it is. Okay. So um yes. So I've been compiling these responses. I opened it for staff to respond um in May and left it open into June. We had 23 certified staff members who left the district after the end of this school year and I got responses from 19 of them. One of them responded after the survey window closed and and just emailed the response but that individual emailed all of all of you and me with his responses. Um, so these these slides show aggregated results of those survey
035items. Uh, specific results including open-ended comments because there were open-ended comments associated with each of these questions or these these items. Um, but I'm not going to show them here in the public meeting because it's it would be pretty easy to identify which staff member responded and I had assured them that these would be confidential. So I wanted to share these and then uh it might be fruitful to compare this with what we're thinking for the climate space and then maybe try to align these somehow. U but one of the first questions asked on the on the survey was does district leadership support your success as a professional and uh respondents rated these items from one to five with five being strongly agree and one being strongly disagree. And you can see that 84.2% 2%
036of the respondents said that they agreed or strongly agreed that district leadership was supporting their success um as a professional. Didn't have any strongly disagrees, which I think is a good thing since I'm in that boat there. Um district leadership supports student success. That one was at 73.7%. And again, no strongly disagrees. I'm a little bit worried about the neutral though on this one, the prior item because if if if our staff aren't sure if district leadership supports their student success or if they're not sure that we support them as a professional, um I don't know what's getting lost in translation there, but you should be able to feel one way or the other. A neutral is kind of a weird reading for me on that one. We did have a few, so just wanted
037to acknowledge that. That was a little bit concerning for me. Um down here principle and supervisor communication. Uh these are in a bar graph format but again five is the strongly agree four is agree and then one is the strongly disagree is a neutral. Um so I think the overall on that one was 73.7% again that looked pretty decent but uh the open-ended comments do us a lot of light on these responses. my supervisor or principal supported me just generally. Um that was a bit lower than the communication score at 68.4%. And uh I felt comfortable approaching district leadership with concerns about employment curriculum issues. This one is strongly agree and agree combined to 63.2%. Um not a great sport. I don't think Um and I kind of again concerned here that we have new
038next most popular option after strongly agree and agree at 10.5% that said they strongly disagree. So those are concerning responses as well. And then this is a the same item but comfortable in approaching school or department leadership. So the first one was district leadership department and I was kind of surprised this one was lower than the district leadership one. This one was 52.6% 6% agree and strongly strongly agree. The same number strongly disappends at least in approaching their direct supervisor or their school school leadership versus the dis and then feeling valued within your schooling position 57.9%. I would hope that that number would be closer to if not closer or or to 100%. Every position that we have and is for a specific purpose, a specific role to play. So if we're not conveying as
039a culture or as a climate in our school district where people don't feel like they have value in what they're doing, then we've got got to work pretty hard to fix that. Uh that's very concerning. Nobody was neutral on this one. also telling it they're kind of, you know, they're feeling valued or they're not is what that kind of tells me. And it's too close to an even split for my liking. I I again like to see this at 100% agree or strongly agree. >> And then the last item, would you recommend Fremont One to a friend looking for employment field of education? Little over half said yes and no was at 42%. And keep in mind these these responses were people who were departing the district for any number of reasons. Some had been
040uh their contracts were not renewed or they retiring or they moving to May. There were all kinds of factors that led to their decision to leave and that was some of those responses talk about what were the factors specifically choose to leave um to consider coming back. There's a lot of questions like that that we'll look at in an executive session. But these are kind of the the bird's eye view of the responses at least I could put in sort of an aggregated form um to try to disguise individual voices. Um wanted you to know that we're looking at remain to the climate surveys as well. So with that I'd love to hear any questions or feedback on that. >> Remind me how many employees do we have in the district in total? Um, Mr.
041Chair, uh, it's in the 300s. 350. Yeah, 350. I think would you count all the full-time and part-time employees? >> Thank you. >> And we had 19 responses. >> 19 of 23. So, this went just to the certified folks. So, we had 23 certified people who left the district after this year, which again was a pretty average number. Typically, it's in the 20s somewhere in a given year. So that's little over a little over 70% almost 70%. >> Mr. Chair, Mr. Harris, I know you said that they might have left for a variety of reasons. Is there a percentage that you can tell us of who wasn't whose contract wasn't renewed? I just think, you know, it is kind of somewhat important to to talk about maybe a disgruntled employee versus someone that was leaving
042because of cost of living or moving or, you know, something to that effect. So, I was just wondering if we knew a ballpark of what percentage of those surveyed. >> Mr. Chair, Mr. Jacobs, I don't have the breakdown for public consumption, but I can show you an executive. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah, Mike. Uh, sorry, Mr. Chair. >> Scott. >> Yeah, I think uh these questions that that you're asking on this that those are are I think kind of what I was thinking about for the general climate survey. Um, I think those are excellent questions. um especially, you know, if you break it down by building or, you know, other ways to slice and dice that. And and uh Taylor's question, I think I would I'll chime in on that. I'd like to see
043that when we get to executive session if you have it broken down that way. Um kind of the way I think about it is um sometimes folks leave and we wish they would have stayed and sometimes folks leave and and and we're not upset about it. And I'd like to see that breakdown maybe. Laura, did you have one? >> Yeah. Um, Superintendent Harris, and I realize you can't share all the details here, but I'm curious if you after reading through this feel like you have actionable items of areas we can improve or give feedback to others for how we can improve and also key points of what we can keep doing for um those people who had really positive responses. Mhm. >> And if those kind of were teased out more in the individual comments.
044>> Um, Mr. Chair, Miss Gans, they absolutely were. I think when you look at the responses by respondent, it kind of makes a lot of sense because you know the circumstances of that employees departure, you know, whether it was voluntary or what whatever the situation situation was. Um, so yeah, there are some actionable things for sure. And there were some some definite themes like this this item up here about feeling this one that I actually left the cursor on, but um, feeling comfortable about approaching your school or department leadership with concerns. There's no reason for that to be in the 50% range or the 60 or the 70%. We we have to have open communication between um, employees and their supervisors and their department leadership. Um, and likewise with district leadership, there shouldn't be any
045uh I mean there's chain of communication, but of course you you've got to feel like this is someone that you no one's no one's unreachable or unwilling to listen to a concerned employee about whatever the issue happens to be. Um, so those are two areas that I think regardless of the situation in which the employee left, those are things we can definitely fix. Um, some of these my supervisors supported me. Some of those are situation dependent. some of the ones that were lower ratings, I kind of know why they felt they weren't supported. Um, but again, there's there's definitely some commonalities there with with regard to communication and and uh openness and valuing of employees. Anyone else? Um, great question by the way. Really important for us to look at how we're going to use
046this data. if we're if we're not going to act on it, there's no reason to gather it. So, I appreciate that. The one thing that I would like to do, not to discount any of this because I'm a huge proponent of exit interviews. I think it's they're really important. All that said, these were 19 folks that le left our district, right? That's about 7%. Uh so, it represents a very small sliver of of our population of people number of the most disgruntled meaning disgruntled enough that they actually want right some of them not all of them let's call it half and when you look that 7% of that over half still have a very positive view of our district as a whole so I think in some respects this is really good news these really
047good numbers because they point to a district that um is functioning well where our employees had well respected and and feel valued and all those kinds of things. So I was sort of encouraged by some of this some of this data which again is not to say we shouldn't look at it act on it and try to do the best we can but whenever you do the caution of us not to necessarily look at it in a very negative way because there are also poss okay we can we can move on I'd like to get a motion into executive session for matters related to employment and matters concerning litigation which the governing body is a party or proposed litigation to which the governing body may be >> moved >> second uh discussion all those in
048favor >> I motion carries for those that are that are here what this means is that we're going to go into executive session for some time maybe 10 minutes if sometimes it's been an hour so uh and we won't be in session during that we will come back and finish our meeting to that. Um I can see some of you I'm bored and I'm hungry. >> So I just wanted to to make you guys a very welcome >> for us. Congrat Okay. >> All right. Are we all back? Like it. Okay. I need to get a motion to bring the regular meeting back into someone. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> Any oppose? Motion carries. All right. Action items. I need to get a motion for approval of personnel action or personnel actions uh
049as presented in the case of the coaching recommendations with conditions. >> So moved. Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? I I post oppos. >> Just to clarify, we voted all of those lump together. Correct. >> Together, >> Jenny. Yeah. >> Uh, all right. I need to get a motion to consider the approval of the late resignation penalty week. >> So, no, that's okay. >> Is there a second? >> Second. I got a spoke >> if ma'am. Ma'am, if you could maybe step out. Thank you. >> Uh would So we've got a motion of second. Any discussion again? All if it you're voting yes, it is to be uh in favor of the waiver and that is we're waving penalty. Sorry know we discussed this but just want to make it clear. All those
050in favor. >> Any opposed motion? >> No. >> Okay. Another one. No. Anyone got that? Okay. All right. Need to get a motion for the adoption of the 2025 2026 budget as presented. >> Second. >> All right. Any discussion? >> Travis, thank you for putting all that together for us. I know it's a big big lift every year. Welcome. Thank you. All right. Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I any motif carries. All right. I need to cons I get a motion for the approval of amen the amended Fremont County Bose effect agreement. So move. >> Second. >> All right. Mike, did you want to discuss this one a bit? >> Sure, Mr. Chair. And I invite Mr. McConnell to comment too since he's our representative on the Fremont County posties um board. But
051basically what this amended agreement does is kind of expand the option for school districts in terms of how they can use the funds that are generated through this this mill levy. Um if you look on the agenda, there's some bullet points there. uh what changed on the actual agreement is on page two under types of services to be rendered point number four on the second page. So it gives some ideas there enrollment support uh career and tech ed equipment services early childhood education entrance this one was new at the request of one of the member district services for exceptional and at risk children so that's the reason for the and then but doesn't tie a district using their way uh these are just options they so choose you want to describe how Riverton is choosing
052to run, but we have to do so in the same way. >> Uh, Mr. Chair, yes, I'd be happy to. So, Fremont County School District number 25 in Riverton is the school district that brought forward this potential amendment. um what they'd like to do is have some sort of a program in their school district for uh kids who are disruptive, persistently disruptive or non-compliant in the classroom, whether they have IEPs or not, or whether they're court involved or not, um to have a place in their district where a student go and focus on behavior until they can classroom. Um they have some additional building space in Riverton that use for that purpose and uh superintendent is excited to use for that for that reason. Um they've indicated they may program with other districts in the
053county. I'm not sure that we would have any students that we want to send over, but it is something that the county superintendents have been talking about too. And so potentially we could use these funds if we had them allowed to help fund our our program here. Mr. Chair, that's correct. Yes, if we did it funding for the alternate placement program here within 3 months when we could use this fun. Other discussion on this we get her cover ML. >> Yeah, I think so. I think I think the sitting on the Boseis board and then of course as an educator back in the day I remember when we first started the Boseis uh thing I think like the first year I taught and and part of that thing was the the intent was to make
054sure that we had avenues to uh CTE for technical education and and then adult education is really child um education. We stood pretty pretty firm on that uh for a long time. U we look at our budgets that we have now and some of the information that Sweeney shared with us earlier today. um our district doesn't do a really good job of allocating some of those seas funds uh that are there for what the previous designated uh uh things that were allocated for whatever reasons I'm not sure uh but I think we do need to to make a concerted effort to make sure we're using those things appropriately or the funds from bothies appropriately and and in a way that's best suited for the uh the greatest amount of students that we have. So, I
055have some concerns about some of those to be honest. Okay. Okay. Enough so that it would cause you not to vote for this? No, I'm I'm going to support it, but if we need to amend it at a different time, we'll move it again. Other discussion. All right. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. So, we've got one, two, three, four different policies that we need to uh approve. We'll do them individually. So I need to get a motion for approval of the second reading of EJ sex designated in the facilities. >> Second. >> Mike is there discussion on this that you want to bring up? >> Uh Mr. Chair, no not in particular. This is the same draft. The language is exactly the same as first reading. Again, this is
056coming to us um pursuant to a new state statute in rule act 53. Um, so this is the WSBA model policy without any modification specific to Fremont one. >> Okay, all those in favor? >> Oh, sorry. >> Um, I just wanted to put on the record that I do not support this legislation. I acknowledge that the time to speak to my legislators that has passed. >> Thank you. Other discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. >> Oh, I'm saying. Yeah. >> Motion motion carries. >> All right. I need to get a motion for the approval of GCBA certified staff salary skins. >> So much second. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. members of the board. This is same that you saw uh first reading back in June. The idea here is to uh create some
057mechanism to give credit to career and technical education teaching candidates for relevant industry experience. Um previously we did not get any steps on our salary schedule for an experience when we're bringing in teaching for uh a shop class or or a for for one of those CTE areas. And what this proposal would do is to get one to one credit for years relevant industry experience up to the first 10 years and then after 10 years a 2:1 ratio. So one step for every two years of experience. And the idea there is to make sure that the salary is is competitive based on get in the marketplace for for that type of work and qualified people who really know and have done this type of work teaching our kids how to do this. So, um, after
058checking with Travis and, uh, making sure the budget implications would be all right, we thought that this would be a good idea. So, any questions on on this? I'd be happy to entertain. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I motion carries. need to uh get a motion for the approval of JIC A-R drug testing for students involved forcurricular activities. >> We skipped one. >> Well, you know, I already just crossed that off on my list. Apparently, I thought that we moved right along. I need to get an approval for IMJ full screen. >> So, second, >> Mike. Uh Mr. Chair, members of the board, again, this is the same as first reading. This is just updating our policy on homeschooling to reflect the fact that we no longer require parents to bring
059us evidence of the curriculum they're using for their home instruction. Um, we're trying to catch all the other references on our website and forms and things that that make reference to curriculum with regard to homeschooling. Um, but this policy definitely needs to be updated to to remove that provision that was eliminated with the last legislative section. Discussion on Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I I opposed. Motion carries. Okay. Now I need to get a motion for the approval of JICA-R. >> So moved. Sorry. So moved. Second. >> Moved and seconded. Mike. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh just pull up policy real quick, but this is mostly the same as what you saw in first reading. There was uh one little piece that I missed on first thing that adjusted for second reading and
060it's on the third page under item E removal from the random testing list and I think Mr. Brew, you I think you mentioned this and I wasn't able to on the spot find the area here, but the the current the current paragraph has kind of two sentences that are at odds with each other or to the parts that are at odds. And what we've what I'm suggesting is that they keep the former and acts the latter part of this. So basically if you removing you want to be removing a random testing list that happens when you quit or get cut um there's no other format form or request the parents need to do to get the student out of the random testing pool's no longer in the activity then they would be removed from the
061random testing list. The other changes that are seen here um were we talked about at first reading in June. This would keep middle school but elim eliminate sixth graders from the testing pool. Uh it would do away with the 100% screening at the beginning of each activity season but would keep the random test in and out of season at the percentages that were already existing in current policy. Um, and then last but not least, the the uh policy would be in alignment with the code of conduct, which would be no participation in contests while your appeal is pending. Have a positive test that you're choosing. >> All right. Any discussion? Hika R. >> Um I share and this is on behalf of um an individual in the community who crunched a lot of numbers for
062me but just that the reported cost of 46,000 of what the drug testing was costing does not include the missed class time the opportunity costs of staff and nurses and athletic directors um taking time out of their other responsibilities to do this. and um wanted to share a bit that um and this I I'll just share it with you, but this actual cost based upon their math um estimated that it costs the district much more when you account for time lost to drug testing, which I thought was worth noting. And then the other thing I wanted to share was just um I would love to see any money we do save by reducing drug testing go to supporting um our softball girls or a music program or I know there are a lot of wants
063and needs in terms of activities and if that could also be a part of conversations in the future. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Chair, >> yes Scott, >> uh Mr. Paris, how many? So, we had five positive drug tests over the last year. Is that right, >> Mr. Chair? Mr. Jess, we had seven positive tests for five five individuals, >> five students. And those seven positive tests, did those occur during screening or random inseason testing? >> Um, I looked into that and what we have is based on the dates of the positive tests, I was able to kind of ascertain whether it was initial screening or or during random. and one high school positive test was from initial screening and one Elms test was initial screening. The other five were randoms. >> Okay. And and
064were any of those uh five students sixth graders? >> Uh Mr. Chair, Mr. Jensen, no, they were not. >> Okay. All right. Those are I just had concerns. I wanted to make sure we weren't uh getting rid of screening if that was uh the most effective part of the program, but apparently at least not this go around it wasn't. >> Do we have a good idea? We drop out our 100%. What did that represent in terms of the the entire program? You know, once we cut those out, is that half the the tests that will go away? You have a good idea there. >> Um Mr. Chair, I didn't crunch those numbers. I'd have to look back at the uh the uh previous agenda where we kind of broke down some of the numbers of
065tests and I figured out the the cost per test. >> Yeah. >> Um and then the numbers of participants. So I I could figure that. I just don't know off the top of my head exactly how much that would save us. >> Okay. That's okay. Travis, do you know? >> Okay. >> Gotcha. That's fine. I was just curious what the savings of this this would be in terms of real dollars. Okay. Thanks. >> Other discussion. >> I have one question. Um, >> prior to starting this, we had numerous medical emergencies of students that were under the influence. Is that correct? Like we had we had how many in one year? >> Uh, Mr. Chair, Miss Arms, I'm not I'm not sure. But it was it was not in pretty quick. >> Yeah. Um, how many
066did we have? I started interrupting. >> Um, medical emergencies that ended up being for substance abuse related issues. >> Yes. >> I don't think we had any. >> We had some where they were suspected but not burning. >> Okay. Thank you. So, just to plug this program, it's only one year and it's that's limited limited data, but uh for the cost, including the unaccounted for cost and time that we're talking about, in my mind, this is highly successful. There's five students whose parents now know they're they have a drug problem that are at least in a position now to help their child uh get the help that they need um at a critical time in that child's life. And um as far as we know, I don't know if we've seen the official numbers, but
067the thought is we had an increase in participation, which is huge. Uh participating extracurriculars is a big deal. Uh strong indicator of of successful students. Um and I just think this is is well worth it. And um you know, we can fine-tune it, which we we're doing here, which I think will make it a little more streamlined as far as cost and and and time and hopefully still get the same uh same benefit. So, I'm highly encouraged with with what's happened and and hopefully it just gets better going forward. >> Thanks, Scott. All right. Any other? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? Motion carries. Okay. So, moving on to F. I'd like to get a motion for a request for the use of depreciation reserve funds to purchase nets for the LVHS
068discus and shop area in the amount of $14,173. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion on this one? >> Yeah, if that helps bring more state titles, then let's do it. >> I was going to say is this because Anderson like so far they have to send people ready to run the I was actually witnessed to a very early accident high school prior to having the cage as our own disc. >> I also was injured not as badly and not because that's another >> is there video. >> Yes. >> All right. Any more discussion? All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. Okay, we can move on into discussion items. Climate survey review. Mr. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Um, this draft is if you open up the
069attachment in the agenda. This was based on the WSBA survey and then some input that I received from you all at the last meeting and then some individually since the last meeting. Uh, kind of modeled this in terms of the categories after the WSBA, but wanted to capture some demographic info at the beginning here. It'd be helpful to know which is the primary location that the respondent works in. Um, how long they've worked for Fremont one. If they've worked in other Wyoming school districts and if they've worked in other states, that would be helpful to know. Just curious as a point of comparison. There may be some important differences there in perspective. Maybe not, but we'll see. Um, under job responsibilities, this would be rated from 10 to five kind of like how the exit
070survey was done. One being strongly disagree, five being strongly agree. Um, and that would continue under work environment, safety and security, process, procedure, chain of communication, support for learning, and then others kind of a catch all category. And then we have an open comment, short response section there for them to elaborate on a previous response or if they wanted to bring up another topic that wasn't covered in one of the previous items, we could have that serve that purpose. Uh, Mr. Chair, I'll speak up if there's space here. >> So, I I like uh this is pretty comprehensive, although I think too long. Um, I guess my preference would be something shorter. In fact, the exit survey that you presented earlier, Mr. Harris, I think um in my mind that's um almost perfect for what
071I would imagine the climate survey to look like. um that it's it's got some uh high high level questions uh that would help us identify uh larger trends. And then if there were issues like you know maybe you know some of those in that climate survey that or that exit survey that were around 50%. you know, although that's a small sample size and a different population than our current employees, um that that could identify where a closer look was um was necessary and there might be other ways to then get at that more detailed information, but uh but I think something a little more succinct like that uh will get higher participation uh particularly if we have that sourced maybe through WSBA where people can be confident that it's anonymous. Mr. Chair, Superintendent Harris, I
072would be happy to support this as is or I would be happy to take the recommendation Scott just provided. Um, I do think for the open-ended short response rather than in other comments, I think it would be helpful to see that is oriented towards what do you think the district does really well and what is great about your job and what are some areas for growth and kind of prompting people to provide that specific detailed um examples. either do that or do something like what you did with the exit surveys where each like art square like art scale question has the option to give additional comments. Just making sure we're getting or giving people at least the option to share specifics rather than one through five. >> Yeah, Mr. Chair, I I agree with both
073Scott and Mara. It seems like there are usually or there are four to six um items under each of these um headings and you know a couple of the items like two to three seem to have the most um impact on the information and there may be a couple that seem less you know um maybe less useful but it might be useful information for you too. So that has to be part of it too. Duties are distributed fairly among staff. I would assume they probably are. You've been doing this for decades. So um but there are a couple of things in there. I'm receiving adequate training in professional development that I guess I'm just thinking that there are a couple of things in each of these settings that seem to be more impactful and more
074useful. Mr. Chair. >> Yes. >> Um I think the demographic section is important. I liked um that idea that you know working for other Wyoming districts. Um so I think with the exception of all those um altogether the other areas there's 35 questions. So I would agree with other board members of maybe if we could cut it down to 25 questions. So maybe, you know, lose in a couple and if there's one area you might deal more. Um, but I think 25 might be a little bit easier for people to swallow and complete and then still have, you know, want to put in some open-ended responses. Just my thoughts. >> Like you're feverishly writing. >> Maybe even 25. I don't know. Thanks. 25 >> other discussion. >> Yeah, let's uh let's let's talk about or
075think about, you know, when this should go live. And and my thought is uh probably um late September, October. So, kind of mid midway through the first term. And then I think twice a year might be effective. So something like April as we're midway through or kind of approaching the end of the second >> second semester. >> Uh Mr. Chair, members of the board, so last time we met, we talked about the possibility of maybe administering the survey during professional development days. Um then staff would have time to do it when they're not worrying about the next class or the next next lesson. If that's agreeable, that timing would be October and January. Uh >> January is pretty quick. >> That's pretty pretty close. April is doable, but also statewide assessment time frame and and
076uh people start feeling a little overwhelmed at that time. But >> Mr. Sure. >> Yeah. >> Thought might be um the first quarter or the first part of the year doing it during the professional development time. Um, and then knowing that after April after the testing, people might not have that planned time, but they might feel frustrated enough that they do it on their own time to complete. I mean, just a thought. Or they're feeling relieved enough that testing is done that they don't necessarily need that second window to do during professional development. It's just maybe a thought. I don't know. Well, if we could be consistent with it and let this run for several years, that might be an interesting data point to look at. Do we get a big dip in the spring,
077>> right? I mean, if we get we get a huge dip in the spring every single year, then we know we've got a measurable way to say here's here's the stress that our teachers get. I I don't know exactly how that will be actionable, but uh it would be interesting to get that. >> Yeah. So, I think January would be too soon, but but maybe Yeah, maybe before April or maybe after the testing like Taylor says, but yeah, let's let's try to find a time in there and make that work. >> Mr. Chair members, one suggestion I just thought might be helpful would be to to use the PD day in October and that's kind of the end of the first quarter and then maybe we could target the end of the third quarter which
078is right before spring break. It's before the statewide testing season ramps up. It's before the impending crush at the end of the semester and graduation and all that might be a more reasonable time frame for staff. give us some good thought >> and then if they wanted to they could even complete it during that time of spring break where the parent teacher comp day that we give them one of those last Fridays of March just as just >> yeah so was just going to suggest could we use a Wednesday early out for them to do it later in the spring >> okay anything else on Looks like we're making some pretty good progress. >> Did we clarify? I absolutely support doing it twice a year and continuing that every year. Um, did we clarify when
079if and when we are going to have that WSBA is when we are going to do it internally and I can share my perspective if that's helpful. Um, I would suggest we have the DSP do it the first time and then take notes on how they do it and then we administer it inhouse to save money, but open to other ideas. It was it certainly comprehensive when they did it. I'll give them that. How much was it again, Mike? Your adults roughly >> I think it's 3500 for the staff survey and then there's add-ons if you want parents and students. It's another 1500 for those two groups, but just just add 3500. >> And at this point, we're not necessarily committed to engaging WSBA to do this. We could just simply craft a survey and
080send it out. >> Yep. The only thing I would Well, and our actually surveys have turned out okay. In the past, when Dr. Barker would send it out, we saw a lot less uh engagement than when uh Brent or myself would send it out. People felt a little bit safer, I think, sending it for whatever reason chair. Uh so we might consider that at once if whether regardless of the WSBA, if we do the WSBA the first time or not, should probably consider whether or not Mike is the right person to do, whether I should do it. >> And I don't care. Well, I I did them. They weren't that hard to put together. So, >> so if W were to do that, that 3500, was that just for the one-time survey? Is that to
081compile the survey and then the second time of the year still be that additional 3500 or? >> Mr. Chair, M. Jacobs, yes, I believe it's 3500 every time they administer administering it means sending it out. ating sending a report to us all those steps. >> Well, this is one we don't necessarily need to decide tonight. >> I found the room very overwhelming and nothing like it was not it was too much. There wasn't any like it didn't feel like was any just you couldn't even read it on the screen. It was like what is this question? Wasn't that a lot? >> It was very It's almost like it was overthought over >> and it was >> over engineered. >> Yes. >> Well, they're trying to justify 3500. >> I'll take back my I'll take back
082my suggestion that maybe we just keep it in mind if we don't get good responses. It's true internally. Um yeah >> but I think the positive about WSB doing it is there is a level of detachment there. So there is that kind of level of third party >> um putting it forth. So >> well it's down the down the pike just a little bit. Let's uh get this table >> I really want to ask Mr. McConnell and how many questions he would answer on a survey as an educator. >> And I I mean this seriously. I think you >> my name, my subject, and how long I've been there. >> And if I was happy, I would probably I would say definitely >> that I love my job. >> Loved my job. just think we
083need to take that into account. >> Mr. Chair, members of the board, I think if you saw on the accident exit survey, I would be caught, but those none of the u open-ended responses were required items. So, if someone wanted to, they could just do the scale and rating and that's it. Um, we could potentially do something similar with this final survey as well so people don't need to spend a whole bunch of time if they don't want to because I I would probably rather have one directed answer at the or open at the end of the survey as opposed to have one for every life or scale because it just becomes really burdensome to try to compile all that and you know because now you've got open-ended questions for for every single question that
084we ask and if there's 25. Now you're talking about like 25 separate tabs or all of it. And most people if they feel strongly about one of the lighter scales I think they're going to go to the end and say you know here's how I feel about whatever. So there's so Mr. Mr. Chair, if I could clarify what what would you like to see prepared for next time this topic comes up? Probably a shortened version of this uh with a directed question at the end and then we can sort of maybe vote on that as the one that we'll we'll pursue and take next steps. Sound reasonable? >> Yeah, Mr. Chair, I would also say it seems reasonable to you too. I did like the way you phrase some of your exit questions or exit
085interview questions. So, if you wanted to slot in some of that wording where it's appropriate because there are a lot of there's some overlap here. Okay. Salary and comp targets. It's our next discussion item. We have tabled this a couple times, but Scott is here so we don't have to table it tonight. >> Thanks. >> Um Mike, I'll have you lead off, but Scott, if you want to jump in there, you're sort of in shape this one. That's fine, too. >> Okay. Um Mr. Chair, members of the board, there's a couple different PDFs in your agenda that you'll want to refer to. The first PDF contains uh staff to student ratios. Before we get into any of this, I just want to acknowledge Travis was the one picking all this information up and putting it
086into these formats where you can kind of digest it. So, thank you Travis for building this up. >> Um, so the staff to student ratios will change a little bit this next year because we're reducing FTE and reducing Paris because some of that is yet to come still and that's because we have fewer students, we need fewer staff and if that trend continues, you'll see further reductions there. Um, and then with regard to salaries, just a couple comments for 2425, our district ranked 36th out of the 48 school districts in major salaries. Um, the range was uh from a low in intensely 44,000 to a high in Jackson Hole of 68,369. and the state average was just under 52,775. Um, as you guys know, you are ranking somewhat in all likelihood by improve by approving
087those raises um through the salary discussion process. So, we'll be moving 36, I would I would guess. So, as you all know, as board members, we we've passed increases in this district for each of the past three years, but the difficulty is keeping pace with the cost of living. Um, and that's kind of outpaced our best intentions with trying to to compensate our staff more competitively. Um, and one other word on salaries here, uh, we we would need to look at teaching salaries, but also keep in mind teaching salaries as well. uh the market is no less competitive for talented administrators and classify it's your salary is what gets the most attention all of our salaries across the board for all types of positions Mr. Chair >> Scott. >> So, so the reason I asked
088for this data, just to reiterate, um is is the con a concern that we, you know, 30 36th um maybe isn't good enough, uh not competitive enough for salaries in the state. And you know, in addition, um I just heard a stat actually down at the the WSBA meeting I was at, uh they said that the state of Wyoming, our average teacher salaries, uh 15 years ago, we ranked something like sixth in the nation. and and now we're down uh like 30th I think it was. Don't quote me on that. It's somewhere around there. A significant drop um in the last 15 years. Uh we're just as a state we're not keeping up. Now most of that's out of our control. Um but we we can maybe make uh adjustments um each year to try
089to be more competitive within the state and hopefully still uh by with our surrounding states so that we can attract uh talented folks to come here. And so what what I'm hoping we can do is look at this data. Um I think what I would like to see is us look at maybe just the overall staff to student ratio. Um and I don't see that full number here. I have the I can see the breakdown by building, but maybe Travis could tell us what the the overall number is. He could probably do that math in his head real quick. Um but but if it's you know just looking at all these maybe it's something like 19 members of staff per you know the ratio might be 19 something like something like that um and we
090could maybe uh give a directive to Mr. Harris that by next school year um or maybe two years, whatever it needs to be, maybe based on his recommendation that we change that ratio slightly uh to to slightly um higher uh I'm not sure what direction that would go. Maybe I'm math challenged, but so that we have fewer staff per student. Um, so essentially increase the uh the size of the slice of pie that each member of staff could get so that we have a little bit more money uh to designate for salaries uh per person. So if we have if we have just a little bit less staff per student um we could increase salaries that way. Um and then secondarily to look at the percentage that we spend on salaries and compensation as a
091percent of our budget. Um and that we could maybe slightly increase that as well so we can grow the size of the pie a little bit. Um and if we have uh reasonable targets in mind uh then we can leave it up to Mr. Harris and his administrative team uh to figure out the best way uh to move things around uh to meet those goals so that we can continue to uh become more competitive in the types of salaries we're offering >> comments. >> I support that. Yeah, I really like the idea of having some kind of a target to give our our administration. Right now, we're basically saying, you guys figure it out, but you guys don't really have an idea where the board's sitting at. And I think this would help in those
092respects. There's a couple things that stood out to me when I reviewed this. I I did a bunch of math on the sheet and then of course I left the sheet sitting on my desk. U couple things though. One thing that I found interesting is that there's not nearly as much in the salary range as I thought. Now, there's some outliers an outlier what we kind of expected to be, right? But in terms of the all of the ones that are in sort of in the middle where we're at, >> they only vary by a couple thousand dollars per individual. So when we hear the salaries are so low in Fremont County makes me think low by 1,200 bucks, you know, or low by by 3,000. It's not low by 15 or 20,000. So I
093I thought that was actually kind of interesting as I as I looked at those ranges which may give us if we arrange our targets right an opportunity to float above without necessarily um you know cutting our throats in terms of cutting programs and all that kind of stuff. The other thing I noticed and I want to be a little cautious about how I look at this, but um we had oh I wish I would write next sheet because I did all kinds of analysis of this but the bottom line is for every two teachers we have in the district. I I can't help but wonder if we as a district have made the decision that over time we're going to make our teaching easier slash more effective. I I suppose you could say both at
094the same time or maybe you could argue one or the other but um easier and more effective at at the expense of salaries. Whereas if you cut down on the number of paras there's a good chance that you could reallocate some of those funds into teaching right higher salaries. The only rub with that is that a lot of those are correct me if I'm wrong but a lot of those are actually fed funded direct the par >> they're not fed funded direct but they are special ed most often. So then that money is reimbursed to the school district cover. There's in excess of whatever original budget was. So if you So the point there is those ones if you cut them, you wouldn't you wouldn't get that money back for for regular teacher salaries, right?
095So but but certainly we have some parents that fall into the other category that we just pay for out of general funds. I >> was going to say yeah. >> And and we could look at look at that as a as a potential. Now I know that there's going to be a lot of teachers that say I depend heavily on these pairs to do my job. I get that. But at the same time, you can't then also say and I want more money because you know we've got a fixed amount that we can that we can allocate. So that's one area I think that we might be able to to get some money to to increase salaries. >> Mr. share to your second point about the paras. Um had some conversations recently with our director
096of student services about having some sort of a program review district is using pair of professionals. Um got a bid back from one of the contractors that we're interested in working with and u not sure if we'll go with that contractor or not but it is something we want to look at. How are we using Paris similarly or differently than other Wyoming school districts who have the same funding models, similar students? Because you look at that bottom line and there's 59 paras district. Um that's certainly a lot more than there were when I started here 2014. So, and the needs have increased, you could argue, but is that terrible or is that in sync with the numbers that we've added to certified or the classified staff roles? >> Mr. Chair, >> I would also follow
097up with that by saying as a parah myself when I was going to grad school that a pair is only as good as they're trained. And so if we're hiring a lot of paras, you know, in January or fe February to fill in physicians, chances are they're not getting that opportunity to be adequately ch trained. So one, you know, great parah that's been well trained could be as effective as three non-trained paras. So you might you might argue that training piece, you know, is going to help maximize what how many staff members you have and and that's a really important piece. um you know that is a crucial component. So I think that's a great idea to kind of evaluate um that Paris support and you know what kind of training they're being provided. >>
098Um Mr. Harris, would it be would it be fair to ask you to give us a recommendation maybe next meeting on on what you think would be a reasonable target for staff to student ratio as well as percent of budget on salary and compensation. >> Mr. Chair, Mr. Jensen, I think that's reasonable. I got a look from Travis and he wasn't doing the across the throat. I think we could put that together. Uh especially once um maybe Clancy comes back at the end of the month, we should be able to get on that and have something ready for August. >> Excellent. So give us the give us the current numbers and then give us your recommendation. That would be excellent. >> Got it. Cool. All right. Any other discussion on that important topics? I think
099that's a that's a really good model for us to sink our Okay. Moving on, Mar discrimination LGBTQ topic. >> Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. And I can provide some context on this. Um, I wanted to start by acknowledging that policy EJ we had to pass to comply with state law, but I also want to acknowledge that there are students in our district right now who do not fit in the categories defined by that statute. Um, not all students have a gender identity. They may not have appearance that matches with their anatomy and biological sex is a little more complicated than just XX or XY. Likewise, we could have students in our district or who move in from other districts who've started to transition and their anatomy and hormones may not fit into those categories and
100state statutes. I want to acknowledge that while that is the law we have to follow, that that may not match or include all of our students. Um, and then I also want to remind the board that we have an obligation to advocate for the liberty and justice of all students. Um, whether or not we agree with their decisions about their gender, um, we need to advocate for them. And I want to bring our board back to um in May of 2022, we removed sexual orientation and gender identity from our non-discrimination um policy and that was in part due to um the Supreme Court ruling in Boston versus Clayton. I think Trusty Jensen and Chairman Kale, you both mentioned that according to that court case, um sexual orientation and gender were considered a part of sex.
101However, more recently in January of this year, um a combination of a district court case and then new title nine interpretations from um what was the executive order? from a federal executive order have kind of backtracked on that policy and the current legal interpretation is that for students who are governed by Title 9 sexual orientation and gender identity are not included or are not to be interpreted as a part of sex. And so these students have protections um in the same way that they did when these words were removed from our discrimination policy. And so kind of the combo of the state law that does not recognize these students and in more recent court cases and executive orders. I want to advocate that this board do as much as it can legally um to support
102the LGBTQ community and my suggestions, I know we can't have these all happen tonight, but I hope that we continue to work towards them at multiple levels in this district, is that we do add sexual orientation and gender identity back into the district discrimination policy. And then likewise several other things that we can do as a board. We can continue to provide training on LGBTQ student rights, inclusive practices, and how to respond to LGBTQ specific bullying. We can continue to train our counselors and administrators in how to support LGBTQ youth. We can support gender and sex sexuality alliances or student clubs to support these students. We can make sure we are hiring counseling staff or supporting the training continuing training for counseling staff to be competent in supporting these students. We can continue to support
103and take seriously the reporting mechanisms for harassment we already have. We can integrate history literature into curriculum and libraries including recognizing pride month, trans day of visibility and national coming out day and ensure that our library collections reflect diverse identities and family structures as well as providing support groups for families who may be these topics or who are looking way for more ways to support LGBTQ students. Um, and so to sum that all up, my ask for the board is that we don't just pass policy because we are asked to pass policy, but we think of policies impact and how we can make those students feel valued and heard and seen in our district. Any discussions? Thank you. Excellent points. I would wholeheartedly support the addition of those marginalized classes back into our discrimination policy.
104I think that's an extra excellent way to do it. And I think reviewing the training that we offer our educators and our counselors is pretty critical. especially in light of just the prevention of bullying and harassment that this according to the data that we see nationwide will entails. So, thank you. Yeah, thank you for bringing this up and I would agree that this is a very important topic and when we were discussing some of the stuff in the past, high rate of suicide with these students, I think the more we can support and provide resources, the better for them and their families and um I would agree with the verbiage getting back into our policy as well as the training and Any other discussion? All right. Hearing none. Upcoming events and reminders. August 18th, welcome
105back assembly for all. August. Did I read that right? August 18th, welcome back assembly for all district staff at 8:00 a.m. Um, don't we have Wait a minute. Aren't we missing one for the uh >> the CKA? >> CK. Yes. Correct. Yes. July 24th >> or 29th. 29th is our vote on the proposed rule for CKA. >> Okay. July 29th at 6 PM. CK, good. I wanted to get at least one July meeting. >> We haven't met enough. July 29th at 6 PM. >> Uh August 18th, welcome back assembly for all district staff at 8 a.m. August 19th, regular meeting at 6:00 pm. August 26th, first day of classes. And then August 27th is the WSBA meeting in Riverton at 6 PM. Uh please let Mr. Harris know if you're able to attend. The registration
106deadline is 8:18. That's a pretty good one to go to. The nice thing is it's one night. It's in the evening. You don't have to wait. >> Yeah. Mr. Chair, I also wanted to point out if you are in diligent and looking at the agenda, there's a link to register. You can register yourself know if you're coming, but also I can do it for you. >> Okay. >> And with that, we are Thank you guys.