001mosquito chopper. I told that to happen south pass. Yeah, South Pass be a dangerous place to fly. But yeah, that's just freaking awesome. Are they electric or or gas? Must be I bet heavy, but engines are a couple minutes. So I I didn't look up the specs because I knew if I got excited would be fun. No, I think she's still here. All right. How are you guys? Good. How are you? Good. Boy, it is. I should have brought a long sleeve shirt instead. What happened up in the hole? Was that a water? Yeah, we got it hard for me to get around. I like when it didn't kill me any of this wood, you know. Tried to sneak in and peek down there. Boy, they got that. Oh, yeah. See, Titus grow. Yeah, that's
002asbestous mitigation. They got to keep that early. I went outside, tried to peek in the windows and they got the just in case someone opens a window. Boy, they got the windows all sealed. They've got busy on that project. Holy cow. They got the volume out of there so fast. All the other stuff to get ready. It's short work. It's fun to see some of those notes. We found so much of that stuff. That's just a sample. But I think it is hilarious that you guys redacted the names. That's probably what cracked me up. The notes though just from middle school notes from back in the 80s rappers lockers and stuff underneath the lockers. Yeah, it's all through the cracks and pulls the lockers out and found all that stuff. Cool. My class they they
003found one the the ongoing crush was Susie Benzer had a crush on Roger Hin for ever. And uh sure enough they pulled out a note that was some Russian overd. Is that the first time around? The first Yeah, that was the one. the same. We're gonna need a chair. Anybody can be the same, right? Well, Scott won't be here. Okay. Oh, Taylor will be online. Yeah, she just texted. Okay. So, we have plenty of chairs. Well, bring it over. Well, then poor Mara's going to be like all by herself, right? Good. size. I'll talk extra points for showing up in the summer. Sorry. Do we get extra points for No candy bar? baby. Dude, I'm here with Summer. I'm looking for a candy now that you mention it. All right. Can car anyone? I'm okay.
004All right. All right. So, what are you doing this summer, buddy? Are you working anywhere? Are you playing? What are you doing? My mom said it's like Okay. And I just sprained it. They're the hard crunchy. I'm going to get stuff after doing primarily. What are you practicing? Basketball. Um I watch basketball. So like right before somebody for an hour you got it all in. You guys have any like team camps or anything else? Yeah, we we went to Powell last weekend and we're going to single tickets. Excuse me. I walked all over this weekend. Didn't get a single one. You better stay in a lot of screwed up and they were all over really freaks me out. Well, we were all walking off trails. We were just off. Go figure. Right. Joe found Joe
005did find one on the floats. just brushed it off. But none of us found any. I didn't say now get out. That's okay. That's okay. Please tell us. How are you doing? Good. What's that? Emails. Yeah. You those are yours, but you never check them. So, leave all I wanted to set an autoresponder for my work email that says like I don't get paid to respond to my email. You get paid to take people camping short. How do you get that bunch? Y taking students camping. Team students camping. Yeah. going for the men's three times this summer. Yeah. Huh? The first one's five nights. The second one's 10 or 11 and the last one's I think five. No, the first one might be four. Yeah. Yeah. 10 or 11 in their own gear. They carry
006their own gear. their own gear, their own food. When I look at and then whatever extra, they always end up out there with extra stuff and they're like, "Why did I bring that?" I have no idea why you brought the heavy dead electronic that didn't work. No, it's pretty good. I got a good bunch of I'm trying to think who. Ella Stanberry. is on one of the trips. There are any other people. We're going to play Ganet. You know, Darren after CPC, do you hire the Indian guides or do you go and are This year we're going through Cold Springs. Oh, that's good. paintings, which I've never done before. I haven't either, but I hear it saves so much. Yeah, my knees are very happy already about it. I actually don't mind walking uphill, but
007walking downhill is I have my braces. Yeah, we got this this kid that's all allow young 20. He was trying to figure out how to get Oh, you know, you're tough. You're really Jud Rogers has climbed Ganet like nine million times. He's standing there. He's like, I joke any day. Oh, that's funny. Jed heard we were going in that way because I worked with Jed a couple years ago at CWC. He's like, "Wait, you're going in through there now that I'm not working." It's pretty quiet. Jeez, it's going to be quiet in here. Right. We were just If we were just talking budgets, we'd have full house. Yeah. exciting. Well, I don't think we're going to get anywhere any more people. It's 5:50 now. Let's go ahead and get things started. Like to uh call
008the Fremont County School District number one board of trustees regular meeting to order. Uh it is just 6 o'clock, so we need to hit it just on time. Uh first order of business is the pledge of allegiance. without I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Great. Thank you all. Board member roll call. Uh Mr. Jensen let me know that he was going to be unable to attend tonight. He has some work business. Then I think we have both Eileen and Taylor online. Is that correct? Yep. All right. Great. So, all but one. Uh, are there any additional agenda items if you can? Um, yes, Mr. Chair. I would love to come
009back to the climate surveys. I know we're getting a report on them. Um, but I left with some questions after last meeting. Okay. It would it be enough to discuss it during the uh super? Yeah. Okay. Y'all can hear me. D I don't need to. All right. Uh any other there. Okay. Any other agenda items? Can I hear you? None. I'd like to get a motion for the adop adoption of the agenda. So move second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Carries. All right. I need to get a motion to approve the minutes of May 20th. So move. Second. Any discussion on those? All those in favor? I opposed carries. Mr. Harris recognitions. All right, Mr. Chair, members of the board, a couple of of exciting things here as the year wrapped up.
010Of course, we do our teacher of the year nomination process at each of the schools. So, I wanted to share teachers who were nominated chosen by their respective schools. At Ganet Peak, we have Rachel Roberts, who's a behavior resource teacher. At Peak Elementary, Tammy Linton, who teaches fourth grade math and science at Lambert Middle School, Alana McGill, who does seventh grade mathematics at LVHS, Kylie Chatfield, who's a bokeette teacher. he teaches Woods and then Pathfinder High School buddy Rainbow our PE teacher. So those five teachers are in the process of um being selected. One will be selected as the district teacher of the year and then that district teacher of the year applies as our representative for the state recognition as teacher of the year for the whole state. Um so that will wrap up
011soon. Uh so all of those applicants are are well deserving of their recognition. And again, that would make district teacher of the year. Uh the legal process works on district uh central office administrators review their application materials. We each ranked them independently and then the one with the highest score is the one chosen as the district teacher here. Um any questions on that? No. Those folks. Yes. Um and then the the second item is the Wyoming believing in literacy together grant. We got a 5-year grant from the Wyoming Department of Education um to improve literacy throughout the district from preschool all the way up through high school. Um and this month marks the wrap up of that grant by your point. So we have closed out our grant. But before we leave that topic, I
012wanted to invite teacher to talk a little bit about the grants objectives and how we fared in those areas. Thank you. Jared, I have a board to show you. Okay. Yeah, just did the Embracing Literacy Conference. Was that last? Yeah. Okay. I don't remember. I I just gained a week this month, so I don't my calendar. I decided, but I got to share this. Um those of us that received that grant years ago, um they had this po a poster up for each of the districts uh and with a gift underneath that I'll share with the guiding coalition. And you can see on here, this is the guiding coalition plus some others. So, we've had a strong solid team the entire time we've had the grants. And it was a celebration for us because some
013of the districts haven't even started coalitions yet. But thanks to this guiding coalition, our um our we're K12, preK12 has really been solid and strong. And that's very good because literacy is Oh, just show them. Show them the deal real quick. Like I'm sure you can see it and read every word. Yeah, you can read everything. I'll leave it up in the board because there's a good picture of Mike on it. um when he was reading as a frozen character in our family literacy night. But um there won't be funds as we know in the near future for literacy even with the K3 statues and expectations and prek 12 expectation for strong literacy instruction. So this is the team that's going to guide us as we continue to move forward because we're focusing not only
014on the science of reading but the science of writing and ultimately the science of learning with all content. So that's where we're moving. But I wanted to let you know that they asked what we are really celebrating besides sports and growth with kids. And it is reduction in tier 2 and tier three intervention needs through strengthened early literacy practices, establishment of sustainable district literacy, an MTSS coalition, which is our group here to evaluate preK12 data and implement actionable items. So each time we meet and Sarah's come to a couple of those. We also now have it open every other month for community members to come to hear those actionable items being put into action into place. Development of district-wide common knowledge and disciplinary literacy and um that's happening different ways in different schools. So it'll
015be fun to share that with you guys as we progress and increasing the number of letters trained staff which is a science of reading practices evidence-based and we have uh at this point certified and classified 80 roughly 80 teachers trained and I got through the grant three people in our district trained and they trained another 18 just this last year. So, we're going to continue the training that way. I just have to make sure I get funded somehow, but make sure that just wanted to celebrate all their hard work. So, well, that was going to be my question answer. What impact does losing this this particular grant have on this work? Major way. I mean, I'm going to be honest. It was um it's actually the grant ends for all districts the end of September.
016I was one of the initial grant recipients. It's up to 28 districts now because some took smaller chunks. We had almost 700,000 if I remember six something,000 and um it it's put into place the letters training. It's got incredibly evidence-based resources. It's paid stipen after stipen for PD professional development for our staff. The impact is going to be sustaining some of these things that are hard to purchase like the K3 readings program we purchased is at least 13,000 a year for just that one resource. Um and as the curriculum budget made it the same smaller it's because there's nine other contents that budget pays for. So this really supplemented all that work. But this team and new folks and building leaders are very very dedicated to ensuring that we keep moving forward. Um we made
017some changes through title one because we lost 90 plus thousand in title one funds and you you're aware of that. Um but our MTSS coordinators will take on big chunks of this work as well. So were there any FTDs that were directly supported by the by this? Um, yeah, and they were but they were off like they were a year in one school and a year in another. So I had a reading interventionist out of this at Baldwin for one year and then this last year we had an MTSS coordinator at middle school, but we have moved her into the title position. She'll do title and MTSS and that'll be out of title funds this year. So that was one way we could keep that. and that former title one reading teacher went into eighth
018grade English. So that worked out. That was great. But yeah, most of it was resources and training. That's the question. Other questions? Anyone? I was just going to add we we've had some tremendous results at versia in particular reducing the need for reducing the need for intervention through higher quality general classroom instruction. Um, and some data that came my way at the end of the school year was in kindergarten with phonics, the phonics skills, we had a phonics test, the screener that we gave to all the kids, 97% of our kindergarteners show skills. Those are the phonics skills. And then in first grade with site words, the ones that are not uncomfortable, they don't fit a recognizable pattern. You just have to memorize them. 87% of our first graders had proficiency on all of those
019site words. So with that foundation, that's going to pay huge dividends as kids go through the program or not through the program, but through the grade levels in every content area. They can just acquire information through reading. It's just going to be that much easier for them to to get to the tougher content, high quality work. So I'm really excited about it. We'll leverage the folks that are letters trained um and the rest members of that coalition there. That's going to be on them on Dra and I and our team to to carry that forward without the grant dollars. But it's a really high priority is literacy and language skills are infused in everything that we do. So that's like really key to unlocking performance in whatever content area we're discussing. And the science behind
020it is just that we have the word recognition but the language development and the exposure to knowledge just knowledge in general is going to increase students growth. So just rich rich classrooms, rich knowledge experiences. We're going to get there and we won't quit. Awesome. Yeah, pretty doubt about that. Yeah, they're tough group. So they keep me on my toes. So thank you. Great. Thank you. I'll leave this here because chairs. That was all, Mr. Chair. Okay. Thank you. Uh is there going to public comment? Is there any public comment on topics that are not on the agenda? Yes, Sarah. Hi, Sarah Riley. Um, I wasn't actually going to speak until um, Dedrick gave her presentation and I just kind of wanted to say thank you um, to Dedra and to the district for opening up
021so much of that for the community. I wish more community members had taken advantage and I wish I could have come to every um event that was open um because it was really cool to see the things that that they're doing um working towards literacy and um and just to be a part of that and honestly it made me really miss being in the classroom. Um so uh just that's all I wanted to say was thank you guys so much for doing that. Um it was really cool to be a part of that and thank you Dedri for making people feel welcome. other comment that's not on the agenda. Okay. Is there any public comment on topics that are on the agenda? So, I'll stop. Okay. Hearing none, we can continue on. Programs, reports, and
022presentations, board member reports. Um, I had the opportunity to to go to Gana Peak's last day of school and see their outdoor um expo which was great. They did all kinds like science, reading, writing. They did little diagram. I said that diagram diagrams. It was just fun. Like the halls were just decorated and the kids were super excited about it. It's really a fun fun to be in the last day of school and then got to see uh Lesie Voxland's um presentation for her. The library being dedicated to her as well as the great songs that the music teachers rewrote to fit Janet P last day. So cool. It was really fun. It's great to hear and then also attended the staff lunchon the next day. Anything else? Other board member reports. Yeah. Got my
023hand raised, but I don't know if you can hear me or see me, so I'll just speak up. Um, hi guys. Sorry I'm not able to be there. Um, just wanted to fill you guys in on some things. end of the school year. As Karen said, the banquet or party at um Baldwin Creek was really awesome. It was great to go through and see all the things the kids were doing. Um the recognition of Lesie and all that she's done over the years was amazing. Went to the Baldwin Creek Elementary awards as well, and that's pretty amazing to see just in all our schools how many awards and things students are earning, how many minutes um a year students are reading in pages and AR goals. It's just really great to see those celebrations. Um,
024graduation was amazing celebration. I was unfortunately not able to go to Pathfinder, but LVHS. I thought it was a wonderful one. And I also want to thank Mike for the presentation for the staff on the last day at working day for staff. I thought that was a really nice way to end the year with lots of highlights on what is the district has been doing and what specifically our teachers have been doing for our students. So, kudos to you on that. And then just a quick um recap. I was in Powell, Wyoming last week for the state board of education retreat and we have a couple things that um have come about. So in 2019, just a little historical background here, um the attorney general gave a position stating that the state board of education
025hadn't actually identified graduation standards and that was part of the state board of education's roles and duties. And so since that time we've been re um revising and looking at our chapters. So previously there was a chapter 31 that had um some standards but they weren't necessarily there were two different things. There was chapter 10 which looked at performance standards and then chapter 31 that looked at graduation requirements. So we um spent a couple years now reviewing those and sending them out to curriculum directors and superintendents and principles looking at those things. A lot of changes have been made to look at competencybased exams and compet competency based assessments and um that has now been approved. We looked at looking at graduation requirements and adding some standards and progressions of learning. So that now has
026gone out to promulgation or will be going out. So that will be going out to public input and so um if anyone from our district wants to look into that and put input in it's you know your input is valuable. We appreciate stakeholders from the state. Um and then also chapter 4 um was previously which is um assessment system. So it was previously lumped in with graduation standards but the assessments are from K to 12. So it's not really just graduation. So that's been pulled out to be just chapter 4 and so there's, you know, new statement of reasoning for that and again that will be opened up for public review. So those are just some things that are coming out. Um, and you know, the state board of education is hoping that with that
027being going out in the fall and then having time to re prepare and make any adjustments, they're hoping to have those new um, graduation standards and requirements implemented for the 9th grade class going into the 2027 2028 school year. So, this has been a long time coming and it's it's crazy how long things take to change, but you know, it's a process and um it seems like that will be a long time away, but I think 2027 will be here before we know it. So, and that's all I've got. That's a great update. Thank you so much for your work on uh on that important board up there. Any others? Uh, one thing just almost a housekeeping thing I wanted to mention. Um, we're having a little bit of trouble with Diligent software in terms
028of getting the policies over from the old software. So, if you're out looking for policies and you need to need to, you know, whatever, look them up, research, whatever, they're still on the old board doc system, which we do have access to. Uh, so at least for the time being, that's where they're at. Hopefully diligent will get those converted over before we all die or retire, whatever it is that we're going to do. Uh, okay. Uh, Deb, um, Mr. Chair, I'm going to say I'm glad to be out of school. Fair enough. Good report. Well, we're glad you're out of school, too. All right. Like superintendent report. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, a couple things uh by way of report. First graduation, of course, huge culminating event for our students. Um most of
029whom have been with us more than just high school. Uh packed house again at LVHS backfinder as well. It's a pretty full house as well. And it's just so fun to be at those ceremonies. And I wish you guys could see I mean board members, you can see this from the stage, but people in the audience don't often get to see like the kids' faces while you're up there. And you're seeing this range of emotions from elation to boredom to fear, you know, so all over the tears spectrum. Absolutely. Um, but it's just so cool to see our kids reach that milestone and then embark on whatever comes next in their lives. So really, really proud of our staff, but mostly really really proud of our students for achieving that milestone. Um, the second piece
030of my report tonight has to do with the uh CKA rules. So CKA is the district's policy on concealed carry for staff. Um as you guys know our statute changed in the state here. Um so we are in the midst of amending our existing u rules on concealed carry for employees. So the 45day public comment period began on June 4th but notice the documents online or in the newspaper. Um no formal comments have been received that I'm aware of at this point. Um, but there will be a public hearing next week on the 24th at 6 p.m. here in the boardroom. And there'll be another opportunity for people to submit comments if they have any thoughts or concerns about um the proposed rules. Uh the proposed rules just again were were based on what WSBA
031had drafted in consultation with Scott Piki, our district attorney. Um we made some slight adjustments to that based on feedback from our policy subcommittee, which is Jared and I made um before those rules went out. So hopefully that that rule um reflects our best thinking on the subject while trying to maintain some training requirements, answering some questions about um financial responsibilities and instructor qualifications for those who are providing training to our staff and just clarifying some of the the areas where the statute is that up to districts to determine. Um, last piece on that one is that the school board's vote on those amended rules will take place in July, actually on the 29th at a special board meeting at six o'clock on that Tuesday. So, that's on the reminders part of the agenda as
032well, but I wanted to just mention that real quick as well. Um, moving on to the last item in my report here, the the uh climate survey options and costs. and uh I shared some information in the agenda um about what Wyoming School Boards Association has to offer regarding climate surveys. Um got an answer back from them pretty quickly after inquiring post last meeting. The basic climate survey for staff only costs $3,500 through WSBA. Uh there's some add-ons. If you want to add parents and guardians, that's $1,500 additional. And then to include students, it's another $1,500. So look at at the max $6,500 for that survey. Um the other thing that's in the packet there on the agenda is an item bank. They they provided a bunch of suggested items. We can fine-tune those, remove,
033add, reword, whatever we'd like to use if this is what we want to do. Um but that's that's in there as well. They're just kind of waiting to hear from us direction as to whether we want to use their survey service or or go another route. Just wanted to bring that back because that was something that you all had asked me to to look into from May 20th meeting. Great. Thank you. Um I had a few questions and comments and I will own some of these are maybe on me but I felt like I left our last meeting not being clear on whether or not we were doing surveys um when they were going to happen. the who obviously is related to this information you just provided us with and whether or not they will
034be anonymous. And so I hope and then I read the newspaper article and I was like I don't know if I left with the same sorry Austin impression that Austin did. Um but I just hope that as a board we can come together and know exactly what we're doing moving forward and our next steps. Um and yeah so those are my questions. I'm interested in are we doing them? When are we doing them? Who is doing them? and will they be anonymous or not? Um, second, I want to offer a sincere apology to our administrators. I think in my opinion, our last meeting felt tense. Um, and I hope you know that you are loved by the board. I think you're loved by certainly you are loved by me. Um, and you probably felt blindsided
035and attacked and surprised. Um, and I want to clarify that I think feedback is our professional responsibility as a district and currently I think myself and other members of the board are receiving feedback in informal channels. And so my desire to have surveys for feedback is so that that comes in formal um systems so that we can look at it as a board and discuss it rather than what I hear um out and about in the community. So, I just want to clarify, you are all doing a great job. We want to hear through surveys about the great things you're doing, and we also want to identify patterns and trends in how we can improve. And I want that to be in a systematic way rather than what I hear out and about in town.
036Um, so I want to say along with that, um, I do think it is unprofessional that we don't have a district-wide system to give feedback to all supervisors. Um, and I hope that we can improve that. And then I want to clarify that since our last meeting, I have had numerous individuals who work for our schools and um, actually spouses of people who work for our schools reach out and express how important they think it is that there is an option to give anonymous feedback. Um, let's see. I've just got a long list of things. Um, with regards to your actual update, Superintendent Harris, um, I think some of these costs are unnecessary. I don't think we need a student survey at this point in time. I don't think we need a community survey. I
037could go either way on the staff survey cost. I think it could be a great one-time thing to do and we could learn from their methods. And I really appreciated somewhere in here they talked about they would give us actionable steps which was discussed as a concern of what do we do next after the survey and so I think paying this fee once so that they can role model how we collect data how we analyze data and then what the next steps are could be a great move. I think moving forward I don't think we need to pay this much money every single year for something that we could complete internally. Um, I hope that a survey would become an annual process and um that it could be something we do internally in the future,
038but I think it's worth considering this for the time being. Thank you. Other discussion on on survey climate survey. Mr. Chair. Yeah. Taylor. Hi. Thank you. Um I just kind of pretty much just want to echo Mara's sentiments. I think that um we dearly adore our staff and especially our administrators, but feedback is important and h how do we know what we need to work on to improve? How do we know why staff are leaving if we're not necessarily getting that collective data from um surveys and exit surveys? And so I just think that I would encourage us to not always and I had some conversations with um some of our administrators after and and try to really um ease that concern because it's it's just more or less we need to know what we
039need to do better as a district, as a board, as a you know, collectively we're here for our students. Um we're here for our stakeholders. And so, um, we can see P and perceive things one way, but it doesn't mean that that's how our staff or the community perceives it. Agree with Mara that it's just it's been consistently something that, um, during campaigning and just during my time on the board that staff and parents have brought up. And I agree that the other surveys with the students and the community are probably unnecessary right now. I'd like to just more less see um the staff survey. I do think the um anonymous piece is important. I do think it's a little costly and I think we could have done this an easier way. But if WSBA
040can give us some actionable steps and I think if we can take that information and use it, um as Mara stated in the future, I don't think we'll necessarily need to use it. Um, I think we're kind of over complicating this and um, but I understand there's a lot going on too and so it's better not to rush things, but I really encourage us to um, move forward with this survey. I think timing is an issue now. We've got staff that has left for the summer. I don't know how many staff members check email or respond to email, do those kinds of things. I would say most most Mara just said that she doesn't get paid to check her email but what I heard say that April picked that I realize Mr. chair. I realize
041now I'm arguing against myself. Um, but I do think this is a really important issue and the sooner we can complete a survey, the sooner we can complete a secondary survey and see if we are improving. And so for that reason, the timeliness seems important. If we complete a survey now, we can receive feedback quicker. We can give people time to actually work on it over the next school year. And then maybe this time next year, we can be having a presentation about the growth and the improvement we've seen. Um, and I think summer can actually be a great time for people to fill out a survey because they're not juggling all their teaching responsibilities and they may have time to actually give a thoughtful response if they're checking email. To clarify, I do check
042my work email. I just like doing it in the summer. We also have social media outlets that we could put on that web page that staff will be getting survey. Yes, responding. Um, thank you for your insight. You also have the exit survey, correct? So, if you put one out by Laura saying the summer, but also look at the exit survey data. I think that makes me feel better is because like I said before, none of us are afraid of feedback by any means. But the exit survey separate from those that are coming back and ready to make change if change needs to happen I think is going to be a lot healthier. So you have the exit survey for those with some concerns. Y and then those questions can be asked of those that
043are coming back. So what do we want to do? How do we want to move forward with this? Do you What's up? I want to talk about Yeah, go for it. So, um I guess I I surely understand what a survey does for us, right? And I know I put some comments out there at the last meeting that that in my opinion are are factual and and what I've seen over time. And I would just encourage us that if we're going to put out surveys and try and get information, data, and those kind of things that we actually have to be held accountable to make sure we do something with the information that's collected because in the past, the data has been collected. Everybody's taken the surveys and they went straight to the trash can
044and never got looked at again. Okay? So, if we're going to do it, if we're going to do it, if we're going to spend 6,500 bucks, right, we have to be held accountable for making sure that that stuff is collected, gathered, seen, um, respected, the whole thing, and go through it because if it's not, then we're right back to what I said before, and that's that they do nothing. Okay? So, we're responsible for making sure it does do something. That would be my comment if we're going to do it. So, let's do it right. point. Mr. Chair, I um I agree with you, Mike. Um and I I agree with Taylor and and Mara's comments as well. I really think that we just need to get the ball rolling on something that's systematic and regular
045and maybe not as big a deal. you know, if it occurs more frequently and if it occurs every every, you know, season or every twice a year or whatever, you know, I have never not been in a job where I didn't sit down at least once a year with my supervisor face to face and have that ability to both write and talk about feedback. And this is where it seems like the gap of the non-existent human resources um person or department um comes to haunt us a little bit. And I don't want to make the conversation bigger than it is. Uh but we really need to have some way to make this a very regular and as you say, Mike, usable form of data. Uh but we've got to start somewhere. So, you know, I
046think throwing our um chip in the bucket with WSBA, as you know, Taylor and Mara said, to get things started and to get a sense of, you know, how we can roll it out might be a good thing. And then committing to doing it every year. I was just going to agree with what everybody's had to say except for I don't think we need to do the the community and student survey at this point. I think the staff is more important right now and if we decide we want to have that later, we can. But um I think getting the ball rolling on this now so that we can get it out there and then I like the next steps. then it would hopefully help us plan what we're going to do and how when
047when we'll do it again, how we'll use the information. Like I said, when is our normal board meeting July, Mr. Chair? The 15th of July. Okay. So, it is the regular I I was looking at budget hearing. Never mind. Yeah, that's double. So, I mean, at this point, we would probably not be able to do something before the 15th of July. Um, Mike, what I mean, I'm kind of I'm I'm drifting the wind a little bit about where to go from here and how to make this happen. Do we want to um How do you want to proceed? Do we want to all submit questions to Mike and then have Mike put it together? Um, do we want to just trust Mike to put one together? You know, we can approve it on July 15th
048or present it to us if we can either add to it, subtract to it, whatever on July 15th and then get it pushed out shortly thereafter. What's What's your guys's thoughts? I think the biggest question I see right now is whether we're doing this internally or whether we are choosing to use the WSBA is the first question. And they have great questions that they recommend. I don't even know if we need to. I guess my pitch for the WSBA is that they do all the work for us. They have great questions at all. And I think that would yes we have to pay for it but it would take all the work of figuring out what do we ask how do we administrate it all that stuff would be taken care of and I think
049we can watch I guess my suggestion would be we watch that roll out and we take notes and we just repeat it ourselves in future years. My only concern with using WSBA is the last time we did it with WSBA the quality of the questions in my opinion were pretty poor. Uh, so if we do that, I think we'd want to vet those questions and make sure that we're all comfortable with with what we're actually asking. So maybe what what would you guys think about having Mike put together a WSBA uh survey and having us take a look at it on the 15th and if we're good with it, we can do it that way. The the nice thing about that is if we are talking about anonymous surveys, they do a really really good
050job about keeping things um strictly anonymous. Um if we do it the other way, uh usually it's the board chair that will take the feedback and then um you know, I mean I I I know that I would keep it confidential, but there might be some trust issues out there and I understand that. Um, so I this is a good way to go probably especially for um the first quote unquote although it's not the first one. So Mr. Chair, can you add a suggestion? Absolutely. I know you talked about doing it soon. My concern on that is just from experience over the summer the communication drops off a bit. So we have staff that are all over you know some are working on ranches that have no connection. They're on vacations. If you're going to
051commit to it and you want accurate results, excuse me, I would suggest I as a advent team, we thought October would be a good time. And some of the reasons for that is that we have new staff coming on too, right? So, if you were to send a survey out now, you would not get the staff that you have exit surveys to find. you know, it's somebody name, but it's not going to go into the survey and it's not going to, you know, it's not going to collect the data like you want to see it. So, just from experience, usually when I'm sending stuff out in the summer, I'm not getting 100%. And that's okay because it's summer and they're taking the time off, they're reflecting, they're refreshing for the summer. So, you could do
052it and you might get some of the responses back. you could use that as well. But if you're going to spend money on it, if you go that route, I don't think you're going to get the bang for your buck. Why October? I think it gives us time to get settled in and gives staff the perspective that I think you're looking for, especially new staff. And I think, see, about two months should give them a pretty accurate idea of how they're feeling at that point. So, so just my suggestion, you can do what you want, but uh I don't think if you send it out in the summer, you're going to get the responses. Thanks, Mr. Mr. Chairman. Maybe one of the things to think about on on when to give those surveys. Um, historically
053we've given them like the last day of school and some of those things end of the school year kind of a gig and I don't know if that was maybe maybe not the best time and place to do that at but what what about if sometime during the during the year when we have different work days and we have our schedule set work that into part of the the assigned duties for the day is to complete your complete your survey survey and and maybe we could do it multip multiple different times with the same one during the school year and see if people Yeah, I know. You know, in the past we would do these surveys with the intent of having them repeat it, but they always stopped at one, right? So, n equals one,
054which isn't really a really good uh doesn't really give statistically significant results. So, can do it. Let's do it right. Yeah. Oh, I don't disagree with that. But that is that does make it more important, I think, that we get the questions right up front because if we want to repeat them, then we need to make sure that they come out the gate because if you change your midstream, start to degrade the quality over time. So, so do we want to start this next fall? Is that the thought? Start it in October. Yeah, Peter, I won't interrupt again. I promise. I do agree with Mike on that because I run those vertical PD days and we survey those days each time we do that. We can add the questions to that and you know we
055have a PD day in October, we have one in January. So and then you have the exit year there's three chances for feedback. Great. Thanks. just to say if we're being intentional then let's get the questions going now and then we can we can decide updates after we have everybody has time to review it as that then we can even put it on our calendar when we do our calendars we have the PD days that are on there and we can say survey one survey two great year and we put that into our account you good with that thumbs up thumbs up That's a good thing. That's a good thing. Okay. Does that work? So, Mike, can we get on the 15th the start of our questions and then we'll go over? Absolutely. I I
056just would appreciate between now and the next meeting if you have specific items that aren't reflected in the WSBA items. Send them to me. Check. I'll waste your time just repeating what's in here. Whatever's in my head. There's something you want to see, just just let me. Sounds good. All right. Thank you. I think that's it on the Oh, maybe you're not superintendent. We're still on superintendent report, Mr. Chair. I'm done. That was That was my third. Um, just a shout out. I didn't get a chance to do this. Taylor, thank you for taking over for my duties on the graduation. No, the paper that way, but thank you anyway. No problem. All right, so we can move into uh we have a executive session. Hopefully, it won't be uh too long. Eileen and Taylor,
057I'll give you a call. Oh, can I get a m motion to do that? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any oppos? Motion carries. Thank you. 24. I think I can do it. Why? Who voted for me? There's like a couple thousand people out there who took away my Tuesday. Almost. They're notused by bison. Antique xylophone steals the ship. Yeah. Some good stuff up here. Intuitively scared of reading all that. What's that? Very good. Be careful. Indeed. Yeah. We have a story about like to get a motion to bring the board of trustees back into order. So move second discussion. All those in favor I opposed. Motion carried. All right, we have a couple action items here. Need to get a motion for the approval of the personnel actions list as present. Split
058the We're just working on A1 right now, not A2. Okay. So, just the personnel action lists. the two lists. So, can we split the two lists? So, move. Okay. Second. Second. All right. All those in favor of A15 by saying I Okay. Any opposed? I can't see. Uh, no one is opposed. Okay. All right. Motion carries and I'd like to get a motion to table A2. So move second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. We have a salary correction that we need to make that was missed u when we did the original steps. So like to give a mo a motion for the approval of the salary correction as presented. So moved. So moved. Second. And a second. Any discussion on this? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries.
059Okay. Need to get a motion for the request for use of depre depreciation reserve account funds uh to purchase lunch tables at our middle middle school. Second. Um second. Let the record show that uh Mr. Martin is on his knees begging for this point. Um any any discussion on this Mike or Mr. Morton? I can share something I've observed about these tables. So right now the current tables have chairs that are required to be put out and taken put away put out put away put out. So we put it three grade levels breakfast and lunch. That's an awful lot of moving and cleaning um and extra work and noise in the commons area. Not to mention just it's a little more chaotic with furniture moving around. Mr. more to have additional insight to that area.
060Oh, four years of lunch duty. Understood. Mr. Chair, above everything, it's pretty hard to see Mr. Mauy putting those away each day. And there were stretches where he was the only custodian on duty. So, you're looking at about 130 chairs day. uh sometimes we give him to create uh senses uh and actually it was a reverse effect and loved it so u but for him it's a lot of work they wax the floors every year it looks terrible by the end of the school year all the work they've done the table are getting harder this is the original table chairs of the school building and so the mechanics of the tables hard and others to actually put that together each day. So wearing that sound is um just I figured it would probably take about
061an hour of work each day with one unit where it all folds up together. the students or adults. The adults, it doesn't matter who's the chairs and tables um just folds up one unit. There's no stacking chairs. There's no on the concrete floor each day and they're just staring out. So that's adding to the time that has not as smooth process as it used to be ago. So um we are humbly humbly asking for in password and I think for us game changer for us so little things like that help thank you. Um note that it is the the cost of this is 49,48394. it would come out of our depreciation refunding uh reserve account and currently there's a balance in that account approximately 2.7 million. So it's a fairly small request for this account.
062Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor? I. Any oppose? Motion carries. Thank you. Carol, I'll let you know if there's any. Thanks. You bet. All right. And then we have a request for the approval of out of state travel reimburs. So to get it on the on the table, I want I need to get a motion for the approval of the reimbursement for outstate travel. So move second discussion. Mr. chair. Yes, Taylor. Hi. Sorry. Thank you. I have um a couple questions about this. I um trying to recall from my time on the board. I don't think we've ever approved anything like this before. And so I just was trying to get some clarification if this is common. um if there is a policy on this um you know a lot of times
063I see students before an event you know if it was asked beforehand if this was an option instead of a post um postevent request um you know are these kind of things chatted with the families about if we could just talk about this a little bit more I'm I'm kind of struggling on on understanding why this has been brought to us do you want to give a quick overview Mr. chair, members of the board, um we do have a policy on the books. It's policy JQ that deals with out of state or out of season activity requests. There's a stipulation in there where u the board can be approached for expenses for national travel. So the board can approve those expenses. This instance is a little bit unique. We used to have a lot of
064kids competing in the state history day competition. Um and this year far fewer and two that made the finals and actually won the event. Um so they were u able to go to national history day. Um due to the timing and in sponsorship and and some confusion at the end of the year that request didn't come to us before the previous before the travel which was the 9th through the 12th of this month. Um so they're relying on that stipulation in the policy to request reimbursement for part part of the expenses that these two students um incurred in traveling to National History Day. In the past, the district would cover that sort of thing through fundraising, but with so few students participating, there hasn't been a big LMS history day drive to raise funds. Um,
065parents were under the understanding that there was some remaining funds in a previous fundraising account for National History Day and that is not the case. After checking with Mr. Sweeney, there is no special activity fund that was thanks to a car wash or any other form of of fundraising. So, okay. Um, oh, oh, sorry. A little distracted there. Taylor went dark on screen. Yeah, Taylor, uh, Taylor's on the line. Uh, the power just went out in the motel that she Yeah, we're in Airbnb, but there's big lightning and thunder and power just went out. So, okay. Sorry about that. If if you hear sirens, head for the basement. Yeah, no kidding. I guess uh just just to sum up on that. So the the the total costs are on the attachment there in the board
066packet. A little over 3,000 for student A and a little over 4,000 for student B. They flew out of different airports and had other arrangements on the ground and things so that there was a difference. The two parents are just requesting $1,000 each. So a total of 2,000 to the district to offset those out-of- pocket costs. They're not asking for the full amount. They're just asking if the district would under policy JP considering reimbursing them for $1,000 each. Um, what kind of what kind of precedence does this set? Are you are you concerned with the precedence this could set about getting flooded and reimburs? Um, Mr. Chair, members of the board, I guess that's a possibility. You know, I guess if you if you are driven enough to voluntarily create a project for a statewide
067competition and win that competition and then go represent your school and your community at the national level. Um, I think that's great. We can't always support that and nor could we support every request or a full amount of each request. But I think these parents are attempting to be reasonable and asking for a fraction of what they've spent to get out there and accompany their own children to these events rather than having a staff member of the school district go with them. Um we don't see a whole lot of national events like this that students are qualifying for. So I don't I don't think we'll be overwhelmed. But is it an unexpected expense from time to time? It could be. So, are you recommending approval? Mr. Chair, members of the board, I would recommend approval.
068Both of these um students presented to the board in on our at our May 20th meeting. Um their project was not only at the state champion. It was a winner of a pretty prestigious award at the state level. I haven't heard yet how they did at the national level. That was just they just got home about four days ago. But I would be in favor of approving this this request. Other discussion on this? Yeah, Mr. Chair, I would just throw out there that I had a daughter who went to National History Day a couple of times and this was during the time where Gayla Hammer actually was there as a chaperone. They stayed at the University of Maryland in the dorms, so lodging was very inexpensive. They ate their meals in the dining hall. um
069she arranged public transportation to get them to and from Washington DC. Um and the kids did do some fundraising and families contributed, you know, what they could. Um but I think it's a very different situation um today because obviously, you know, a parent needs to accompany their student and we know that lodging and transportation are not um unless you're at the University of Maryland, they're not that inexpensive. So, um this seems like a really reasonable thing and a a great way for us to continue to show our support to these students who are doing such um amazing work. Okay. Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor of the reimbursement say I. I. I. Uh any opposed? motion. Okay. Uh that looks Taylor is opposed. Motion carries. All right. I need to get there's
070going to be one extra action item that is not on the agenda. Uh this is a personnel issue. So I will refer to the person that involves individual A. I need to get a motion for the acceptance of the request for waiver of bandages according to policy GCQC. Get a motion for that. So move. Any discussion on this? All right. Um all those that want to approve the waiver of damages say I. All those who do not want to approve waiver damages signify with saying I motion motion is denied. Okay. Discussion items policies review. We have first reading of several pol not several four policies. Uh the first one is policy J h drug testing for students involved in your activities. Mr. Harris, Mr. Chair, members of the board, so you'll recall from the May
07120th meeting that um there was a a one pager with a kind of a year in review for the drug testing policy uh that included some possible recommendations from the admin team and myself. This draft is crafted based on that discussion for May 20th. Uh couple of highlights here. first under the activity programs on the first page. This proposal would eliminate sixth grade from the testing uh protocol and keep seventh and eighth grade. There was discussion last month about whether middle school at all should be involved and if so which grades. Um so this is sort of a compromise on that on that fund. Uh then down on bottom of page two, this proposal would eliminate the initial 100% screening every activity, every athlete, every participant in favor of just keeping the random screening. Um
072and as as stipulated in the original policy, 25% in season and then 10% outside of season. So those percentages are not proposed to change, but the just the 100% screening would be eliminated with this draft. And then the last piece down below on page four is to um align this policy with the code of conduct in holding that if a student is appealing a positive test result, they would be ineligible to participate while the appeal is ongoing. So that's what the code of conduct already states. This is just to make those two um in agreement. I have a quick question on that. Is that ineligible to participate in this as well? Um, Mr. Chair, Miss Harms, I'd have to look and see what the code of conduct says. I think the code of conduct states
073that you could participate in practice but not contests. Could we uh for reading two, we could make that more clear. So there's no there. Thank you. Other discussion on this? Um, yeah, I have a question. How much I know funds were allocated for drug testing in the draft of the original budget. How do we know how much was um can't speak how much was allocated for testing and how much eliminating the 100% start of season testing would save? Uh, Mr. Mr. Chair, Miss Gans, I don't have the specific figures on how much that component was, but that was the bulk of the the expenditures because we had five activity seasons and three at the high school. So, total weight activity seasons. And then as far as the participation surveys, we did have way more students
074participating this year than prior the previous year. So, that drove the cost, too. It's just kind of hard to pin down and I'd have to double check with Mr. Sweeney to find out exactly how much he's got allocated for drug testing coming year. But I do have those participation numbers. That was something um that Mr. Jensen had requested and I can share those. Yeah, I'd love to. Okay. Um so for 2425 at the middle school level in non-athletic activities, there was a net gain of 21 29 students over the previous year. Only two areas had decreases. Most had gains. Um and then on the athletic side of things at at at the middle school level the net gain of 24 participants and only four of those sports had a decline for 23 24 to 2425
075at the high school level non-athletic activities there was a gain of 58 students in terms of participation and only five of those you know there's over there's probably close to 20 that had different activities only five of those saw a decline year over a year. Um and then in terms of athletics, net gain of 31 participants and only three sports had a decline and those were minimal declines. Only two students in one sport, four in another and one in another. So overall, this doesn't seem to have affected participation. In fact, you can say there's correlation that may have improved. How how did that um trying to think about how that relates to the total number of athletes or total number of potential participants? Basically, since it's one year, we're only talking about one class dropping
076off or one class being eligible. So, it doesn't seem like the the eligibility would have changed or passed. Mr. chair. No, I don't think the eligibility would have changed and the enrollment at LBHS was fairly stable year-over-year. LMS saw a slight decrease in squeeze, but those gains I think are still meaningful. Thank you, Mark. Mr. Chair, superintendent. Um, I just want to say I am in full support of the removal of the 100% testing. I think that is a great way to save money and a great way to keep students in classes and will make it way more logistically easy. Um, and that the random testing still provides a strong incentive to not use drugs. Um, I'm not a fan of the seventh and eighth grader testing, but I can live with that compromise. Um,
077and then I would finally encourage us to think more holistically about how we reduce drug use and see if we can reallocate some of the money um, for drug testing towards activities that will engage students in meaningful extracurricular activities so that they develop hobbies outside of drug use. Um, and I know we've received several petitions for those over the course of the year. And so that might potentially that's an item for discussion in the future of what can what can we use the money for that will reduce drug use and enhance our schools. Great. Thanks. Other discussion on this topic Taylor's a vampire up there. She's sitting in the dark at this point. It's crazy. It's so loud and yeah, it's insane. I look like I logged in on my phone internet and I've got
078phones. So, um yeah, I think that sounds like a great compromise and I'd like us to proceed that way as well. Um thank you. Got a flashlight from my kid. Okay, bye. Um and yes, I agree. Um you know, I think dropping off the sixth grade, especially because most of our sixth graders are doing individual sports. They can't or all they can't do team sports. Um it just it just makes sense to just look at um discluding them. And yeah, I think this looks great. Great. Thank you. I have one quick question for Mike. I remember there being um some kind of complaint possibly from a parent about um removal from the random testing list to am I thinking of the right thing here? There had been a complaint. Um I'm trying to find the
079item. Mr. Chair, Mr. Brew, I think you're there was a a comment from our former AD about that there were two parts of this policy that were at odds and I I didn't hit on it when I did my quick overview, but I think we got that straightened out. Let me just look here to see what was crossed out. Okay. No, it must have been something else because I know that I know there was the question about bringing it into alignment with the student code of conduct, but I thought there was a parental question about removal of a student from the random testing list, but this item E looks pretty clear, so I'm must be mistaken. Thank you. No, I don't think you're mistaken. I I remember I remember that. I mean something about um
080I I think it was a had something to do with being remote when you're not in playing in season. Um but I don't remember the context at this point. Mr. Chair, Mr. Brew, I can't remember the context either exactly. I have to go back and review the minutes. Well, might be something to review for second reading. Okay. Uh let's move on to policying J first reading. This is our homeschooling policy. We've made some changes that I believe are driven by state statute, I think, but we'll uh let Mike take it away on this. Uh Mr. Chair, yes, thank you. This this policy is uh being revised. It was just revised last year, so may look familiar, but we've had some important changes at the state level, and that's the reason for this revision. Um, INJ
081basically now says that it it eliminates the part of the policy that used to be talking about homeschool parents producing evidence of what curriculum they're using and giving that to the school district. That was expressly removed from state statute. So, that whole part has been scratched. Um, and there's some new language there that that also matches up with that that state statute saying that we don't but that's old language is we don't have any right to require or make judgment about the home school curriculum and at the end of the day we were even if a parent came to us and we did not feel as a district that the curriculum was up up to our standards there was nothing we could really do about that. Is that correct? So I mean this almost brings
082reality in aligns policy with reality. Is that fair to say Mr. Chair? That's that's fair. Any other discussion on this item? Yeah, one quick little thing which is more of just a grammatical thing. In that second paragraph, the highlighted um portion of the sentence um it shall be the responsibility of every person administering a homebased educational program to ensure the curriculum meets those uh these requirements and is provide to students in the program is provided to students in the program or is provided for students in the program. Mr. Chair, Mr. really I added D to the word provided. It's on board docs. I just had already uploaded the policy before I caught that. But yeah, it should say provided. Great. Thank you. I like that D. Thanks. All right. Any other discussion on this one?
083All right. Policy GCBA certified salary schedules. Mike, won't you jump in on this one. Mr. Chair, members of the board, uh, policy GCBA is our certified salary schedules for for teachers. Um, previously, you'll see on the draft, we did not have any credit given to any any teaching uh person in a teaching position if they had uh prior experience that was not teaching related. So in the case of CTE teachers, they could be a master mechanic or, you know, worldclass welder or a craftsman and carpenter and come and want to teach school and be involved with PTSP toward certification, but the previous version of this policy gave no credit to those individuals for any sort of relevant work experience. Um, after talking with a couple board members and and and LBHS and and uh our
084fifth manager, the proposal here on this draft will be to grant up to 10 years of credit on the schedule for each year of relevant non-eing work experience. So 1:1 ratio up to 10 years for experience beyond 10 years, the credit on the schedule would be granted at a 2:1 ratio. So um we can't probably sustain a 1:1, but Mr. was comfortable with this these ratios and I think it would be a way to help ensure that we can recruit and retain talented CTE people who are interested in becoming teachers any discussion on this make a lot of sense to me something um Mr. chair, members of the board. So, we inquired Carol made a call over to Fremont 24 and Shony, they have a little different setup. Every district is doing something a little
085bit different to try to get qualified people who have actual work experience in these fields and are willing to work with young people. Um, I didn't find any district policy that had this exact type of thing, you know, with these ratios, things like that. Um, but I know everybody's struggling with recruiting and retaining these folks because they they generally make a lot less than they could in the open market. Um, so it's it's hard to reel them in and hard to get them to stay. Well, hopefully the edge on some of these. Taylor, Mr. Chair, um, I'm really excited to see us have this at the state level, the career and teched board. That's something we're trying to push and it's being seen more across the state. Um, as Mike said, with recruitment being so
086difficult, um, and a lot of people are maybe at the end of their business career and they'd like to get into education and maybe helping and, um, teaching on that aspect, but financially it just doesn't make sense for them. And so, especially for these rural districts, this is something that they're going towards and it's kind of a push throughout the state. So, I think this is great for us and it'll look really great for some of those recruitments. and it's not a huge pool of teachers that we're discussing. You know, it's just more of those trades and a little bit more of those unique positions. So, I think it would be not sustainable if we were talking about, you know, a larger pool of staff that that would be um applying to. So, that's my
087thought. Great. Y other discussion on this item. Okay, let's move on to pol policy EJ sex designated facilities. Uh, another one that's driven by Wyoming state statute. Mike. Yes, Mr. Chair, members of the board. So, this is coming to us via the Wyoming School Boards Association. This is a a verbatim model policy from their policy service. This is based on the new state statute uh which is enrolled act 53 uh designating exclusive sex specific facil facilities for restrooms, changing rooms, and sleeping quarters. Um the policy does include some reasonable accommodations for those uh who don't identify with either of the uh sex specific definitions in the policy and in the statute. Uh there are some exceptions for custodial staff, emergency responders, uh coaches, but under certain conditions only. Uh so this is very much reflective
088of the policy or the state statute. Um and districts don't really get a whole lot of latitude to fill with these but all of us need to have a policy in place before the next school year. So that's the reason for bringing it today for first meeting. Thanks discussions Mr. Chair Superintendent Harris. Um I want to first acknowledge that my duties follow the law and Wyoming statute is pretty clear on this issue. Um, but I also want to acknowledge that not all students fit neatly into the categories described in this legislation. There are students who identify with a gender that may not match their anatomical sex. Um, there are students who may legally have changed their sex. Um, there are also students who are born interex and who may have atypical presentation of their body
089parts that do not match the chromosomes of their sex. And so I want us to remember that this is while the categories in the legislation are really neat and specific, not everyone fits in those categories. And our district and our teachers and our staff and our coaches still carry that burden of supporting those students. And so I hope we move forward thoughtfully and with love and with consideration of the needs they may have in terms of additional support. Um, I do appreciate the language in here about reasonable accommodations, and I hope we remember that that includes not just a different room or a different bathroom, but that may include mental health counseling or having conversations with other members of a sports team so that these students feel like they belong as all students belong in
090our schools. Um, so I hope we move forward with love on that. Great. Thanks. Other conver other uh discussion on this one. Yes, Mr. Chair. Um, you know, we have transgender and non-binary and gender questioning students in our school district, and we know they're here with us, and the words of this state statute don't erase them or negate their needs and rights and well-being. I think it's really important that we remember that research shows that a student's inability to easily use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity has actually increased in schools and areas across the country. Um, incidents of verbal sexual and physical harassment. And in light of this knowledge, we as individuals and educators, administrators, and school leadership teams must commit to going beyond the wording of reasonable accommodation for our transgender,
091non-binary, and gender questioning students to ensure their well-being and their safety in our schools as we implement these policies. Thanks. Thanks, Ellie. Any other discussion? I would just like to say that I agree with Mara and I mean I mean that we move forward with respect for students and um that I hope we keep that as our focus as well as the question I mean I don't know who's going to man this exactly like how is that really going to be you know I hope it's done in a respectful way if somebody's concerned about somebody's gender because there's been assaults happening for females who look a little bit more masculine and look a little bit bit more feminine. They're getting attacked and getting like Eileen said, they're getting attacked and harassed and and they go
092and use the bathroom that is their gender. So, I'm hoping we continue to be respectful specifically in our public bath in our our swim pool where we have people from all over the community using it. So, I'm hoping that we continue to be respectful and thoughtful with this. Great. Thanks, Taylor. Mike. Mike shakes his head. Taylor. Um, Mr. Chair, I think those were valid points and I think, you know, again, following the letter of the law, I don't have anything else to add on these. So appreciate the um input from everybody. I one thing that I mentioned just this is a little bit broader but uh two years ago we went and we were talking about transgender policy um that I had brought forward. I think it was two years ago. Um I'm happy that
093at this point I think on almost all the issues have been addressed. I don't think we any longer need to to have such a policy. Um, this enrolled act state 213137 takes care of the bathroom accommodations for the safety of primarily safety of in my mind our female students. So, I'm I'm thrilled with that. Our pronouns issues have been addressed with enrolled act 23 W state which specifically addresses adults but as students generally have more flexibility and first amendment rights than teaching staff. Uh I think this pretty well covers students as well. Sports was addressed via enrolled act 92 state 2125102. So, we no longer have to um worry about the safety of our our girls in in competitive sports um where they're playing against males. Parental rights and notification was addressed with with SF9
094and policy KBB. Even though I think that transgender issues are not explicitly called out um in that policy, I certainly s think that issues around surrounding gender dysphoria and constitutes mental health conditions and qualifies under KBB. And then IMDb teaching controversial issues. Executive order 14109, President Trump prohibits K through2 schools from teaching content related to gender ideology ideology or critical race theory. So, it's pretty clear that a piece of our transgender policy that dealt with IMB has already been dealt with by the uh by this administration. So, the only thing I think in the original policy that was not addressed was the name was name and gender changes on official records. Um, but I'm not nearly as worried about those items as as some of the others in that transgender policy. So I think pretty
095much all the material issues have already been addressed um by either state statute or by federal regulations. So pretty pleased that's all um so at least uh at least for what we were trying to accomplish earlier. Any other discussion on EJ hearing? and move on to discussion B, consideration of becoming an education service provider, ESP. Mike, thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. So, you may in a couple of superintendent reports, I've I've mentioned the education savings account, aka the steam that's part of the steamboat legacy act that passed the state legislature this half session. Um the way that program works is uh the state allocates money $7,000 per child not from the school foundation account but from another account. So it's not affecting public school funding. Uh $7,000 for a home school or
096private school student reach student in the program. Um and those parents who enroll in the program their accounts are credited for 700 $7,000 per year. That's distributed on a quarterly basis for the parents and kids in the program. Once the parents are in the program, they are able to go online to a website that's run by a company called Odyssey and they select from a menu of services which services they want for their child. And then there's a cost associated with each of those services. So they're basically ordering what they education savings account program doesn't go directly to the parents. It's paid to the education service provider who's providing the services. Now, public school districts are eligible to become education service providers or ESPs under statute. Um, this memo after a lot of discussion with
097the state, with other superintendents, and with our admin team, this memo is recommending that Fremont One hold off on becoming an education service provider, at least until we have more information and experience with how this works in practice with other school districts. Um the memo kind of outlines some of the concerns uh some of the information that we have not yet been able to answer and questions that we have from the state. They did answer they did issue a a four question FAQ uh I think yesterday or perhaps Friday. I can't remember which day I saw it. Um but we still have a lot of questions about state reporting grading discipline attendance. If we are an education service provider, how do we handle those major issues if a student is coming to move our classes
098but is not an enrolled student in the school district? Um the financial piece is another consideration. The state guidance is that districts would need to if they're going to be an education service provider that enter into contracts um negotiation is what the FAQ said earlier a couple days ago. So contract with parents for these services and then and figure out on the back end how to get the money from Odyssey to the state. So there's just a lot of confusion on how much that would be. What are the reporting requirements? What is the process? Uh our feeling is that it may not be insurmountable, but it is it'd be darn near insurmountable to have ready to go for this fall. Um, so our approach would be to wait and see, um, and then re-evaluate the
099decision further down the road as we get more from WD and other districts who are involved. And as of right now, I was only able to identify two districts in Wyoming that are considering becoming an education service provider. One has a pretty robust prek program and there's, you know, different set of funding requirements for preschool and then another one operates an online school. Um, so they're used to doing virtual arrangements with with students and things like that. So a little more unconventional than what we've had here at 311. So wanted to put that out there and then just hear your thoughts as board members on on that recommendation and any other questions that you'd like me to answer or gather at the thoughts on becoming the ESP. seems like I mean if even if we
100wanted to do this we have what two months to get it in place before we'd actually need to start. It's not much time. Mr. Chair, I would add to that Mr. Smey contacted the state for information on how to become ASP a couple months ago and we still are waiting. We we've got in response a link to the Odyssey website but we're able to answer any of the questions on topics that I that I brought up. Definitely. Let someone else be on the bleeding edge of this one though. Taylor, Mr. Chair. Oh, I had just thought that the original or the enrolled act 52 stated that, you know, the the Steamboat Legacy Funds could be used for any non-governmental entity school. it's like doesn't seem like we fit that definition in any way. So, I
101was really surprised to see this um you know on the agenda last week um because I thought that we are a governmental entity any Mr. Mr. Chair, Miss Brew, that is that is part of the discussion that's happening around the state. And I think there's some confusion among districts as to whether the state's guidance and interpretation of this of this statute is is really what a court would uphold. So there's like a couple of different bills that come out every year uh some question about what it actually means in practice. Right now they're saying districts are eligible to become ESPs. Not many are fighting. So we'll see how it plays out, I suppose. Anything else on this one? Taylor maybe raised a hand. Oh, Taylor. I did. Thank you. I I agree. Let's hold off.
102There's so many unknowns and like everyone's reiterated, there's the practical, you know, it there is this trickle down effect when we have legislation like this put in of how it's being implemented, who's going to oversee it. Um, you know, I I just think there's too many I support our homeschool community. Um, and I'm happy for them with this, but I think we should wait on getting involved with it just to make sure we have some more understanding of the requirements for testing and um, you know, credits and all of that stuff. It seems to be a lot of confusion and unknowns. Great. Thanks. Okay, let's move on to salary and comp targets. Um, I have a suggestion. Scott was the one that originally brought this up and he was sort of driving this. He's not
103here tonight. There would it be a problem if we table this until next time, Mr. Chair, members of board. I don't think so. I'm prepared to speak on it, but it's Scott was the one with the fine. And we had talked about Mr. being here, too. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Is that all right with everyone? We table that one. Okay. All right. So, we'll table that till next time. All right. Upcoming events and reminders. June 24th, the public hearing for proposed intent to amend the rules for employees who conceal carry firearms. 6 PM here. Keep in mind that this will be a listening session only. There will be very little board actual well there'll be no board if this takes place other than other than a listening session. July 15th, the budget hearing starts at
1046, which is a statutory required budget hearing and then the regular meeting will follow that immediately. the budget hearings usually don't take much time at all. Uh and then July 29th, there will be a special board meeting to consider taking action to amend the rules and regulations for the concealed carry on firearms at 6 p.m. Um that basically is the uh followup from June 24th and that was the statutory statutoily required 45day uh period that we needed to wait from the time those rules were published. Um, so that's why we have a little bit of a weird date on that one, but kind of is what it is. So, and with that, we are very excited. What do you do? Lay away. You know, I I I