001I'm going to call this meeting of the Ton County School Board uh back to order at uh 602. Let's say the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America [clears throat] and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] Uh mission statement um trusting me and I think you last month I think [laughter] >> who did >> trusty Gingry can you read it something from mission vision and I stay >> we value students we value trust kindness and respect we value challenging standards we value fairness and equity we value resilience and perseverance We value personal achievement. >> Thank you. >> Uh on to approval of tonight's agenda. >> Madame Chair, um it looks like we have a packed
002house tonight. Um and I'm guessing with some of the correspondence that we've had recently, um it's going to be covered in some of our committees, some of those topics. So, I propose that we move the physical management committee report up higher to um uh give everybody an opportunity to um hear what some of those topics how they'll be discussed. And I don't know if we want to move the education services committee up further. >> I would second that. Shall we move them up to immediately after reports and items for discussion? >> Yes. Sorry. Student school board. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, we'll do fiscal management and then education services and then student school board members. >> Um, how about other reports? >> That one will stay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, >> I I have
003just a procedural question though because usually we talk about those things we're talking we'll have a director talk, but would it be okay at that point in time then just to allow any public comment that would be about that committee meeting then instead of pushing it back until at later? M madam chair, I would just say the item on the action item D, consideration of Wyoming High School Activities Association membership application is an action item that we will be uh discussing um later in the agenda and that's where we would take public comment on that specific item. It's item D under action item six. Okay, >> that's that's the action item where we would approve the sports for next year. >> And so they would be able to comment on that. >> And right now
004that action item includes all 12 boys sports and all 13 women's sports, girls sports as the high school activities association um with no changes to the recommendation. So those sit down here and you're you know that action item would be one that people should understand we're approving all sports >> that is that is >> that is the proposal before us tonight. >> Yeah man, we have a clarification of the motion. [laughter] >> We didn't confuse you. Well, >> so yes, we can have a clarification on the motion and do then we would we want to move that item up >> or just leave it at D. >> We can move it up to the top of the action. >> Okay. >> All right. So, somebody want to make a motion. That is a friendly amendment.
005Move the action item D to So I think what the motion was was we are going to do approval of agenda and then superintendent report and then reports and items for discussion. We're going to move fiscal management committee to A, educational services committee to B, school student school board members to C, leave other reports to D. We'll take public comment on items not on tonight's agenda. And then under action items, we will move D up to A. >> Second that. >> All in f any more discussion. >> All in favor? >> I post. Motion carries. All right. So, let's go to celebrations. Madam Chair, trustees, I'd like to introduce Director Megan FZ to please come to the podium. We're going to start this evening with one of our um significant awards in our district. I'll
006let you explain the process, Megan. >> Oh, great. Good evening, Madame Chair, board of trustees, Megan Pouts, director of ed services. We had our teacher of the year and staff of the year nomination process this year. And these were staff and and teachers that were nominated by their school sites. And then we had a process um where staff and teachers of the year for each school site apply for a district teacher of the year and staff of the year. And we have selected Lauren Hugo as the teacher of the year for Jackson Hole Middle School and Luna Bergos Rivera from Munger Mountain Elementary School as the staff of the year. So there's a lot of people in the room. I'm wondering if uh Matt Hshire is here and if Dan Abraham is here to say
007a few words about their staff are here. Um, yeah, I was honored uh to receive the award uh and to hear about the award uh for [laughter] I have never taught math. believe me. [laughter] But uh a big congratulations to Lauren Hugo um who teaches math at the middle school um and she has really embraced mid school math which is our new math curriculum. And it has been just fantastic to see um all the protocols that she has put into place to really embrace that. Uh it's kind of a it's a very different curriculum um where kids are active. They're at the whiteboards all the time. They're doing a ton of talk protocols. So, um it was just really nice um for her to receive this uh award. Uh and obviously this was nominated by
008her peers. I'll read you a couple statements that they said. Um quote, "I think Lauren is always learning from others and inquires about how to best help our kids. I feel like she's a lifelong learner because I always see her adapting and changing things to work for students." Another teacher said, um, I have had the pleasure of being in Lauren's room, so I know how she interacts with her students, the teaching practices she implements, and the faith that she has in all of them. She holds such a high bar for her kids and all of them and for herself. Um, and Lauren is a continual lifelong learner. So, I would agree with all those sentiments from her peers, and there were many more. Um, and it's just a great honor for her to be the
009TCSD uh teacher of the year. Good evening. I'm not Dian Abraham. Um, my name is Emily Hoffer. I am the assistant principal at Munger Mountain Elementary School. And I get the privilege of introducing you to Luna Rivera, our one of our bilingual special education pair of professionals and the Teton County School District staff member of the year. Um, Oh, I'm reading it, but you can see what I'm saying. >> Um, when we ground our work in the belief that all students can learn at high levels, my Estro Luna is the kind of educator who makes that belief a reality. As a special education parish, she her whole job is to help ensure that students who need it receive the accommodations, the instruction, and the support they need to access learning in the classroom like their
010peers. Because she speaks Spanish and English, she's able to do that for any kid in any room in our school. Every day, Luna draws from what seems like an endless well of patience, teaching our youngest learners to count to 10, identify letter sounds, and build the foundational skills that open doors to future learning. Her joy is contagious. Teachers hope to have her in their classrooms. All students light up when they see Maestro Luta in the hallways. And if you ask anyone in the building, they'll say that she gives the very best hugs. So grateful to have you on the team, Felicia Duna. Thank you. Oh, >> thank you so much everybody. Um, I kind of I can speak in Spanish. It's more easy for me. [laughter] Um, uh, and um Just call us. Um some
011glasses. >> Um, our next celebration is our um connection award for the month of June. I'd like for is Gary Dukat in the room or the center of one or have Gary come in. There he is. [laughter] >> Nice to see you. >> Board of trustees. As you know, we're trying to do a much better job in our district in recognizing on a monthly basis organizations in the town that partner with our students on a high frequency to really give back to CCSV. Um this month we're recognizing the center of wonder and have Gary give you just a quick uh summary of what this team does in addition to the robotics team. You do amazing things for district for a long time. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Um hi I'm Gary from uh the Wonder
012Institute. I was, for those of you who don't know, I taught at the high school for 17 years. Me and Scott had a a very close for a long time. Um, been coaching robotics for a long time. So, when I left the district, kind of melted my worlds together. I always said if I won the lottery, uh, what would I do? [clears throat] And I would always robotics would always be on the plate no matter what. So, uh, thanks for letting us present today. So, yeah. So, the Wonders 2 um has kind of morphed. It was a center of wonder. It's kind of morphed into the Wonders 2. And it's basically we've got three little pillars now. That's what I call them. And it's the it's the labs which are my maker spaces. I have
013a maker space in the library, which is free and open to the public. And I also have a maker space down on Beer Drive which has um a wood shop, sewing studio, silver snipping studio um and a prototyping studio with 3D printers, laser cutters. That's a membership based uh opportunity for community south. Um we have one to learn. I'm opening a education center on South Park Road. That'll be my K12 education center. That's going to be for the community also. So that'll be during the day. They'll be during summers, weekends, all those kind of things. And then I have the Wonder Launch, which is where I work with TCSD and CWC to try to work on pathways for students who don't necessarily want to go to a four-year college. I'm a big believer in trying
014to give kids an opportunity to give them what they need rather than what we decide that they need. And uh a lot of our students uh are being served by going to a four-year college. So really focused on trying to get um pathways for students in different ways. Um and then I have the Jackson Hall. So look forward to continuing the collaborations and hopefully we keep you know just keep moving um giving our kids more the Jackson Halls um which are which are represented here. Um this is our 15th season of robotics here in the district. Um, we have third grade, which I didn't bring all my third graders. Uh, they do, uh, Lego explore as part of their curriculum, and a lot of schools do it in the spring to do a Lego thing.
015Uh, the fourth and fifth grade, um, program that's in every elementary school. So, we have robotics teams in every elementary school, Alta, Moran, Kelly, um, and all the district schools. Um, and yeah, even Moran and Al, they really enjoy the program. Um, I'm currently coaching the middle school teams and we have sixth grade to eighth grade there and I ran four Lego teams this year and one team was the travel team. They went to Casper and competed in the state championships uh in Casper. And then this is part of our ninth and 12th grade uh team. So we have developmental teams for new people that are coming in. We have a JV team for kids who are you know moving their way up. And then we have the varsity team which is um mostly our
016juniors and seniors and um this year they traveled well they'll talk about what they did um but we had over 150 close to 200 kids participating per year in robotics in Tucson County which is an amazing number for a community of this size. Um I'm going to turn it over to introduce everybody and talk about our competition. >> Hi we're the Robo Brunks of this season and >> [laughter] >> In our regular season, we went our four high school teams, two developmental, [clears throat] one JB, and one varsity. All attended, four different scrimmages, and then returned back to Casper to go to the Wyoming state champs. The awards that we won this, every single one of our teams won an award this year at the Wyoming State Championships. I'm super super proud of all of
017us. The awards we won were >> we were a finalist alliance. We won a thank award, reach award, and judges award which led us to uh the western edge premier event where there were 88 teams from 11 countries in 22 states. This was a huge step from a middle school cafeteria we're in for Ryan the state champs and it's the largest international tournament besides worlds. [laughter] >> Our largest outreach project that we did this season was the sage grass project. The National Park Service and the Teton Raptor Center had a problem with sage grass getting too close to the Jackson Hole airport. Right outside of the tarmac, there is a field where the le is which is the sage rescue breeding ground and the sage grass were getting way too close to the airport. And
018so they reached out to us in order to build our robot [laughter] designing, prototyping, building and wiring [clears throat] these robotic stage trucks that mimic the male grouse's signature mating dance. We partnered with the National Park Service that built the lab and helped us get like the materials we needed, the Tucson factor center that provided the calls and their expertise and the Jacksonville airport that let us save our land and funded the whole project. >> Our story was heard around the world reaching over 8 million people. >> Locally we were in Jackson and Guide, Wild Rail and Jackson Daily. On the national scale, we were we were featured in People magazine, Popular Science, Smithsonian magazine, and Interesting Engineer. >> Internationally, we were on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio with their show Ass. And we were
019approached by the German mix. We are always looking to improve. And so, a month after our Robo Grass made their debut, we brought them in for inspection. A problem we noticed was that the coyotes were taking off the real browse rings that we had previously [laughter] ripped those off. [clears throat] >> So we decided to remodel and print them ourselves. >> Fantastic. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate you guys. >> Can I jump protocol here? >> Okay. Lauren. >> Lauren's here. >> Lauren, [laughter] >> it's in the other wing. other wing. There she is. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Uh this is Lauren Hugo, who I just recently said some really nice things about. >> I I was just in my car saying not nice things as I was sitting in
020traffic. Um it took me 30 minutes to get from um East Jackson by the hospital here because of the construction. So, I was saying not nice things um in my car. But I apologize for being late and it's nice to see everybody. Um thank you Matt for the nice comments that I didn't hear and um I appreciate the honor. Um, it really is an honor. Um, it's an adventure every day at Jacksonville Middle School and um, it's just been an incredible year of growth and um, I think success and I think I'm most proud of one of my most challenging classes who at the beginning of the year wouldn't speak to each other and just with a lot of effort and um, you know, protocols and getting kids collaborating and up out of their seats
021and feeling comfortable with each other. I have ended up with this classroom full of kids who will every day talk, collaborate, work together without even thinking twice about it. So, um that feels really great. So, thank you. Yeah, thanks for the recognition. >> Okay. Sorry. [laughter] >> All right. Our next recognition, we have our state champion girls soccer team. Well, I think we should have gone before the Robo Bronx because that was [laughter] >> and my Spanish is a little rusty, but I think I heard you say you teach in disciplines with love. [laughter] And I would say that this is a team that that plays with love. And we have been together for a long time. Um some of us we're reaching 10 plus years. So, this has been um this crew of soccer
022players has been one of the joys of my life being uh part of this team. We are truly a a family and uh we're a high performing family, too, which is pretty pretty special. Uh a couple things I'd call out. Um this is our third appearance in a state final. Um we only lost two games by single goals this year. Um we had five allstate players um which [clears throat] is absolutely phenomenal phenomenal. Um Ruby, who is babysitting, um broke several school records, um including uh career goals, I believe as 85 as a junior and 52 assists. Um Harley is by far and away the best female goalie that has ever played for Jackson Hole High School. Um we are sending three at the moment girls to play college soccer. Um including Harley is off
023to Gillette College. Um Meta has signed at Kenyon. Um, and Ruby has recently committed to CSU and there may be more in the making. So, um, yeah, it's just an absolute delight. Um, these girls won their conference. Um, we had a tough regional loss, but it only made us hungry for another back-to-back win. If you get a chance watching Harley on her Wild Preps interview, whenever I have a rough day, I've been watching it on repeat. It is adorable. Um, and it shows how much joy this team has. Um, outside being fantastic soccer players, these are people who certify people for CPR, who run the National Arts Honor Society, who play multiple sports, who run um all sorts of organizations within school. And I'm not sure our GPA competes with the swim team, but it's
024pretty stinking close. These girls are in many We had to schedule our regionals. Um, some of our players came right from an AP test with about a two-minute warm-up and hopped in the game. So, I couldn't be prouder of this team, and we appreciate um the support. Women who play sports have great experiences in conflict resolution, in leadership, and in making friends with each other, which I think is probably the most important thing of all. So, thank you so much, Jackson Bronx. Did you have them introduce themselves? Do you mind having them introduce themselves? >> Oh, sure. Sure. Look at how busy you are. [laughter] >> But this is the fun part. >> Okay. >> I'm Meta Kon. I'm Charlotte Thompson. I'm Neil Pasco. I'm Ted Chile. I'm Harper May. I'm Vicki Madera. I'm Harley
025Rumbl. >> I'm Maddie. I'm Lexi Anthony. I'm Ca Y. I'm Asia Perez. >> I'm Liv. I'm Cody Traver. >> I'm Sydney Beck. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> All right. That's wonderful. Um our next um item here, I just wanted to highlight a couple things. And I think trustees, what you're beginning to see is a little bit of a learning theme. Um we really want to push students to be thinking about how they can apply their learning in the real world, how they can be problem solvers, how they can be creative and solve with the center of wonder students. Some of the things that have occurred in the past couple weeks have just been amazing to go into schools and see. Um, Jacksonville High School had a community service day last Friday where all grades 9
026through 11 students went out into the community, partnered with over 37 organizations to volunteer their time for the day. 19 buses, thank you, Colby. And over 600 students participated. We also had an amazing project at the middle school called Come Back to Silence. This is when students pick a passion area, research it, defend it, present it to their peers. Not only are they learning public speaking skills and collaboration skills, but they're having to problem solve and come up with solutions and present those to their peers. Um, this is the type of real world learning that we're really trying to focus on. And it really pushes kids beyond um turning in a test, which is important. They want to minimize that, but we really want to see them demonstrate their learning as we move into a
027much more technology savvy world. It's the one area of assessment where we can truly see the kid knows it or not and they're demonstrating their knowledge. So, I'd really like to acknowledge that. And of course, the last connection moment is the AVID seniors. They were able to secure over $3.5 million of institutional scholarships. The AVID seniors at Jackson High School. I'd like to congratulate them as they leave um our district and walked across the stage last Saturday. So these are all important connections of learning math stuff like are very important to highlight that go beyond um standardized tests which are important to our district but there's another whole side of the student that we also need to focus on as well. The last point for me is just a a big thanks to all the
028uh teachers that came um and educators to our 430 recognition on years of service. We also want to congratulate again the six members who are retiring in TCSD. So thank you for that. >> Thank you. Um, and that leads to the district leaders report. Any questions? >> All right. Seeing none, we'll move on to reports and items for discussion. We'll start with fiscal management. Uh Madam Chair, your committee met June. Um and we discussed a number of items. Technology refresh, gifted and talented spending. Uh we went over comprehensive budget. We talked about our banking interests and who our bank is. Um we took a deeper in the fiscal year 27 site bud budget. Um and we also need to discuss the activities um situation formed by the recalibration bill. Um we are estimating a $200,000
029deficit no matter which way we cut it. um in the funds that are being allocated to um activities through the recalibration process that it does include the estimate revenue coming in from the memorandum of understandings of the private schools. Um, as it's well publicized, I made a recommendation that we look at eliminating two sports and talk about an adjustment um to uh the way we would potentially continue with a third and fourth sport. Um, as of now, Pinedale has dropped golf. That happened last night. they have held on to [snorts] skiing. So, for now, alpine skiing, I think it will remain a Wyoming high school activity. Um, it could change. Uh, Kristen has dove in, gave us some options on how we can continue next year funding all 12 boys sports and all 13 girls
030sports. But I think we need to have a little talk about that. Wyoming High School Activities Association governs 12 boys sports and 13 girls sports. There are only four schools in the state that do 12 boys sports and 13 girls sports. The schools are Albany one, Laramie High School. And they have um I put that in population. They have um uh where is it? Jonah County Larmy High School has 158 students. Kelly Walsh High School has 1954 students out of all four all 25 sports. Um Mrona County has 1,600 students. We have 872. That's the number our magic number for funding. Each of those students gets $833. So you can see those larger schools get significantly more funding allowed through the model. Um has put has said to me and I I mentioned last in
031first out and the question came up data. Um boys swimming there was eight total kids participating last year. Um only five enrolled in the high school. Um so we only get funded for five. Uh in softball uh it actually dropped participation. It had 18 two years ago. at 15. This year we've been solid with seven participants and softball is the one sport where we have uh less than 50% of our own enrolled students participating in the sports. Um so there there's some data sets. Um it's a not a fun conversation to have. It's a tough conversation because it's about the dollars. And I know over the years we've asked I've heard Trustee Gingry say we need new Nordic uniforms. Heard middle school parents say why do our kids have to share boys and girls have
032to share basketball uniforms? Um I mean there's only so much money to go around for those type of things. Um I've talked to uh Coach Allen, Ryan Allen, Director Allen. Um he's working on new fundraising opportunities to help fund that and help fill that hole, but we have to take the money from somewhere. Um last month we looked at the site budgets in our initial uh budget. We had reduced those so we could do it all. I think this board went back and really pushed to make sure that we fully funded the site budgets. Um this new recalibration bill is messing with all of us. So Kristen went back to work put a pencil to it and we are fully funding at last year's levels all of our site budgets. We're also from the conversations
033here about gifted and talented. We also increase the funding to the gifted and talented programs even though the state was cut cutting that program. Those are academic programs that I think are very important sport. So Kristen will hopefully share with us how we're going to fill in this so we can move forward on the application that we're going to vote on tonight that will include softball, it will include men's swimming, but we are going to spend some time over the coming months talking about if the legislature doesn't fix this and if our projections are right, we're going to have 40 less students in our enrolled in our high school next year, which will result in an additional $30,000 deduction in activities funding. What we're going to do and how we're going to fill that hole.
034And um we've estimated the costs on all these sports and every every sport, you know, it's 40 to $50,000 per sport. and and it's and that's base level and part of it is the traveling, part of it the coaching. If we didn't have the coaching fees, we wouldn't have coaches then we wouldn't have teams. So, what am I missing? Director Mayo. [laughter] Well, there there's a lot that has happened as we all know in the last six months um especially given the recalibration bill and unfortunately with the recalibration bill um districts have really across the state been forced to make difficult decisions on a lot of different topics not just activities but teaching staff salaries classified staff. Uh, I would say Teton County School District ended up probably the best you could end up after
035the recalibration bill. There's still so many moving pieces. I just returned from Cody last night from spending two days with the WBO business manager group. We heard from WDE. We did receive some additional information, but they're still trying to figure it out, too. They they know that we're going to have some additional collections in August for some of the impacts of the bill. um but they don't know what those are yet and they don't even know what information they're going to be asking for or what we are going to have to report on. So the impacts of that bill have caused all districts to look at everything and I think I think that this is actually going to be a very healthy process for our district. We've needed to do an activities review for a
036long time. I think deciding on the criteria that we want to use to evaluate what activities we offer in our community is an important first step before we start looking at the data. Um, and what that will provide is an objective overview of what are we looking for? What's our motivation behind activities? We've all seen the evidence that students who participate in activities um are more inclined to be more interested in school, do better in school, perform better in school. Um so it's an important conversation not just because kids want to play sports but because it actually has impacts to academics. Um that being said in finance committee we did review a potential calendar that was posted under the finance committee of what this review might look like on an annual basis maybe a bianual
037basis. Um I think once we get through this process this year we should do it more often. We have not done an in-depth activities analysis um and really evaluated what we want to be offering and if if it's something we want to continue doing. We've only ever added um and and who knows, maybe that's where we sit. We want to keep everything, but it's worth the work to make sure we have the right information and and we're adding activities and providing activities that make sense for our district. Um the first step like I said is to decide on that criteria. Some of [clears throat] the uh suggestions were participation numbers both um Teton County School District students, private school students, virtual students, and homeschool students. The total cost of each activity, the um the cost
038per participant. So we we do a calculation of the cost per participant. been doing that calculation for many years because we have anou with the private schools where the private schools pay us for the participants that are coming to to participate in our activities. It's a three-year contract that we have. We just renewed it. Um the increase actually went from 1,200 to 2200 for next year because the cost of activities has increased uh as we look at fuel costs which are reimbursible by the state but it's still an expense for the district. Um so cost per participant in a couple of different ways both what we're spending and what we're receiving. um the revenue generated from the private school participation. Uh historical and projected program growth um is the program growing, is it not growing?
039Um and why is it not growing? I think it's easy to say, "Oh, that that sport went from, you know, 25 students to now only 10. It's the coach's fault. Let's get a new coach." I don't know that that's always the reason. But you know activities do go in waves. You get certain bumps and and a lot of times it has to do with the parents. You know the parents at of kids at young age they are excited about soccer. So we get a huge bump of kids that play soccer but then the next parents are excited about baseball or something else. So, I think it's important to look at all of those different pieces and then also look at the current and future fundraising um both by the teams and um you know Ryan
040Allen is doing an amazing job uh as the activities director. He's brought in some new ideas. I think that will continue to happen. Um we also have the legislative recalibration meetings happening between June and October. uh they have promised to come back and uh fix fix the activities funding the deficit that they created with their bill. Um and you there there's a lot of dynamics in just saying that the recalibration committee that will sit and make these decisions in these meetings June through October is not the same recalibration committee that will present the bill in the session in February. Many of the current recalibration members are either not up for reelection or may not be reelected. Uh so whatever the recalibration committee comes up with may not even hit the session floor. So we could
041still be facing the same deficit depending on what the new recalibration committee decides to do with that bill. Um so we have a lot of information coming our way in the next couple of months. I would, you know, I I think stakeholder um feedback is important. Gathering that, figuring out how we're going to gather that. Uh Mike Hansen and I are working on getting all of the data of the criteria that I've just explained um together before August. We will continue to review that with the finance committee uh and have all of that ready before we really start having these conversations. Then hopefully we'll have the recommendation from the recalibration committee. Then we will be able to see what the legislature does in February. If they fix the funding or they don't and then be
042able to make some decisions by next April. Uh I think that's a good timeline. I think it gives people time to give feedback. Um, and hopefully we can come up with some uh ways that people will have avenues to give that feedback, come up with ideas, help us brainstorm on what's the best way about going doing this. Um, and putting a process in place that we can do more often. I think this is a shock to the system because we've never done it before. Um, this bill forces us to actually look at it. >> Trust me. Um, Madam Chair, uh, Kristen, what about the Wyoming High School Athletic Association? Um, you don't mention that in the finance committee materials with regards to this. Um, where do they come in? Are they going to wait until
043the legislature really makes a firm commitment to a budget or cut? Uh, you know, I think they they threw a shot over the bow of the legislature with their publication that they sent out about ideas where districts can cut activities. Um, I think senators and and uh house representatives got a lot of feedback after that. And so I think they're a partner in this, but I think it's also important to understand that our activities that we offer in our school district are much broader than what is in the Wyoming High School Activities Association. So, I think that's an important piece, but it's just a piece. We have a lot more activities, a lot more clubs. I think we need to look at everything and say, "Okay, we're offering all of these things." Many of our
044clubs do their own fundraising and there's not a cost to the district, but it's worth having it all in one place. So, we can say, you know, it's not just dollar cost, it's also staff cost. um you know, if we have every staff member at the high school or the middle school that's doing an extra club that's putting in more time, uh the burnout factor and and we know that there's a burnout factor specifically after COVID. Um we need to make sure that we're not putting additional taxes on our staff resources in addition to our financial resources for the district. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else about it? Well, the one question I had is after reading all the emails um that we've gotten this week. Um and I'll just make a little caveat. If
045you sent an email after Friday, it will not show up on the agenda tonight because they have to be in by Friday. But we have received and read all your emails. I've responded to them all. they'll show up next month on that agenda as you know that you sent them so that the public can see who sent letters. Um but if some of the suggestions were fundraising and um I I'm getting a sense that you're suggesting we hold on for another year and see what the legislature does. That may not be what you're suggesting and you can tell me you're not. Um, but is there how would fundraising work for the sports teams? I don't, you know, I just don't know how that works because we've had activities funds. We voted for the activities funds
046and we moved and I know there's Bron Backers and there's other things, but how does that work? >> Well, our sports teams have been fundraising for a long time. Uh, and they either usually do it through Bronbackers or they can do it through the fund for public education. We can use um old bills fund run. Uh so our sports >> education foundation in Jackson. >> Oh gosh. I'm sorry. [laughter] >> I'll get it. I'll get it one of these days. Um but uh they've been doing that for a long time and you know I think that's an important piece to look like. What have they fundraised already? What is the plan for future fundraising? But I also think that um Director Allen has some plans to do like bring back something like the Bronc Bash
047where some of those fundraising efforts can be split between teams. whoever participates gets a percentage of of those larger fundraising efforts. And and in the past, especially, you can see like the the fund, not the fun run, the um >> runtober uh you know, that started with one school, but has quickly grown to reach all of the elementary schools and it ends up being such a great way for our elementary schools to participate and raise money for their schools. um events like that end up drawing a lot more people or have the ability to raise a lot more money um than a bake sale or you know um at the basketball game sometimes they sell off little flags or something which is so fun um but it doesn't raise that much money. So, uh, I
048think that there's a lot of different ways that are already being used. And then, um, Ryan has some great new ideas on how to continue that fundraising. And, you know, I I get a little bit torn between fundraising and then offering an activity where kids have to fundra. Um, as a parent, sometimes I'm like, I don't want to sell apples or I don't [laughter] want to sell raffle tickets. Um, but you know, I think if it's something engaging for the kids, it's a great exercise and uh hopefully we can come up with some ideas around that. I do think paying for the activities um uniforms, the standard things that they're going to need um is important and then the fundraising can be used for the extra the sweatshirts or the extra things that the team
049can use. when when we go I did coach basketball for a year. So when we would go and we would play in tournaments or whatever, a lot of the other teams are headto toe in gear. They have matching backpacks. They have all of this. You know, Jackson doesn't usually show up that way. Uh and I think >> but we have better grades than they do and [laughter] we have smarter kids than they do. >> Yeah. >> And we have a lot of kids take AP exams. >> It's true. It's true. Put your money where you want your results, right? Um, so there's there's just so much variability and and so many different factors that I think, you know, some things are important to parents, some things are important to kids, some things are important to
050the school district and education. >> Um, so the first thing I want to just note is is that uh trustee Scarlet said out, you know, um, his kind of summary. my summary might be a little different than his. We had a robust discussion about what might be the criteria, what might not be the criteria. So, um I I don't want it to seem, let's just put it, the paper got it right. I have a different opinion than Trusty Scarlet does on how we should eventually look at this and review it. Um, I, you know, I think there's, uh, issues that we need to look at, um, that I brought up and I've asked Director Hansen to look at, um, I've asked Director Mayo to look at, which is we have other places where we can
051potentially eliminate some costs and expenses without eliminating an entire program or sport because based upon the numbers, we would have to not just eliminate two, we might have to eliminate four to meet this cut. And I don't think that um I am hoping that we can find other means specifically maybe the recck district or other ways to subsidize those sports moving forward. Um there are a plethora of criteria we can look at, but at the end of the day, at least from my perspective, I would hope that we would really do whatever we can uh to make sure that we keep the sports that we have. I look at this a little bit different, maybe because I was a coach at one of these sports like director Mayo was. Um, by the way, I've never
052heard of boys and girls sharing basketball uniforms, but that's a new one on me. And our team had Lululemon sweats, so I mean, they were dressed pretty nicely. Um, that said, that was all fundraising. They did that through fundraising, and I know volleyball does it, other things do that. So, I think that at least from my perspective, I think we do have to have a discussion about how we are going to look at sports. um potentially adding sports if we wanted to add sports or subtract them. We have to have criteria to look at that and I'm in agreement on that and I'm looking forward to having that kind of debate um with all of you in discussion to see how you view it and what we can do. But um I think that the
053criteria to say just simply last in first out I disagree with Trusty Scarlet because then if we get past swimming and softball what's next after that because we got two more to cut if that's what we're looking at. I'm hoping that Director Hansen, Director Mayo can look at other avenues like hey some teams want to go on tournaments. That's on them. you know, we should look at limiting schedules and seeing what we can do so that we can cut back there. Potentially limiting teams, having developmental teams versus three teams traveling all the time, things of that nature that we can look at to try to cut costs. And then I think we should have a I really hope that we're going to have discussions with all the people sitting in the room and all the
054people that aren't represented by these sports and just have a discussion and hear from stakeholders. Okay, what are our needs? How can you help us here if the state goes through with these cuts permanently? Right now, I think Dr. Chris has said he believes it's a one-year deal. I'm hoping that the rest of the state, by the way, everybody in here start writing legislators, not our legislators, the other ones, and telling them this is a problem because they're the ones dictating a 23% cut, right? Is that right? 23% cut in our budget for activities. So, we need to be uh calling up those people and telling them this isn't okay. Um that said, I'm hoping and looking forward to working with each of you to find a way to fund the current sports and not
055have to eliminate it. I I did, Madam Chair. Yes. >> Um, thank you, Director Mayo, for this information. Thank you, Trustee Scarlet, for the time and effort that you've put into this and and Trusty Bosch for your comments, everybody's comments. I I think what's important with this is we got to open up the conversation. There are some big ifs in the room and in the state. Um we don't know where the funding is going to go. Um and that's a big if and we'll wait and see. And as Trusty Bosch said, get your friends, your teammates, everybody to write the rest of the legislators around this state. We received an enormous amount of feedback in emails. We hear you. You need to let the rest of the legislators hear you loud and clear and get
056the people you compete against. make sure they're right, their legislators, and make sure their legislators are heard, those teammates, those competitors are loud and clear. Um, so we don't know where the recalibration is going to go. The other one that I think is important to mention as well that was brought up this last legislative session was the rec district funding. And that was a big concern that uh it was proposed that for rec district funding that it would have to go to the voters every four years. And if that happens that puts the rec district board which then becomes our board at a risk of if our community wants to support that. The other piece with it is, if I understand it correctly, was it was one mill or no no mill to where at
057least currently the rec district board can um decide if they want to raise or lower that middle depending on what the funding needs. So something to take into consideration as well also when you're writing those legislators that to keep the rec district at the local level. so important and another piece of the conversation that's been happening here why it's important is if for some reason we do need to make changes it's not a surprise to her it is now out in the open and I don't think anybody on the board here is looking to um impact the students lives in a manner that is seen as um targeted in any way and we as a board have a financial responsibility to the district. We will have to make some hard decisions with getting the feedback
058from the collaborators, from the community as well. And ultimately depending where that big if goes of that reccalibration that will guide us as the school board of where we need to start making those decisions and where those conversations start going. So the can's open. It's out there. Um so remember lots of ifs we need action from people with to the people that matter which is in shut. >> So please take action starting those people >> and I would start with I mean if everybody's listening in the room the recalibration meeting is June 22nd and 23rd in Lander. Um, oh, 24th and 25th. Don't go to Lander on the 22nd. [laughter] >> 24th >> at 1:30 in the afternoon on the 25th. They're taking up activities at the recalibration. >> Mhm. >> And that's on the
059their agenda, but sometimes they speed it up on that second day. >> Yeah. >> So, at the end of the morning, >> so that's a good place to start. And Mike is on that committee and Mike was aware that this was going to happen and Mike voted for this just so everybody knows out in the open. So also write your local legislators. >> Okay, moving on. >> Anybody else? >> You have anything else to >> I have the fiscal 27 bud. [laughter] All right. >> Really nothing more exciting. >> Madam Chair, may I have a moment? >> Yeah. >> I'd like to point out one of the original FinCom members is in the house tonight, Janine Tesy. Welcome back, Janine. >> And I would like to point out that Janine Beesky voted down my first
060budget in the I think you can testify in the budget. [laughter] >> Okay. Well, uh the draft budget is posted. Uh Trusty Scarlet and I have been reviewing it. This is um go to the Yeah. >> Do you would you like to start with your questions? >> I can go through some questions if we can kind of lead this through. Um so the general fund budget questions, can we manage the 200,000 deficit caused by the legislative act file 81? This [snorts] goes back to the activities. >> Yes. Um because of the changes in SF uh 81, we have several different pockets of one-time funds that we're going to receive in fiscal year 27. And typically those would just go on to cash reserves or the cash carryover as the legislature is now calling it. Um,
061and we'll be able to offset that $200,000 deficit. It It's not a long-term solution, but we will be able to uh make that work for one year uh as we go through this process of evaluating our activities and waiting to see what the next session brings us. >> In the draft last month, there were some reductions to the site budgets. Were you able to sufficiently fund the school site budgets with no reductions? >> Uh, yes, we were. And we actually were able to add um the stargazing tutors to uh two stargazing tutors to the high school, one to Summit Innovations, and one to the Jackson Hall Middle School. That's a contract service. Um but we've heard from our principles and our and our site admin how valuable those tutors are. Um and you all actually
062got to meet some of them. on on page uh 26 I see that our ending unrestricted fund balance for the general fund in fiscal year 25 was 3,228,000 uh yet the audited financial statements for fiscal year 25 show the ending balance as 7,674,000 where does that variance come from >> so that's that's one of the important things to remember is that we report all our financials to the state on a cash basis and that's the number that I can use to figure out if we're up against that 20% or 30% or 15% whatever they've set that limit for for that year. Um but the but they look at the cash reserve in the audited financial statement which is on the acrual basis. And because we usually receive all of the licensing the registration fees from
063the county in July that is an acred revenue amount that has to be included in our cash reserve amount that's reported to the state. So we have these huge swings. You'll see um I didn't actually put it in here, but you can you can see here on this page that our estimated um fund balance is going from 3 million to about 3.4. Um but we'll receive probably between one year it was $7 million. Um so between four and $7 million in those fees in July and um we have that's just something we have to be very careful of because if we exceed that 20% or 15% or 30% whatever it is for the year um that money gets swept away uh and goes back to the state. Um, why are you budgeting for the reduction
064of interest revenue in the general in the general fund in the amount of 960,000? >> Um, as you all know, we've talked about the impacts of the interest portion of SF81 where the state legislature has decided that they'll come in and sweep out 50% of our interest revenue. um they WDE started to implement that the portion of that bill and their rulemaking to apply to all funds. The business manager group and school finance data advisory committee pushed back very hard on that and so now it's just limited to the general fund, but it will be an impact between decreased interest rates and um that 50%. Um it it's a pretty significant difference for us next year. Um can you tell us um what um enrollment projection you're using for the 26 27 season or the
065full year? >> Yes. So uh the way that I typically do it is I is I take the prior year senior class remove that add in the same uh number of kindergarten class that we had this year. So next year we'll have about 40 the estimate is about 40 students less than this year and that impacts our funding in the following year. >> Um I can see the to on page 34 total revenue in CWC Boseies is less than the anticipated expenditure. How will this deficit be covered? So C WC Boseies is a is a mill levy that we this board decides on every year and there is a cash carryover in the Boseies. We we try to budget to make that a minimum so that we're not holding taxpayer dollars in a fund that
066isn't necessarily designed for reserves. So there is a balance uh that's carrying over from this year to next year. We also don't know exactly how the dual uh enrollment piece of the legislature. So in SF81 they also um passed a portion that says dual dual enrollment will now be reimbursed to districts. We have always had an agreement with CWC Boseis where we pay them and then they refund us the dual enrollment fees. Um the legislature was intended to not impact those agreements, but as I talked to some of my colleagues across the state, it sounds like they are. So we have a potential of increasing the revenue. I I asked Trent Carroll, who is the director of finance for WDE, if their intention in their rulemaking at WDE was to get the districts and the
067Boseies to fight over the money because it seems like that's what they're telling us to do. and he said, "Yes, that's probably what's going to happen." So, I'm not sure how we'll approach that one. >> I'm gonna skip right to the employee housing fund. Um, >> where are you looking, B? >> Uh, page 40. >> Um, do we need to uh determine what the capital replacement set aides are for our housing units? >> Yes, we do. uh as we now open our 24-unit employee housing um and we have moved all of our employee housing into a separate fund. In the past, we've always kept that in the general fund because those were general fund assets in having conversations with our auditor. This was the right time to move all of the employee housing into its
068own fund. And part of that is to remove the accumulation of revenue from the cash reserve expectation in the general fund. Um because we will start to make money or um have a cash reserve in the employee housing fund. Um, one of the things that I think will be very important is to um establish for all of our units, not just the apartments, what those capital replacements are going to be for sighting, for roofs, for windows. Um, so often a new project is is great and and brand new and we don't think about those things and we get 20 years down the line and now we need a new roof and we don't have any money. So, um, hopefully I can work with Tina Corby and use her expertise as our property manager to figure
069out what those set aides should be. Uh, so then when we get to the 20-year mark or we get to a roof replacement, we'll have money in that fund for those. >> That's kind of mine, not anyone else. >> Trusty B. >> Uh, Director Mayor, just to pick up on where Mr. Scarlet or Trusty Scarlet left off with regards to the budgets on those housing units. I also didn't see any set aides for say litigation or things like that. I mean, just because we're looking at not putting money into that general fund if we're going to put it in its own fund, shouldn't we be at least setting aside money, squirreling it away like for all those things? So that way we don't have to potentially revert 50% of our interest back to the state
070because if it's not in the general fund, right, we don't have to pay it. >> The employee housing fund is not in the general fund. No. >> No. So that you've taken it out of there is what I'm saying at that point. Is there any way that we could put more money into that fund so we're not paying half of our interest back to the state? No, we cannot transfer general fund dollars into any other fund except for the capital reserve funds. Um and they've limited now what you can transfer and well and food service. We have a food service subsidy, but um they they wouldn't allow us to transfer money to an employee housing fund. I'm going to keep asking that question just to keep your brain thinking of ways to avoid if we
071can funnel back money that we're setting aside for things that we need back half of it back to the state on the interest. It doesn't make any sense to me. I I did just sit in a room with 48 business managers from all the school districts and we were doing the same thing, brainstorming ways and as of yesterday, nobody had come up with a good solid way that was legal to do that. But we'll keep >> Well, you got three lawyers on the board. We'll figure it out [laughter] for you. Um, also in the grants, I see that next year we we're going to lose approximately uh $740,000 or so, $730,000 for the wellness and mental health grants. How is that going to impact anything that we're doing with >> uh well, the wellness and
072mindfulness grant um was through the fund uh education foundation of Jackson home. Um and that was a two-year grant. So, um, while we received all of the money in the first year, it is for two years. Um, and that position, you know what that is, right? That position. So, that was for a position for a a mindfulness position that we had a donor that was very interested in that program. Um, and it was made very clear at the beginning of that program that uh there likely wouldn't be funds to go beyond two years unless the donor comes back to the table and says, "I want to continue the program." >> It what? I'm sorry. What position? You guys probably know this, but what position is that? >> Madam chair, um Chrissy Bosch, that is our
073we have a stat that rotates around different K5 schools, provides mindfulness lessons to the elementary schools, two years um full-time position. So if we're losing that money, are we going to Okay, I guess we're going to lose that position is what you're telling us. >> The the the curriculum that is used for mindfulness um has been curriculum has been used for several years in all the so the program will continue. That position is questionable based off by the funding that's funding it now because of the two-year length of that position. Okay. So, do we have some idea if we can find funds or do whatever to keep that going or is it your recommendation that we keep it going? We will have to sit down on Trusty Bosch and look at where we are with
074our mindfulness implementation uh program and if that position is necessary to continue um our curriculum. But at this point, we do have one more year of that position. that buys us some time to work with. >> I think it's also important to understand the district, the annual district conversations about what our priorities are in the district. I know we have a strategic plan. We also have staffing prioritization that happens um throughout the winter and in the spring of what are our highest needs and our highest schools. So, if we if we want to go down that path of fundraising for a specific position, I don't know that that's the one that we would do, but I think it's open for conversation. >> Uh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I agree. Um, mental health, if that's what that's
075for, wellness, I mean, um, I'm just curious, you know, how are we going to replace that? >> Sure. >> Um, or keep it going. And then the mental health grant that you said, um, that one was a one-time grant that the state gave us for two years. They they kind of sprung it on us. We weren't really ready for it the first year, but we've been able to expend those dollars in the second year. They are not renewing that. It was through a legislative action uh two years ago. And I know there's a lot of pressure on them to reinstate the mental health grant. I don't know if they'll do that in next year's session or not. Thank you, Trusty. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Kristen, I know Trusty me and Trusty Dornan advocated strongly
076gifted and talented increases. What FTE are we at now and what FTE are we going? >> I believe we're at two full-time FTEES for gifted and talented teachers. We did not add an FTE for next year. We do have um so some support in that role from one of our um instructional facilitators next year. >> Did we increase the that budget line out of many? >> We increase the operational budget. Uh when speaking with Anatra Jensen who oversees a gifted and talented program, that's what she said she needed in the operational budget and we gave her what she needed for additional testing. Um, we did not increase FTE. >> Just a followup. And within the recalibration, you lost we lost money for the gifted and talented program. Correct. >> We did. And I have those
077numbers actually in the summary from the finance committee. Our funding for gifted and talented is based on our district ADM and our funding went from $61.26 26 per uh student to $25. So uh more than half they reduced us uh even given the $61.26 the district has always exceeded the expenditure compared to the funding for gifted and talented. It's been a priority. Um I I think I'm hearing it is still a priority and that's where we come into talking about okay is it mindfulness? Is it gifted and talented? How do we want want to prioritize these positions? Um it'd be great to hear from you, but also uh we have some educational needs that we also need to address. >> Those are educational needs. >> Yes, that's true. Excuse me. Sher, can I add one
078more thing for trustees? We did add um this year we have added specialists at each school. The traditional role of a specialist is very interventionbased. However, this coming year, um percentage of that position around 20% will be dedicated to the acceleration and enrichment of learning opportunities for more kids in all of our schools. That's been a very specific quest for these specialist jobs. So, that will be an additional support to our peak program. Um and that's more uh districtwide, especially at the K5 level. Um, so that's that's something new in our district that we're really trying to develop to grow. Um, and that will target not only peak kids, but also those I think in nature says it well. I think sort of like those growth kids that are right on the edge testing into
079PE that need additional opportunities. >> And I did miss misspeak. I'm sorry. Trusty me um what I was thinking was classroom teachers, but you're right. They're also classroom teachers. So I apologize. >> Anybody else? Any other questions on the budget? >> Just Madam Chair, so uh next month we will have a budget hearing a little bit. So we have a month to get your comments and thoughts put together on >> Thank you. >> and thank you for doing all that work and finding ways to catch things for another year. Okay. Um, now uh I think we're going to educational service committee. God, I needed to load the agenda. Madame Chair, board of trustees, our education services committee met on May 19th and uh Trustee Gingry and Trusty Dornan. Um we engaged in a conversation around
080our MTSS systems improvements. um what we currently have in place in K5 and how we're expanding to 612 as the Wyoming language and literacy bill that was recently passed does require us to implement MTSS in the 612 um in our 612 systems and we had a conversation about a a current um training program uh called letters that we've been facilitating for about five years now. Um, and so we had a conversation about how that will continue to onboard new teachers and be in line with the requirements of the literacy bill. And then we also discussed with Stephen Pring um some math improvement work and that uh we will be fully operational with an MTSS platform called Branching Minds next year. So we've been training in that um MTSS platform and we got kind of a
081snapshot preview of how that feeds in all of our data. So we can look at how is our system doing. Um so it's it's an exciting move forward on how we can make sure that we have a K12 system where we're looking at universal screening data. We have um we we have a way to look at all summitive data. Um and we will begin to we've been working on the early warning systems which feed in attendance um some behavior data also course proficiency and it just is a way to look at the system overall and also look deeper into some data points that um feed into the system after our summitive windows. Um, if Trusty Gingry has more to say, please do. Um, >> I I will. Um, the dashboard that Stephen Prank presented was
082fascinating. We should have him come in. He had a mockup so he could put up a fake student. So, it wasn't a real kit and he could show you any teacher can go in, you can see where they're struggling, you can see it on the dashboard, and you can coordinate with other teachers. It It was a fascinating dashboard. It And it was very interesting. Um what Megan skipped over um doesn't need to be skipped over because it's very big. Megan's done an amazing job with it is we've always we've had NTSS uh multi-year support system uh great system working well. She has taken it to this next level. I it it's it's really amazing uh what's happened in the schools, the use of the MTSS system, how it's being implemented um more efficiently. uh teachers
083are excited about it. Uh and so that was a huge part of our conversation. I really enjoyed the MTSS. But most importantly, if you've never actually gotten to sit in a room with Amanda Turner, she's infectious with her. She's just so excited to be teaching and she uh gets you very excited like you want to go out and become a teacher. Um listening to her. Um and she uh told uh she told us all about letters. Um uh letters is the training program that we use to um it's a combination of phonics and whole language. We blend the two in this district blend them very nicely and she went through a lot of the training that she does and with with these teachers and it's a lot of commitment for these teachers to do. They
084they commit to this training. Uh it's in the evenings. I think they're going to transition to doing it um during the day more and we're going to find them some subs so they don't have to do it in the evenings any for for a few years now. They've been doing it in the evenings um and and we should really have Miss Turner come in and talk with us. She's just excited to talk to um and then hear her explaining what she's teaching other teachers and and and I found that extremely fascinating um to listen to her uh and ESS things going and the dashboard's really neat. We need to have Stephen come in and just do an example up on the board. It's it's interesting to watch how we're using data in such a um
085it's not just data for data's sake. You're implementing you're using the data to to help that student and that that's what you need to be doing with data. So fun meeting it was great. >> I wasn't there. >> We missed you. But my question is, how are we implementing MTSS um in 9 through 12? >> Yeah. >> Because we talk a lot about that in K through five and I know the legislation requires us to do it all the way through high school. How what's the plan for 9 through 12? >> So we um next year and through the work with the high school, Annie Kavinka is leading the way with MTSS development at the high school. Um we have hired some positions that these positions are specialist roles which will be using the data
086to determine the area of need what students need support with. So it will it's not it's not exactly the same as a K5 or 68 system but it is replicating the work we know works well um but providing very specific supports with what what the data is showing us. So, if a student is needing support with their preparedness, um you know, needing support with tutoring, um needs additional time to learn specific um course material. So, we we'll be working closely with the classroom teachers and the PLC's to determine the area of need. >> You So, two new positions for >> two new positions. Yes. at the high school >> and no new positions for Peter. >> No, >> I'm going to be [laughter] back. She's not giving up >> like Church. I'll never give up.
087[laughter] So, >> any other questions, comments? >> Can uh sorry, I need to correct that. One was a new position, one was a replacement. So, okay. >> But that that replacement has >> [laughter] >> Y trust madam >> chair um >> either director FS or trusty Gry dashboard that you're talking about is this kind of the metrics and things that I've been discussing trying to look for is that kind of information we can get so that we can cumulative look at it across the the grades or whatever versus just having it as one student like can we take a look at how we're doing with our scores those types of things or is I don't know. They got ste you're sh it's sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh
088sh sh sh sh sh sh shaking his head. Is that right? We can do that. >> We we will have we have a reporting system that is really for district leaders and principles. So instead of like what what we did see a a model of was an individual student look, but we have reports where we can look at as a system as a K5 system as as 68. So you can actually pull the data as a a building principal, as a a director, and we can share summaries with you that look at kind of like the movement of how many students are in um core support, meeting proficiency, moving into um how that grows throughout the year, how their data grows throughout the year. >> And I just Madam Chair, follow up is is that
089ready now? Is that implemented yet or can we look? >> It's in development. So we have we have several metrics that are in already. Um we started the pilot last year. So we started um what is it called Stephen? It's a sync where it's like a where we where we bring data in from our other platforms. So that started last year where we can see like reading screeners, math screeners. Now we have a new screener that we're using at the middle school called STAR. We will be using it at the high school next year, which which is a reading and a math screener. We have both of those options. So, you'll be able to see systemwide reports. >> And um just two things on that. Will we be able to see how many of these
090students are taking credit recovery hours and how many of these students have unexcused absences? >> We Yes. Attendance is a metric within the system. Um, I would need to talk with Stephen about credits for credit recovery. I don't believe we have. We can look at interventions that were implemented. Um, I would need to look further into that what the options are. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> Thank you. uh student school board members or member report. I'm going to turn it over to Trustee Ingry. >> Madam Chair, uh Trusty me, Trusty Dornan and I interviewed many students over at the high school and they were all wonderful. It was so much fun to sit and just talk to students to to uh get to know them. These are our three of our four new
091uh student school board members who will be joining us in September. There is one other one. Tanya is in Belgium right now on a um exchange program, but we interviewed her over Zoom. I don't know what time of day it was when we interviewed her. Um [laughter] but um she was very excited to talk to us because we were speaking English. So she she was very excited to talk to an English speaker. uh she had been speaking French for for quite a while and so but she's going to be wonderful. But these three are here today, Maddie and Isa and I asked each of them if they could get up and they're going to tell you three things about themselves um today and then they are raring to go. We had a meeting on Monday,
092actually this week. Uh, Superintendent Prris and I met with them and talked about uh different projects that we've seen over the years and which ones are are great and which ones, you know, and uh which ones they might want to consider. So, they're they're going to set up a group chat uh this summer. they're going to work over the summer and talking amongst themselves to to show up in September raring to go uh with a project and also with engaging with us and giving us advice and raising their hands when they hear something that um that they need to give input uh from the high school and and from all the students and we talked about that they need to also represent the middle school and the elementary school students they understand that concept but
093Owen maybe we can start with you and all three of you can just pull on up to the lecture take turn up Hello everybody. My name is Owen Anthony. I'm a rising senior. Um I'm super excited for this opportunity, super grateful. Um I play tennis. I'm a prospective finance major and yeah, I'm gonna Yeah, I'm super excited. [laughter] >> Hi everybody. I'm Isa. Um I'm going to also be a rising senior and I'm also on the swim team. So I've been swimming since I was nine, so eight years. and I'm really excited to do my senior year. Um, I love to learn a bunch of new concepts, so I like to learn languages. I'm really into math. And, um, yeah, I like to travel, too. That's my third fact about me. Yeah. >> Hi, everyone.
094My name is Maddie Dornan. I'm also a rising senior and a fifth generation local here in town. I am very involved in our rodeo committee and our western heritage. And I am also an ambassador for our Teton County Fair and Rodeo as senior princess and running for team queen on Friday. And I am so thankful to be here with you all tonight. Thank you. Thank you very much. We're looking forward to working with you this coming year. Um >> so now we will move on to other reports. >> Madame chair, trustees, um two items from me. I first wanted to um tell the trustees on the 22nd of June um I'll be leading a a work uh session with all of our fifth graders, principals, assistant coordinators, etc. Or a half day on exploring the
095focus on innovation, what that means in a school district. Hear that word a lot. What does it really mean? What does it mean? whether you bring facilities, whether you're a leader, whether you're a teacher, and most importantly a student in terms of learning and you'll have employees. So we'll be having a dedicated day sort of come together and support district and then with our trustees and community really focus on how we can continue to improve um not only actions and innovation but also a mindset always continuing to learn and grow. Um so that's coming up on the 22nd. Trustees are welcome to to drop by pop in say hello. Um anyone is welcome on that day. I also wanted to take some time and just formally acknowledge um some recent parent communications and a petition
096around screen time. Um a very important topic and we wanted to acknowledge and we appreciate deeply the communications we have received around screen time. Um, I wrote a little statement because I it's a topic that I feel like needs um a really wellthoughtout apply. Um, and I think we are already on the verge of a very constructive conversation with parents in the community on how um we look at screen time, how um this impacts student learning. Um, I've already had a couple individual meetings with some community members and um, very positive, very constructive. It's one of those topics that I believe that most of us are on the same page. Um, you know, as a district, it's important to acknowledge too that and and recognize that we've made some progress in this very polarizing topic
097of screen time. depending on your perspective. I'm very proud of the work that the middle school and high school have done around cell phones. We just received our panorama data from parents. We had over around eight or 900 replies to that survey, which is high survey fatigue. We know the thing. and parents overwhelmingly were supportive of some of the measures that the middle and high school have taken around cell phones and not having them out disrupting a learning day. So, we are taking those type of steps. Um, I'd like to acknowledge the step that the middle school has taken. Going into next year, iPads will no longer be coming home. They'll be staying at the school. They'll be used for instructional purposes um as decided by the teacher based off the lesson. Clearly recognizing a
098balance that's needed with technology and the most important thing human- centered teaching and learning. Um these types of topics are passionate for me as your district superintendent. They're about student learning and that's why we are all here tonight is to really focus on that and every day I come to work. The most important thing is student learning. We look to have more we're going to have a lot more conversations with our our team going forward. Our K5 team has already started to draft some consistent usage agreements that actually were drafted a year ago, but we're going to refresh those and look at how we're implementing those consistently at all of our K5 schools um in regards to screen time and some of those concerns. Um I would ask our community to work with us on
099this topic. This is a local it's also very much a national topic. And it's a um a very important one for us to do a good job on because at the end of the day we want our kids engaged in learning. We want to minimize distractions. We want them to be present in class. We want them to communicate with each other people personto person in our classrooms with their teachers and with each other. Um so thank you for those communications. We will be reaching out with more information soon. Um, but it's a topic that we do need to look at and address to make sure that our students are first and foremost. >> Uh, trust K. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Just I can remember when we first our first policy was bring your
100own device, but I mean we had that was our very first policy and then we moved to going to uh Apple started engaging with um leing from them. the leasing the the laptops at the high school level makes sense to me. Those are that's a tool that a high school is going to need. Um I really appreciate Principal Heller what he's come up for next year at the middle school where they will not be going home um middle school. Where [clears throat] I'm really concerned is at the elementary level. When we first started this, we would only lease a few for each classroom and it was used more in groups. They would split into groups. This group's going to work on some activity that's on the iPad. Slowly, for whatever reason, we kept buying more
101and more of them. >> Co. >> That's Yeah. Now [clears throat] that there's so many of them, they're just all there. You know, I thought the system worked a little better when there was only so many in the classroom. So, they were available. It was for a particular activity with a small group of kids. Now there, you know, you know, there's one for every kid in there. Um, I think there's, we really need to reduce the screen time at the elementary level, especially, I would say K through two in particularly, um, almost take it down to very, very little. Um, the only caveat I have to that, the weird part of this is so much the testing the state sends us and the assessments are all done on computers. So, a lot of times the
102teachers are teaching the kindergarteners how to use an iPad because the kid that actually didn't have the iPad at home because the parents like we're just not going to have iPads at home. So, this kid shows up to school and that kid actually struggles with the testing the state sends because they're just not used to moving their fingers around on an iPad or taking a test. So, I find that frustrating that that many of the assessments and the testing is actually on the iPad and for some of the kids, they have difficulty, you know, they're they know the answer, but they're just not understanding how to to We had the same problems used to use computers. They didn't how to use the mouse. Um, but it'd be nice to take a real strong look at
103especially K through two um and reduce it down to almost little or none. Uh, and I'd like to see us not lease as many anymore. I got why we leased them during COVID, but it might be nice the next time the lease rolls around that we just don't lease as many and you only lease, you know, a third of what's needed, you know, a third of the number of kids in that classroom. So, it's more for for group learning. Um, when you split into into groups that were my those were my >> Madam Chair. >> Um, great points. I am curious how we would handle the state testing. You might not have an answer right now, but that's a that's a big one. >> Yeah. >> So, if people are writing their state legislators, tell
104them to go back to paper. [laughter] >> No, don't do that. >> Don't do that. Don't do that. You know, we had co and that's the reason we're training kindergarteners and first graders >> to use devices is because when they were home by themselves or with with their parents, there was no way for them to have classroom experience because they were not familiar with >> with uh using a device. And while we all hope that there's not a CO or an Ebola outbreak in the United States, um I think that we, you know, at least have them very comfortable um with kind through kindergarten first so that they can go online with their parents if we ever have to close schools again like we did for you know a long time. And you know we
105had such dramatic learning loss um all across the country. It's not just us. So, I think we have to, you know, keep that in the back of our heads. But I would agree with you that they, you know, just today on NPR, I heard Reed, I couldn't believe this this statistic that the average American spends two hours a day on social media. Can you believe it? They should be reading books. Read, right? [laughter] Oh, I thought you were pointing out Reed because she spends so much time on social med [laughter] [clears throat] I'm going to just rip it off and say how can we help parents or how can we get parents to realize teach good habits at home. I agree that we can do something to the school district. >> Yes. >> While the
106while the students are in school, >> but how can we get parents to have good habits to say, "I'm not going to buy my child a device until they reach high school." Um, how do we get to make these to to change the momentum of what's happening to where when people are going out, they're not on their phone? How can we change the perspective of saying you don't need a a phone that has you so connected to everything else that you're so distracted? Why not a flip phone? If you need to call your child, get a flip phone. Um, so my household, my kids don't have a phone. They don't have a device. I turn the internet off of the house. I just got a note to turn the internet back on so they could
107do their homework. Um so I yes we as a district while the students are in the school we can make great improvements for sure but as parents we have to lead by example and show our students how to have conversations with each other and reduce our need for that device. [snorts] >> Thank you. Um, so I have one solution. Don't cut sports and activities. [laughter] >> Let me just say this. I appreciate how you do things, but I'm not going to tell anybody else or how I should do things or you should do things or whatever. Um, I'll I'll admit when I read the policy, I'm like, so what? I mean, we're not sending a a thing home with the kid. I thought it was because they damage them or break them, but almost every
108middle schooler I know has a phone. Except I guess your kids Steph and I didn't know that. And [laughter] so it is a thing about I mean I just I read one of the articles somebody sent to us and I was shocked at the uh all of these social media companies and how much money they spend um and how much they pay teacher or not uh schoolboard associations and school districts and stuff like that to get into these to these kids. So, look, we can't prevent that. But I do think um having an open and honest discussion or bringing somebody in that knows this stuff better than we do, which is really my question. I mean, I I appreciate everybody's articles that you sent. Uh because I've read most of them that I could get.
109By the way, if you sent a New York Times article, I don't have a subscription. It'd be nice if you sent the article. Um I'm not going to pay that much to to read one article. Um, but there's there's so much here that I don't think is within our control, but I do think there's a lot that we can um do to facilitate. Um, I loved what our student school board did uh two years ago was it when I first joined when they were talking to the middle schoolers about these things and just showing how looking at a phone like this is not making connections, is not meeting with people. more that we can do of that uh and get in front of this um versus just saying, "Oh, don't use it." I mean, come
110on. I mean, you're gonna tell a 14-year-old not to do something. I mean, I don't know how that works, but I have I love my daughters, but [laughter] if I told them just not to do it, um it might it might persuade them to try to do it anyway. Um but I do think it's a real problem. I appreciate everybody's comments. I'd like to hear from some people that really know this stuff and can talk to us about what we could do as a board personally, but um I'm at a loss because I think a lot of this falls on each of us as parents to say, "Hey, no, I I love your idea, by the way. I'm going to see if I can cut off the internet tonight." Um, but I don't know that
111the policy, as much as Matt is, you know, my favorite. Um, uh, I'm not sure that that's the answer either. Um, so I'd like to see something that we talk have a presentation on this, somebody get some information, give it to us, see if there's something we can do. By the way, I printed out one of the discussion uh, things that was on there. I don't know if you guys saw that. There was a a sheet to lead a discussion and talk about this on one of the attachments that are sent to us in the emails. I think that's a great place to start looking at this. If you guys don't have it, I'll make sure I send it to everybody. Um, I'm open to suggestions, but I'm not sure there's a one-sizefits-all. >> You
112know, I think that um I think it's a both and. I mean, I think it's a reduction in our dependence on screens for education, but I think it's also adding into our curriculum and the way we teach more opportunities to work with each other because I think I I I would be hopeful that, you know, if you have those opportunities and you start learning how to do that, then that's a skill that you have in your toolkit. And that doesn't say that your child goes off to college and suddenly they, you know, spend all this time on YouTube. It may be, you know, at a certain point, even when you teach and have rules and whatnot. Um, that doesn't mean when they go off that they're not going to be sucked into this to all
113the marketing that's out there to suck us into screens. Um, but I think if you the more we implement opportunities to connect and work with each other and see each other on someplace other than a screen, I I mean I think that's just as important when we're looking at policy. So >> maybe I can say one last thing. That's okay. I think everyone will have very strong opinions. Everyone has a story behind screen time, right? We all have a story and a belief. At the end of the day, when a child walks into a classroom and again, that's the purpose of our school district and a child's in a learning environment. The instruction is the the [clears throat] top piece of what we're discussing. the instruction that that teacher influenced with those children, whether it
114be one-on-one, small group, whole group instruction and the teacher's determination of the appropriate amount of screen time and the appropriate amount of face-toface collaborative work is critical. I think I it is my recommendation tonight at quarter to 8 that we really stay focused on the teaching part of the conversation. Because there are tools that we have that we have in our district that do allow us to react to where a student is in real time and make and have that student show growth with technology and without. It's nice to have choices and I don't want us to see go too far here or too far here. try to find a middle road as a district that both accepts instructional technology to a point and also focuses on some of these skills that we've showcased tonight
115around human connection um which is a passion of mine. Um everyone will have their different angle and we will respond to our community. We will do the best we can take direction from our trustees and and and uh take this on. I just want to to really request that we have a balanced approach to this going forward because it's a little tricky and um I don't want to get in the weeds too much. We want to do the right thing with teaching and learn first. >> Um we'll go on to other other reports. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. uh Charlotte Reynolds for capital project updates. Um I'm going to turn it over to Jason Birding, our um owners rep for our transportation project. Um and then I'll come back and speak to um our sewer
116um potential transfer of ownership and our um where we are with our high school um addition. >> Thank you, Charlotte. Good evening. Um madame chair and trustees. Jason Bernie, Bernie Project Management. just here to give you your update on the uh transportation facility. Um May um was I think I hit this last month because we just poured the slab, but we did pour the transportation slab in May. And really this last month has been a big push on mechanical, electrical, plumbing, duct work. Um you can see that here in this photo. You're starting to see that's the um um the reception front desk. You see the bake break room in the background. Um plumbing, electrical, duck work starting to go in. Um, we could roll to the next photo. Um, I think this space is
117really cool because you got your tire shop and weld and fab shop and paint booth which would be really useful uh for the staff. Um, moving on to the next. Yeah, this is just showing um more of the transportation slab. Um, and the recess that's there for that vehicle lift that we'll go in later. Um, and then just a photo of um the aerial photo. So, here in the next month, we're really making a big push. There's been a lot of coordination of conflicts with mechanical, electrical. We've worked through those with the design team. So, really making a push this month in June to get most of those systems wrapped up. So, in July, we can start covering up with insulation and drywall. You'll also start to see sighting and windows finally starting to go
118in here, which will pave the way for u the site work to wrap up here later this summer. Um, yeah, I think that's it. With that, I'd stand for any questions. >> Any questions? Um, >> Jason, I was looking at our contingency amounts, the amount we've completed and the amount of contingency we've spent. Uh, just a concern. Is it a concern for you? >> Um, I know contingency is for unknowns. Um, where do you think we stand with >> Yeah, great question. I figured it would come up because there was it's about $140,000 cost that hit the job in the last month. there a number of electrical items that we've been tracking over the last eight months that Orman has just now packaged up into one change order. So that really moved the needle. Um
119as far as billing percentage, we're about 45% complete with the project and the contingency is about 60 projected about 65% completed. Not or utilized. Um not uncommon, but I'd like to see those start to over the next few months contingency use slowing down and the billing catching back up. Um, we're not seeing I'm looking [clears throat] Charlotte's back behind me. We're not seeing a lot of we've kind of filtered through a lot of the coordination and changes. So, I really think that the school district's not making any changes. I think that we'll see that contingency use slow down. I'm not concerned. I think there's over $200,000 to get through the balance of the project. We don't have another winner to build through. So, um, it's something we need to monitor, but I'm not overly concerned
120right now on the contingency use. Now, chair, just real quick, so what happened with the electrical? Did the are the plans they weren't matching to what the electrical thought they were doing? And so, we had to change a bunch of things. >> Yeah, good question. Um, there's some low voltage systems that there was some coordination of what school district's providing and what the contractor's providing. So, we've gotten that one off dead center. Um, there's some specialty equipment that didn't show power going to it. um it's shown but like the garage doors for example the drawings never showed power actually going to that so we had to ask that question and add that scope in those are a few of the examples and I can I can report to you guys in an email with what
121the specific list >> primarily electrical >> that's all electrical >> all y >> anybody else >> thank you have a good evening appreciate it Oh, the um um Thank you, Madam Chair. The other items for update tonight um our high school vestibule and addition um we are well underway. Um we are waiting for our permit for our vestibule. expect to have that um any day now so we can um be ready to start as soon as um uh students are out of the building and uh get um our new vestibule um get that ground um break the ground and and have a new security vestibule um in the coming months. the um addition we have um started we are working um a lot with our design team um Sally Means um who is our sort
122of liaison and um kind of coordinates the education speak with the architecture speak and um has really been very helpful already. Um trustees Gingry and Scarlet have um agreed to serve on our design advisory group. Um we will be um having a um Sally will be having a listening session with um with the two of them to get their thoughts and initial um u visions uh for the project. um they will also be able to come back and um speak to the rest of the board as we work through the process um the design phases so that we can make sure that um the board's vision and and goals for the project um are kept at the forefront. Um, so we will be meeting June 23rd and 24th with the team um here. They'll be
123coming back to town for in-person meetings with that design advisory group. Um that is following directly on the heels of um uh principal Lieberman, assistant principal um Creger Markman and I going to Denver uh to visit five different schools um high school CTE facilities to get ideas, see what is the future of CTE um and where um where some of these really innovative programs are um what their programs look like, where they're going, and what might inspire where um where we go with our um CTE part of the addition um of the project. So um uh any questions on where we are with our high school edition >> Madame Chair Charlotte um what about around Wyoming? Are there any school districts that have done much with CTE or is there, you know, down near Lander
124there's the Wyoming I I drive by the sign all the time and I can't remember what it says. Uh Wyoming training something that's a federal program. Um are there programs that you think are worth visiting around the state? Um, Madam Chair, uh, we are definitely, um, looking at, um, Pinedale, Casper, a couple of more local, um, programming. Uh, but we thought the Denver site visit allows us to see multiple facilities in two days, um, >> and, you know, get us all there and and really go see some um, facilities, you know, um, all at one time. But then yes, um depending on what we see, what we learn in Denver, certainly making um um expanding that, you know, um maybe some Wyoming trips. I think several of our um um several of our staff have
125been to those locations and have some insight that um can be shared um already as well. >> Uh is our guy from uh um the Wyoming School Disabilities or whatever it's called now, is he very knowledgeable about CTE sites? Um are you uh Jeremy Slater with school facilities um division? >> Yeah. >> He is really our he's our construction person. Um and he's going to be the one who's keeping sort of the side sideboards on what we build, making sure we're aligned with the Mercer, that sort of um those things. It's really our um architectural team who are bringing that expertise um for CTE facilities. >> Thank you. anything else? >> And it would not be complete without a quick update on our sewer. >> Um, >> we haven't discussed it yet tonight. Um, very
126quickly, um, uh, Sarah Van Gendron and I, um, have met with Dick Stout and are, um, talking through a, um, um, an some sort ofou or agreement for the county's assistance in working with us as we investigate um, and pursue the possibility of forming an ISD given that the county is not legally able to take ownership of a sewer system. So, um, Ms. Van Gendron and I have, um, had that meeting with, um, Attorney Stout and are, um, hope to have an update for you, um, and next steps at the July meeting. >> Madam Chair, another wacky question. Um, it would you ask, uh, attorney Stout and Sarah whether we can sell our sewer system to a private party, whether that's possible. And don't worry, it's not me. [laughter] >> You mean you don't want
127to run a sewer system? >> I don't think so. >> You sort of already do on our ranch, but that's [laughter] >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I will uh follow up with that question and report back. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other thoughts, questions? No. >> Thank you. >> All right. You have any questions about the sewer? >> [laughter] >> like I'm not listening to this. >> I'm not listening. >> Um let's see. So that brings us to public comment on not on tonight's agenda. How is everybody doing this? We have been at this for two hours. So you want to take five minute break? You want to keep going? >> Can I just please make a a suggestion? We have some students I think that want to talk during on
128the item we've moved up. The problem is is I know a lot of them have finals and stuff like that and they've been patiently sitting here. Is there a way we can at least allow the students that wanted to say stuff to to let them comment first >> and then they can get out of here and go take their test or study rather for their test and stuff like that instead of keeping them here another 20 25 minutes till we get to that action item. Is that >> take five minutes first? >> Yes. And then what I was going to say is well I mean we're going to have that conversation. Um we've received a lot of of emails. Um if you sent an email I suggest you not come to the podium because we've
129heard what you have to say. Um, we want to hear any new information and based on the discussion, although it could change as we have the action item, but based on the discussion, I believe the budget this year is supporting act activities as they are going forward. So, I'm I you know, unless there's something that we really need, you know, I would just suggest >> don't don't change our mind. [laughter] >> We're all set to move forward with it, I think, is what you're saying. >> Yeah. What I'm saying is it's my belief that we are going to move forward with activities as they are now. And so we don't need you know 30 minutes of public comment based on you know to save that save activities when we are saving the activities or we
130weren't we're not considering not say not having >> students should go home. >> Yes. And the student board school board can go home too. And we appreciate you being here and thank you. We're going to take five minutes and we'll be back at 5:30. This is time for public comment. Um, in general for things not on tonight's agenda, that means action items where there's an opportunity for discussion within the action item. Um but I will also invite any students who um have want to make comment on the um uh let's see the Wyoming High School Activities Association membership application to um come up to the microphone. Also, please come up, state your name, and you will have three minutes to make public comment. Um, and I invite anybody up now. >> Um, hello everyone. My
131name is Maddie Abad and I'm a member of the Jackson Hole High School Lady Bronx softball team and our team is here today to present thank you cards to the board members and athletic department. I'm going to read off the back of what's on the thank you cards right now. Dear Teton County School District School Board, the Lady Bronx softball team had a very successful season and we wanted to take time to thank you for it. We started off by raising nearly $14,000 for our softball program to help with team cost. This was a team effort and showed how generous our community is. Then on the field, we won our first two varsity game one games in our program's history. The success did not stop there when we defeated number one ranked Thunder Basin the
132first round of regionals. This is a huge win for our program and Jackson Hole High School. We then advanced into the semi-finals where we fought hard against Kelly Walsh and came up short 10 to1. This game would have sent our team to state in only its second year. This game has taught us so much on how to believe in ourselves, each other, be good teammates, and good citizens of our community. Without you giving us the opportunity, none of this would be possible. We really hope that we have represented our school, our community, and you in the utmost way. Thank you for giving us this opportunity. We appreciate all the support you and the athletic department has given us. Sincerely, the Jackson High School Lady Bronx softball team. And now, board members, I would like to
133ask if you would be willing to give the softball players opportunity to present you with thank you cards from our softball team. Sir, [laughter] Dr. Gordon. All right, I will do that. Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much for your time. >> Excellent. Thank you. I start. Okay. Um, my name is Allison Free. Uh, my daughter Lexi Free, she's a three sport athlete at the Jackson Hole High School. Uh, he was also named Rookie of the Year by the softball team, which was welld deserved. Um, I we also have a son, Kane, at the middle school. Uh he woke up Monday morning and declared that he's basically an eighth grader this week. Um I could use up the three minutes pretty easy to talk about this team, the season, the dedication
134of the coaches, the incredible upset at regionals, their grit, their growth, the pipeline that's coming. Um, but I'm here tonight tonight to advocate on behalf of all sports, not just softball. Because I know out there there's a swimmer, a skier, a soccer player, or a wrestler that found their tribe like Lexi found this year with softball. And just maybe one of those athletes also came home home and told their mom how much they love their sport and how much they love their coach because that's how she describes coach Roy, the best coach she's ever had. And so how can we take that away from Lexi or any other athlete? Ever since the news and guide article came out, I have been searching for um ways to make up that $200,000 difference. And some are better
135than others. Um but all of them are better than the alternative. So, uh Trusty Bosch touched on a few of these, but first of all, why not increase the activity fee? Why not from $50 for the year to 100? that makes $30,000 and don't wave that fee, but lean on Brack Backers or the Education Foundation to make up that difference. So, there's 30 grand right there. Um, decrease coaches fees by $500 across all contracts. That's $40,000. So, now we're at 70. I mean, we're making up this $200,000 pretty quick. Put a spending freeze on uniforms. Um, if teams want to buy uniforms, they can fundra through o old bills or do their own fundraising. I did coach at the middle school basketball and I can tell you firsthand that the girls did not have to
136share the boys uniform. [laughter] Um, Mike, for you, you know, eliminate at least one conference game from each schedule. You know, that could save money. Eliminate them all from all the schedules. I mean, it this isn't it doesn't seem like rocket science. um eliminate the preseason tournaments. Why are we spending three days in Idaho Falls for basketball during Christmas break? I mean, why are we going to Cheyenne for spring break? Like, there are easy things we can do to make up this money. Um prioritizing hiring out of the district coaches, then you're not paying sub fees. Um there's other things we can do SP softball specific like two-day jamberees. you know, why aren't we having teams meet in the middle? We could meet uh Casper in Lander or Riverton. We don't have to drive all
137the way to Casper. Um there's lots of ideas and um that's just touching on a few of them. So, I I hope you'll consider them. My question for tonight though for you is I know uh Janine she kind of she was instrumental at the legislature you know at the state level and I'm wondering who on the board has taken on her role like who's leading that charge that's you >> that's me >> all right well >> and and just so you know I'm going to I shouldn't do the man chairman we engaged with the legislature and told them that this is what the results of what they were proposing were going to do. They told us we were stupid and now they're all crying but they didn't know. We tried to tell them >> right
138>> what they were proposed was the results. >> Yeah. Well, my comment to you is how can I help. >> So, right. >> Thank you. Well, [clears throat] it's common place. >> Uh, good evening board. Um, my name is Ashley Sinclair. I have two young kids in the school district. Um, and I didn't know how much uh momentum it was going to get, but I started the petition to take a look at our screen time usage in the district um, and cell phone usage. And we're at about 420 signatures right now. Um, so obviously I appreciate your guys focus on this. Um, I had more wellprepared remarks, but I kind of wanted to address some of your guys' comments and discussion. Um, first of all, thank you. I'm encouraged at the board and um Superintendent
139Chris is taking this screen time seriously. Um but I want to be direct. I think encouragement and conversation are not enough here. Um and putting it on the parents is not enough. I think we need action and we need it to be measurable and enforceable and hopefully by next school year if at all possible. Um, I really think the strict grade level screen time limits, not just general guidance, but specific caps with accountability built in. Um, and not just K through two. While I do agree, I think we could say there should be none there. That's what the LA school district um just unanimously passed. And then they have strict guidelines per grade. Um, hopefully through high school, but they're waiting to put out the high school piece of that. Um, you know, middle school
140is where I'm hearing my kids are not in middle school yet, but it is conversation that I hear constantly about parents concerned with their kids being on screens all day in the middle school. And that's not a knock on the teachers or the administration. I've heard great things about that. But I hearing people pull their kids out of public school here or their kids being on screens even for half the day just seems like something that we should all want to do better in. Um, so I'd kind of I'd asked the board to commission a real analysis of the educational software we're currently using. Um, what's the optimal instructional screen time versus pencil and paper and worksheets and, you know, the old school way of learning that we used to do. You know, it we
141took up iPads because it was COVID, but it's not COVID. And I think we can re-evaluate how we want to be teaching in smaller groups. >> Um, and then transparency. Um I through talking with parents now I realize there is like a wide spectrum of what parents think is going on in the school in terms of screen time what actually might going on you know some of this could be I could have extremes that aren't accurate but I think that just brings us to needing transparency you know how many minutes per subject per day per grade are our kids on screens um and also how that software is being funded um and are their vendors influencing how much time we're using them. Um, and I think that the parents in the community would love to
142know that. Um, one other thing, the game gamification embedded in some of these educational software. Again, my my sphere is fairly limited based off of what I've just seen from my kids, but you know, it's based on points and badges and rewards, and it just raises the question of whether students are actually learning or just take chasing the next dopamine hit. Um, so I think you add on that that there are some classes that give rewards as screen time. Um, add all that in and I just think that's kind of compounding the problem for our kids in this, you know, world of addictive screens. Um, and then on the testing piece, that's very interesting. I wasn't aware of the testing that um, comes from the state on screens, but I still think we could build
143a dedicated structured technology curriculum. Um, I know that there are some technology classes, but let's really be intentional in that AI literacy, Excel. I don't even know if they need to use Excel anymore, but programming um, and teaching the kids to use the tools purposefully um, or how to use it for testing, but I don't think that means they have to use it for 20 minutes even every day to learn how to take a test in third grade. Um, and then finally, as relates to the cell phone piece, I really, you know, I'm encouraged by hearing some of the policies that have been put in place in the high school and middle school. I just would kind of encourage us to take the some of the middle school policies and take that through for the
144bell-to-bell um cell phone policy for the high school as well. Um, I don't think our high schoolers are better equipped to manage it than our middle schoolers. and we want them to be able to socialize, interact with other kids, study um without the interference of the social media apps. Um so I understand implementation is not is is not simple. I know there's resource constraints. Um but I'd ask the board to just explore whether we're, you know, leasing as many devices as we actually need. It brought up the budget. Um maybe we can kind of pair that back a bit. Um but overall, I just think we have a real opportunity here. I really want to keep my kids in this public school district. Um I have been really encouraged by everything I have seen and
145um I think that we can take some real actionable um policies and put them in place and move forward. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> I wasn't going to speak. >> Oh, sure. But that [laughter] former lady just really struck me. I want to just enforce to all of you to enforce to your friends around the state. We sit upon the most important election for Wyoming this time to hear. I still participate with the legislature. Bill and Kristen have done a marvelous job. You have a tonedeaf legislature. They don't want to hear it. I can tell you Sweetwater one and two had a legislator attend and one of my friends says, "Oh, he's just a great guy." And I keep saying, "I'm [clears throat] not sure he's telling the truth." He denied he he
146spoke and said, "What happened to activities is an unintended consequence." It is not an unintended consequence. There was lots of public testimony telling them what was going to happen. [snorts] And it's not a money issue. It's a control issue. When they have put silos in place that have taken away the power of this local school board, this is the consequence that happens. They don't want to do this to you, but this is their hands are tied. So, I just encourage you all talk to your friends around the state, tell them to get out and vote. We're not our legislators are pretty good here. That's not true everywhere. So, thank you, Christian and Bill, for the good job that you did. >> Good evening. My name is Abby Petri and I just wanted to um echo
147everything that Ashley just presented to the board and the administration. I am the mother of a kindergartenner and like Ashley hope to be with your school district for the next 12 plus years. Um I also have a three-year-old child and I appreciate um I appreciate the responses. I appreciate um the beginnings of a conversation that is clearly not um straightforward. There are a lot of complications on a lot of levels as it relates to educational devices and then additionally and somewhat separately the use of cell phones and smart devices um for our students of all ages. Um and I just want to say that as much as I appreciate and agree that um you know good behaviors start at home and it is a parent's responsibility to um be an example for their children and
148set uh the standard to which they want their children to adhere to. we entrust you um with our children for eight hours a day and for some of us working parents that's more hours than we spend with our children during the week. Um and so to say that a policy um does not have the teeth to affect real change and that we can't work together to um enforce good behaviors at home and at school. I, you know, I really just don't believe. So, I hope that you will take um this seriously and I'm looking forward to future conversations. Thank you. Any other public comment? Anyone online? No answer. All right, I'm going to close public com um see move this around. So we'll move on to consideration of Wyoming High School Activities Association membership application.
149Madam chair, I would move to approve the Wyoming High School Athletic Association membershipation as presented. >> Um, activities >> activities, >> sir. >> Okay. Um, >> a second. >> Okay. I think um maybe director Hansen was prepared to say something. Is there do we >> I would simply like to answer any questions that you may have. >> Okay. Did anybody have any? >> Okay. Is there any uh public comment more public comment? [clears throat] Uh seeing none. Any uh discussion? Oh, we didn't public comment anyway. Sorry. Um we've got a little question. >> Um all in favor? I >> opposed. >> Motion passes. >> All right. Second read policies. Um is there any more information? >> Madam Chair, these are um the same policies we've been considering for the past couple of months. Um there's
150been no um changes in the past 45 days. I did add language after our first review um her trusty meat's request and Scarlet's request on making sure that the cell phone policy provided us the ability to not allow them if we choose to go that route. And also I updated the medical um option for students in the cell phone. >> Any questions for Dr. approves. Seeing none, any public more public comment? Seeing none, is do we have a motion? >> Madam Chair, I move to approve the second read of policies if EHA and JJ as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any more discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes. gave a thumbs up. Uh, next consideration of agreement with Navigate JH. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Charlotte Reynolds. Um,
151um, at the, um, meeting in May, um, I brought this item forward for the board's consideration. Um, after discussion, it was, um, you all um, asked to bring this back, uh, for, uh, this meeting. So, um, basically happy to answer any questions that the board may have. Um the um Community Foundation of Jackson Hole did provide a letter um explaining a little bit of their thinking in awarding this grant. Um I also have uh Christine Walker is also here to answer any questions about the um uh scope of the project um that you may have for her. With that, I stand for questions. Madam >> Chair, I would like to hear from Miss Walker as to what the scope of the project would be if we did. Sounds perfect. Thank you. Uh Christine Walker with
152Navigate. Um Trusty Bingry, your question was you're wanting to review >> what be the scope of this. What what would you be doing? >> Sure. So we laid out the scope of work in the proposal. Um, so basically we are looking at um based on conversations with Charlotte and um kind of seeing what the next steps were for the school district, we were looking at options for providing financing for either moving forward with a rental product or moving forward with an ownership product. So, we're going to be looking at um kind of having conversations with um kind of looking at what Sorry, I'm looking up our stuff. One of the things is that we're going to start with looking at the butes and seeing how that worked and making sure that we're kind of seeing
153um what was successful, where there could be ways to be more effective with raising funds or other sources of funds. We're going to look at other Wyoming sources of funds that may be available. We're going to look at um peer communities to kind of see what they're doing and other kind of high amenity communities. Also kind of talking to potential um strategic partners in the community such as like the community foundation, the Teton County Housing Authority, the um St. St. John's Health, looking at potential partners to help build housing as well. And um then we were going to have a roundt with some strategic partners to kind of go through kind of what the options are for the school district and kind of um provide feedback on where we could possibly move forward. So trying
154to get beyond really just the um looking at SPET as the only option for raising funds, but looking at other opportunities out there um that may be available or may not be available to be able to just say, "Nope, this isn't something we'd be able to utilize, but um there's some other options that we could access." Steve, >> Madam Chair, Miss Walker, would part of the scope would it provide us what type of housing units we if we were to build additional apartments, what we would need. And my example is we had much high a very high demand for onebedroom or studios compared to I think the three bedrooms in in the beauty apartment. So I'm just curious if this go the research will help guide us or if we go build the next phase
155what that next phase would look like. >> Sure. Um, navigate has provided a strategic plan for the district and what we're proposing is kind of looking at that strategic plan and also looking at what's been built with the butes what's also is in the pipeline. So what's in the pipeline with you know we have the potential for the Virginia and we have the potential for Northern South Park and where is the community providing housing and where are the needs for the district. Um, I would say some of our questioning about kind of evaluating the butes and its financial model, but also looking at, you know, it's like why was there more of a demand for the onebedrooms and the three bedrooms? Was it the cost of the three bedrooms? Was it that the families they
156weren't big enough? So, kind of trying to drill down on why those might not have um been as desirable. Um so that when looking at the potential of kind of there's phase two of the butes or there's looking at developing ownership product at Monger Mountain area. So it's like being able to see what the kind of the demand is for the product and what other pieces are coming online. So there would be a good opportunity to move forward. I would say too just opportunities. So, um, looking at, you know, um, when's the next Fed election? What's going to be shovel ready? How are we going to be able to move forward with is a rental product going to be able to move for forward quicker than moving forward with an ownership product? So, kind of
157evaluating all those pieces. >> Thank you. I guess I would ask Director Reynolds, how would this support your work and how do you see, you know, the benefit to you and what you're doing um if we were to accept this money and move forward with this project? >> Um thank you, Madam Chair. I think that um I'm the first to say I'm not an expert in um developing housing um or understanding um strategies or approaches that u may be considered. I think that um when this grant was put forward um to the community foundation of Jackson Hole, they um they requested that we apply for this money um with the thinking that it would be their way of helping us as the district um identify how to develop future housing that meets our needs both
158today but also in the future. So um we applied at their encouragement. Um and I think as we developed the scope of the project, as we developed um the application, it was really trying to figure out what are areas of expertise that the district has um internally and what do we where do we need help and what do we not have? um and um h working with um um someone like um uh Miss Walker who has a lot of experience in this area bringing together the right people to participate in the conversation. That was what we were seeking to do with this grant request um and then with this proposal. >> Um Madame Chair and board members, I'm going to oppose this. Um, I've told you already my reasons why, but more particularly, we haven't
159decided as a board when or if we want to build more employee housing. We have plenty of uh house uh construction projects going right now in the district uh to think about. Um and I think that while the previous um work that um we had done with regards to housing may or may not be still current because things have changed. Uh finances have changed uh in the community as well as in the district. Um, you know, we really need to take a good look at it, our priorities before we go about um even grant money, spending it for uh a project that, you know, we may never do or when we do it, maybe it's out of date. Um, so I'm going to oppose it. I just think with all due respect to the uh
160community foundation, they're really nice to offer up the money, but you know, I just don't think we need it right now um until we have really prior prioritized our capital up capital construction needs. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. you know, you know, I think it's four or five years ago we hired you, Christine, and I was chair at the time, and I thought you did an amazing job. You you analyzed every single piece of property we owned. I remember looking at all the different bulk and scale of what you could fit on each piece of property. We talked about type of units you could do, ownership versus rental. It was amazing. I I I really enjoyed the process. you did an amazing job and we all know all the great stuff you did up at
161Bosezeman and the city of Boseman appreciates everything you did there. So, um, so all good work. I'll tell you what my concern is because I have nothing to do with you. My concern is this. I thought we were perfect with the bees. I thought it went perfectly. You know, we got on the SPE, Charlotte figured out how we could go borrow the money from SLIB so we could build right away and we're paying back SLIB with when the SPE funds come in. It was a perfect spot. The architect was able to design it, but there's three buildings in a row there. The my thought is, and this is the part I'm a little nervous about, um I'm worried we're going to get diverted and start talking about bunch of other different ideas with housing and
162I just want to focus on building the second building at the Buches. Like for me, it's I want to get on this ballot in 28, go borrow the money from SLIB again, and build that second building. I'm worried that if we open this conversation to, hey, we might build um single family home ownership down at Munger now or we might go ahead and build over at by Jackson Elementary um diverts our attention. Now, that might be just silly on my part because um I think I'm just so excited that we did so well and I I don't want to mess it up. I'm like, boy, this was perfect. Can we just repeat it again right next door and just do it? So, I guess my question is um maybe this is more to Charlotte. I
163almost feel like this is one year early. It'd be nice if we could be doing working with Christine next year and after because I actually think Trusty Me has a really good point. we're sort of asking you to go do a bunch of work and we haven't actually even had a conversation, you know, like we haven't actually sat around this table and go, hey, um, building the next building next to is that what we're all doing or is it, well, no, I didn't think we were doing that. I thought we were building single family homes down at Munger for ownership, you know. So, I'm not sure we've had a conversation. So, I'm just wondering and hoping um that maybe uh and this morning Charlotte uh can we be real polite back to the community foundation
164say [laughter] um thank you very nice offer. We would love to take you up on that offer, you know, maybe in January. >> It just seems like we're about six months and it's probably our own fault. We're just not there yet. we haven't had the conversation and I and I hate to jump the gun and I it almost sets up Christine because we send Christine out into the world to go do all the great things that she does and then she brings it back and we're all like, "Oh, that's not really what we wanted to do." I I just feel like we need to have I agree with Trusty Me. I think we need to have a conversation here and then engage Christine um in a few months. Um maybe that's in January or something.
165But it'd be nice if we could say if if this I don't know where this vote's going, but if vote does not pass, a definitely does not reflect your name. You know, you're amazing. Um uh and number two, could we send a nice letter to the community foundation saying, "Hey, is this something that we could pick you up on this offer in a few months after we've had a conversation?" >> And um Madam Chair, um to that point, um I think we absolutely can send a nice polite letter to the community foundation. Um, I think, um, as we were looking at this, um, proposal, um, I think part of the the intent was to be able to gather some information that then may be helpful to you all as you think about how to set
166your priorities, how you want to move forward, what options may be available, may not be available. Um, as we look at, um, um, the bees, I um, I agree it went in, it went very well. Um, we were very fortunate. Perfect. [laughter] Um I think that um as we um evaluate and look at those units and how the uptake on those units and how that all works, also paying back the slid loan um and the timing of that. We're not eligible for future SLIB money until that is paid back. We can't pay it back for a set period of time. So some of those considerations might not look exactly the same for a next round that they did for the first round. Not to say that that won't happen, but you know it that may
167look a little bit different. Um and again this the thought original thought behind this was um gathering information to share with you all to help evaluate what might come next. If um this board doesn't feel that um the timing is right on that, we absolutely can communicate back to the community foundation um and express exactly that. >> Just um >> so Charlotte, I have just a quick question with regards to the view. Do we did we fill every unit there now? Um, Madam Chair, uh, we currently have, um, no, uh, we have, um, set aside, based on the response, we had set aside two recruitment units. Um, we have, um, um, I just put out another call for applications for a one-bedroom unit. Um, so we have, um, we have three units currently unclaimed. two
168are going to be are set aside. We have one that just because people's circumstances changed, different things happened. Um we had them filled and then some things have changed for people. So we have one additional unit that is out for application right now. People were supposed to actually apply by today. So um I hope to have that that one remaining available unit assigned by the end of this week. But that is where we are with it has been there's been a lot of moving parts and getting those filled. >> I I I only ask because my comment is going to be [clears throat] as follows. There is a lot um as somebody that owns rental units and advertises and shows them and has to deal with these things. There is a lot on the market
169right now. Um, and there's a lot of fluctuation downward, at least in prices, from people I've talked to that have units. And, um, I am all open for further discussion about building additional units, but I think that, um, I agree with Trusty me and one big thing is we have other capital projects that are going. I'd like to have a handle on those before we start that next process. But then more importantly, I also agree with Trusty Gingry in that I think that at least six months, if not 12 months, we're just too far ahead of this. We're we're putting, in my opinion, the horse definitely be you're the cart before the horse here. And so, um, I just don't want all this work to be done and then 12 months from now, we're looking
170at something that's the market's completely changed for rentals and all those things. um because we have these one bedrooms. We didn't get enough demand to fill them all yet. We I'm sure we will, but that would tell us something too. And so we should be looking at all these factors. So I am all first of all the community foundation. This is amazing. Um, I'd like them to know that we really really appreciate them offering this and just, hey, can we can we can we revisit this in a few months, you know, and just um is it okay and can we leave this open at least for some time period would be I agree with Keith on that just let's let's look at this and we want to it's just it's a little too So I
171won't I will be voting against it but if we can have a different motion then I would you would a real quick question about the recruitment are are those are available for people that you're hiring. So we just those people just kind of show up yet. >> Correct. >> So they'll be filled correct before the school year. >> Yes. We um u madam chair um I believe we have seven applications or possibly eight. I'm trying to remember um applications for the two available recruitment units. So I fully anticipate those will be that's why I said they're they're sort of a set aside and I don't really see them as open or available units. We just haven't yet done that um selection yet. Um, so we have, you know, we did this study five years ago
172and we have all this information about what staff wanted then [clears throat] and you know that's that's I I I actually can get on board with the you know pause for a little bit because I do think we just opened the bees you know it's very exciting. um I you know people who maybe were in emergency situations have found housing. Um I it it is would be sort of nice to take a little breath. I think it's something that we need to stay on top of because if we were to choose to do home ownership versus rental units, you know, there's a lot of infrastructure that goes along with that project versus this project. You know, if we do another but building, we could do that fairly quickly. I mean, like you said, we did
173it perfectly and we can do it perfectly again. But but you know that would be a totally different thing that we don't really well >> you and Janique [laughter] know about you know out at Schwabacher but most of us don't have a sense of what it's like to build a neighborhood. So >> um you know I think we need information. We don't want to build a butes building that's not going to be filled, you know, because and I think we need information. But I do I do get the taking a breath. I mean, this came right on top of the river ribbon cutting and I'm not sure that any of us are sort of ready to talk about that again yet, but soon. I don't know how we do it. I don't know if there's
174a different motion we could have. I mean, >> is it just same motion? We just voted down. I think everybody's heard us. Christine knows we still want her [laughter] and the community foundation knows we still want their money. >> And they can turn us down. >> They could. [clears throat] >> I mean, if that if everybody feels comfortable that way, I mean, that's the sense I'm getting. I I could Yeah, I could certainly I I see the importance of of housing, but yes, we got to find our compass for what we want to do. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Um I would like to think that the community foundation would be generous with this in the future to help school district. Um if we need that data research, I think Christine does wonderful work.
175not be anything [clears throat] because of against Christine in any way. We just need to make sure we're prepared to when we get into it to get into it. And I think we have a lot of other um areas pulling our attention right now. >> Maybe that we could put this on as a discussion item say in January. And madam chair, if um if I may, um if um the board um votes in that um direction, um if you would like a letter drafted to the community foundation um to communicate this, maybe that could be part of the direction you provide as well. >> So that would need to be in the motion. I think the motion Okay, we'll just direct them to do that. Okay. What is the motion? >> We don't have public
176comment. >> We have public comment first. [laughter] >> Any public comment? Seeing none, now we can have a motion. >> Madam chair, I move to approve navigation day permit not to exceed 30,000 as present. >> I'll second. >> Discussion. >> Yeah. Uh just on the procedure, would it be better if we just move to table? No, I think you voted down. I think you voted down and and to to clear on the record, you're like, "Nope, not now." >> And I think that we give staff direction that we write a letter and say that we are grateful and open to future funding. We're just not in that place right now. So, Madam Chair, >> yeah, >> just out of curiosity and I doubt this would work, but we talked earlier in two and a half,
177three hours ago about our houses and the depreciation schedule on them and what the schedule is for roof replacement and all of that. This type of grant couldn't go towards that, could it? or is it specifically for a housing study? >> Um, Madame Chair, um, we would have to go back to the community foundation and make a request to modify the the intent of the of the funding. >> Madam Chair, I just thought maybe if the grant was worded as such that it could be used to affordable housing program in the best means that we see fit. Um, and we could have [laughter] really useful questions. [laughter] >> I can call the option. >> No, no, no. >> All right. Any more discussion? >> All right. I'm going to call for the question. All in
178favor? Opposed? >> No. my customer. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh let's see. Sorry, you're right to sleep again. Um consideration of general liability and cyber security insurance renewal. This is your your section of the night. [laughter] >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh Charlotte Reynolds. Um uh before you is a um the renewal for our general liability um insurance pro uh package policy. Um I apologize for the um information changing and the staff's recommendation being modified um late in the process. Um unfortunately we learned um very late um that um the um provider we were planning on going with changed some of the language and um it opened up some um pretty notable um concerns um and potential gaps in service. So um we uh uh Steve Manley with Hub Insurance went back to
179Glatfelder who is our current um provider um of liability insurance. uh Glattfelter, they came back with a very um I think aggressive um u proposal and uh so for the same coverage that we have currently have from this last year um we will have that re that same policy renewed um at um over a $70,000 savings in premium. Um, and so, um, I would like to express appreciation to Steve Manley and his, uh, work in, uh, having, uh, Glatfelter take a second look and prop, uh, provide the proposal that's in front of you, um, today. Uh, with that, um, Steve has, uh, joined and is, um, we're happy to answer any questions that the board may have. >> Madam Chair, >> Steve, >> um, may I ask Steve a question? >> Yes. >> Thank you,
180Steve. Thank you for coming today. and this proposal. Um, I am really curious because I'm not familiar with insurance seeing a $70,000 savings. So, [laughter] um, what magic did you do? What did we do? So, what's what's different for us to be aware of for to have a $70,000? >> Can we do it again? >> Yeah. [laughter] Um, can you do that to other businesses? >> Yeah. How about >> Yeah. Well, I appreciate the question. I I've been here many many years in a row given this op story about you know incremental increases and inflationary increases and things like that. So um this was one of the first times I was really excited to be here just because we finally [laughter] had a little bit of a shift in in what the actual premium was
181looking like this year. A couple factors played into it. Um one is that uh for several years uh for public schools in the state there hasn't been a lot of competition. uh the Glatfelter who we are with now has really been one of the only uh what we call admitted carriers that can put together a full package for the school district in the state. Um and things are shifting more favorably this last couple years. Uh we're we call it a softening in the market where for quite a few years in a row we had a lot of just premium increases upon premium increases across the board liability auto property and things like that. Uh we're finally starting to see a little bit softening in that market. Um uh we had a carrier that tried to
182quote on the school district last year which we were excited about finally. uh they did not come through in a timely manner to pull together all the underwriting that they needed to provide a quote last year. Uh they were back on board this year trying to do a quote. Uh but more significantly, there was a brand new carrier that just entered the market this year that has been competing nationally with Glattfelter and other states and finally was getting the approval this year to go into the state and be an admitted carrier which mean they had to go through the department of insurance to get all their forms approved and things like that. So um that really put Glattfelter on notice if you will as far as them having to really be more competitive this year
183finally. Uh my intent was for about two months going into Friday was we had an indication of a renewal premium from this new carrier that was coming into the market and it was very very favorable. Um and I knew I had Glatfelter kind of in my back pocket from a premium standpoint. Um at the end of the day they had some exclusions in their policy. They were they really are literally right now finalizing their forms, exclusions, endorsements and things in the policy and um they ended up having some exclusions that I just personally was not comfortable with. They left some pretty big gaps in coverage for the school district and I was able to go back to Glatfelter and not tell them specifically why we were giving them a last look on looking at their
184they had Glatfelter had already offered a renewal premium but I just kind of had that in my back pocket and then I went back to him and say I'm going to give you a last look. There's a new competitor here. they have a very uh competitive uh premium and Glattfelter aggressively wanted to keep the school district account and provided this kind of a savings. So, a lot of it kind of came together right at the last minute this last week. So, >> thank you. >> Is that helpful? >> It is. >> Okay. And um Madam Chair, I just wanted to quickly add um in um the opening remarks I was talking specifically about general liability um before you tonight is general liability renewal as well as our cyber security um policy. So, both are being
185reviewed um now uh for July 1 and then at the Jul uh July 15th meeting, we will come back to the board with the firearm um the additional policy related to firearms that we um implemented last year in response to the changes in Wyoming um Wyoming law. So that um that will come before you at next meeting, but that does not expire um on July 1. So we have a little bit of time to get that before you. >> Yeah. And if I may just uh expand upon it's just it's a it's a total package policy. So it's your liability, your property, your commercial auto. Uh there's uh insurance for the equipment that you have. It's called an inland marine policy. And then the educator legal liability is all included within this package for this
186proposal. So, it's more than just the the general liability. So, >> any more questions? >> Thank you. >> Uh any public comment? >> Seeing none. Um do we have a motion? >> Madam Chair, >> go ahead. Madam Chair, I move to approve the general liability and cyber security insurance renewals not to exceed $569,44 as presented. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. And now we'll move on to the cons consent agenda. >> Oh, we did the secondary policies, right? >> Yep, we did that. Yes. Um, let's see. We have the consent agenda. Approval of staff and considerations and reports. Approval of check register. Approval of the board of education regular meeting minutes of May 13, 2026. Approval of the committee for children purchase order. Approval of June fundraising. Approval
187of Martin Lane lease with Town of Jackson Hole. consideration of the Teton County uh MMES sewer connection application orders for extended school year and approval of bus routes for 2627 school year. >> Madam Chair, I approve move to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. Madam Chair, I need to recuse myself on a G. >> Ag. Okay. Um, all right. There's been a motion and a second. Uh, all in favor? >> I opposed. Um, motion carries. All right. Communications to the board. See um there are uh three. Oh, let's see now it's only showing three. Um we have at communications as presented. Um these were mostly on um the um screen time and the petition. Is there any communication from the board? >> No. Actually, I'll just compliment um everybody that put on the
188graduation uh last week. They were great. Kate, you were a fantastic MC. >> Thank you. Thank you. It was wonderful to be with those kids, wasn't it? [clears throat] >> And we got 238 handshakes. [laughter] >> Good. >> The final got 237. >> I had a I had a shoulder bump with one and I didn't get a handshake or [laughter] afterwards. Um but yeah, that's besides the point. >> Um I'm sorry I missed it. It sounds like it was an amazing event. >> Madam Chair, >> yes. >> Just for future discussion, do we want to have a discussion at some point about the agenda and potentially moving public comment up a little sooner in the programs? Um I don't know where that would be. Maybe after the superintendent's report. It just seems like we keep
189getting into this where people are sitting for two hours waiting to do stuff. It'd be nice to at least maybe re-evaluate our agenda, make sure that it's flowing the way we want it to. Um, and then um, and number two, I was appreciative of the update Dr. Chris of potentially rearranging this room. I I find the room I've always found this room to be awkward as to how it's set up. It' be nice to have some discussions about how this room could be set up in a better way. And I don't even look at this screen. So like the whole room is centered around that screen and I can't see that screen. I can see this. So it's sort of funny that the whole room is designed for us to stare at a screen that
190I don't not sure many people are be nice to have a discussion about this the design of the room and the agenda format some >> I think. What is it like a year ago or a year and a half ago? We moved public comment up from the bottom to the middle. So we did that once already, you know. Yeah, we can have a discussion. We don't >> Madam Chair, I second what Keith said about moving public comment out, but the other thing is I'd like to have a discussion. It comes up all the time. Um I would really like to hear thoughts because it seems like somebody called it survey fatigue. Um, and everybody sends out a survey all the time and I'm all for them, but maybe we can discuss having somebody that reviews
191these things so that we one limit having a hundred surveys go out and the board maybe reviews them before we send them out just so that we're not bombarding the parents and the public and make sure that these things have been thought out and what are we trying to get uh versus just sending them out all the time. Um, I don't know if that's really a board thing, but I'd like to hear from an admin on that because it just seems to me as a parent, um, I get them all the time. I try to fill them out. I don't know if Stephan or you guys get them, but I get them all the time. And it's just, um, I worry that we're not getting meaningful feedback. And I'd like to talk about maybe do
192we do one once a quarter and try to get, you know, stuff and say, "Hey, who wants to do this? Let's put it all in one thing. here's what's going on. This is what we need your feedback on instead of >> you're getting is it mostly district or is it per school or is it >> just it's it's random. Um I get them from multiple sources but recently it's all been kind of districtwide and we get these things and it just seems like a lot and I'm okay with it. I fill them all out. Um, but I wonder, you know, we're not getting as many as much feedback or getting feedback, people look going through them and looking at them. So, I it's just something I'd like to hear from admin. Is there a way
193to make this more structured and meaningful? Um, and what should we be asking, you know, or how do we do that? Not a huge topic in the scheme of things, but >> it annoys me. I don't get any. >> That's a whole another discussion. [laughter] >> So, I don't I kind of don't know, but >> we we didn't we didn't want you to know, but [laughter] >> any other future agenda items? >> Yes, I have one. Is Colby in the house? Okay. >> All night. [laughter] Um I am I live on South off South Park Loop Road and there is so much traffic and I'm not talking small traffic. I am talking louvers and trucks and all come screaming down this narrow road and I am concerned that it may not be a safe road
194to safely operate school buses. >> You Spring G is the same >> and Spring G is the same. >> But I'm not giving up the school bus or anything. [laughter] But I I don't know if if Kobe can look into that or is there a way because we did it with Gregory Lane and we and then followed up with a a very nice pointed letter to the town of Jackson in this case in that case with Gregory Lane if we can follow up with the same board letter to the um county commissioners asking them to take some actions to correct the road. I know I've talked to him about removing some of the cottonwood trees at intersections that hide cars. I've talked to him about the importance of going to a certain private school and
195talking to the parents about the importance that stop signs still mean stop. Um >> they do the thing. Um and then al then last summer when they're building the loop um we all got run off the road when they're running the modules up straight up South Park Loop. Um, >> yeah. >> And so I just wonder if there's anything we can do to as a forward to uh the county. >> That's a good idea. It'd be interesting to get some input from Colby as to the bus drivers which roads are they the most concerned about and then make send a letter. Maybe that letter is something Colby could bring it to the next meeting if we could review but it's approved and then send that to the commissioner saying these are the particular roads we're
196really worried about. you please put an emphasis on safety improvements on these particular roads. >> Sheriff car, >> you know, they they put cop cars out there. >> And the sheriff does much better. >> And the sheriff does. We had a a guy pass school bus on a double yellow when she had just turned the lights on and stopped and you know kids are waiting across the road and they just zing on by and you know people are just not your guys. >> Don't you drag a be. >> Madam chair um >> I'll bring up devices. It sounds like we have a conversation and it's not going to go away. So, not sure what the conversation will look like at next meeting. >> Yeah. >> Um, but lots of ideas were brought up reducing the
197number of devices, but then again, how do we handle Wyoming YTO testing? And so, >> I thought her idea about having a set number of parents was interesting with LA school district. Um, and then also with the YouTube, can is there potential to restrict that or time? I know as a parent, I can restrict on a device. I don't know if we can do that as a district once when it's out of the network or or what. There's a Wi-Fi connected. So, I don't think the [clears throat] conversation's going away. So, just FYI, I'm sure um I guess Apple just did a new upload with a new um device manager on their devices. I don't I haven't played with it, but there is a new parental control um that's a little more. Any other future
198agenda items? We're going to just keep having these long meetings because we have all these great things to talk about. >> It's a busy place. >> It is a busy place. Um, all right. Uh, moving on to review of meeting. Uh, Trustee Gingry, >> it was an added meeting. [laughter] >> Uh, advanced planning. Let's see. Adjournment. Uh, we won't make Trusty Dorn adjourn us tonight. >> Madam Chair, I move to >> second. >> I thank you. I appreciate you being here. >> You better. >> Thank you. I'm about to >> All right. Yes.