TCSD #1 Board of Education Regular Meeting - Sept 10 2025

001We'll bring this U meeting of the Teton County School Board number one back to order and start with the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Um first I just wanted to thank Trusty Abrams for um running the show the last two meetings. I was on the July meeting, but it didn't seem appropriate to be running the meeting virtually. So, anyways, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Here I am. I'm like, "Oh, right. I have to do this." >> Um, and the mission statement. Let's see. We'll go ahead and get uh Trustee Abrams to read a portion of our vision and >> vision statement. As a premier district, our

002vision is to ensure every student is prepared to succeed in an everchanging world. >> Thank you. >> Uh moving on to approval of agenda. >> M I approve move to approve the agenda as present. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes. Superintendence report back to >> Yes, madam chair. trustees. Um we have a few items to uh celebrate, recognize to start our meeting off tonight. Um we're going to start with if I can have Miss TC please come to the podium with a few students. Um trustees, we have a longstanding relationship with the road club at Jan Hole. Um longstanding and extreme supporters of our school district. Um what we have failed to do in the past is also recognize our youth exchange student program which continues to grow at the

003high school thanks to the work of Bennett and Mary. So I'd like to hear from our team and uh give us an update of what's happening at the high school. >> Okay. Thank you superintendent got Chris. Um thank you madam chair and thank you trustees. We're so happy to be here. Before I have the students surrounding me introduce themselves, I'd like to take two minutes because I have a total of four minutes to explain why they are standing in front of you. These students are members of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program, which is sponsored by the Jackson Hall Rotary Lunch Club. This is the same group that raises over $300,000 to distribute to our graduating seniors through the Teton County Scholarship Program. The students beside me are either students who spend the school year with

004us from abroad, that would be our two gentlemen at the end, or our own Jackson High School students who leave us to spend a school year abroad. The goal of youth exchange is to provide a cultural experience and develop the students to be future leaders who promote peace and justice around the world. So to support this goal, our inbound students at the high school take classes like US government, where they learn about how our country works, and greater Yellowstone to learn about the unique environment where we live. Our outbound students enroll in equally interesting classes in the country they're assigned to. The interview process to get selected to be an exchange student, inbound or outbound, starts in September. We have a youth exchange team that consists of Rotarians, our school principal, Bennett, our students who

005have spent the school year abroad, and myself. The team selects the outbound students for the upcoming school year, as well as finds host families for inbound students. Many of our host families are Teton County School District families and even our own Teton County School District staff and we are grateful for that. So up until this year, Scott, you can attest to this. Our Rotary exchange program really consisted of we receive one student. This year we welcome two. That's a first and it's a really nice thing. and we welcome back three of our own Jetson High School students. The Rotary experience does not end here for our lovely returning students. These students become part of an international club called Rotex. And ROEX students provide mentorship and support to exchange students from abroad. And they've been doing

006an amazing job welcoming these gentlemen. Right now we have two of our high school students, two 10th graders. One's in Denmark and one is in Belgium. So this is a good question. Is an exchanger always perfect? Certainly not. These brave and adventurous students have learned to embrace the good and navigate through the difficulties. I remind them that they have proven they can do hard things and our team is really proud of each of them. So, I'd love them to introduce themselves. >> Hi, my name is Sophie. I went to Finland in 23 to 24. And one of the things that I learned from my year was that I'm not scared to leave home. >> Hi, my name's Alina. I went to Sweden 2425. And one of the things that I learned from my year is

007that I'm able to speak up for myself now. >> Hello, my name is Vila Vasquez. I went to Thailand 2425. Um, one of the things I learned was that was to accept the confidence and bravery I've always had. >> Yeah. My name is Martin. I'm from Denmark and I'm doing this here to get a cultural experience. Hi, my name is from and one of my goal for this year is know as many people as possible and makes them and you might understand a little American football. We have two two great students. American football, which honestly scares me, and we have Martin, who does not know the game of basketball, but I think coach Elliot's pretty psyched. So, um, Andrea, there next slide. So we received these students from day one and they know they are

008supported and we actually have a great partnership with Jackson airport because Jim Elwood is a Rotarian. So this is the welcoming of both Martin and Matteo and we had a lot of fun. Our Rotek students came with us. The support starts from day one and we stay we support our outbound students as well and keep in touch with them through WhatsApp. So, thank you for um thank thank you for letting them come like show themselves off. I love these blazers. Um my next goal is to arrange like a staff exchange program so we could send teachers, but we'll focus on this for now. So, thank you very much for supporting it from our school district level because this is a lifechanging experience for these students. >> Thank you very much. Um, I was the beneficiary

009of having a rotary rotary exchange student in my home for three months and it was really it was an incredible experience for our whole family. So, it's great. Thank you. Yes, >> madam chair. our family when my boys were a sophomore and senior um we had a kid from Italy come to stay with us and he was with the um American friends AFS um but he came and you know learned English very well. He now works for Red Bull Racing Formula One and uh yeah, and he attributes his getting that job to having the best English of his team. Um he works on the floor of the race car, which is the aerospace park. He's an aerospace engineer. He made our lives so much better. So, I think it's a great program. We're so glad

010we're doing it. >> All right. Thank you. >> Um the next item I have um is an example of a program that's being implemented at the high school. We're going to have Annie could come up to the podium. Um this year we have a district-wide thing on connection. Um, I spoke to it at the welcome back staff message and also you will find a uh connection area in the leaders report for each principal to show something happening in their building around connection. I don't think there's anything more important than human connection in a school district both with staff with students with coaches with teachers in our community. Um the high school is embarking on a program um to show an example of what they're doing to attack a connection target. >> Thanks Dr. Crisp. Madame

011Chair, trustees Annie Kavinka, assistant principal at the high school. Um excited to kind of celebrate and share this with you. This is a project that actually Miss Hoffer and I kind of were inspired at looking into several years ago um when we when we went and visited another high school where they put a lot of emphasis on upper classmen working with younger classmen um especially with the onboarding to high school and what that means. Um and so we've gone through different different iterations throughout the year. Um, but we had one of our counselors, Lisa Husband, step up to the plate and go to training over the summer. And the program is called Lynx Crew. We called it, we call it building Bronx at the high school. Um, but it is a program focused on getting

01211th and 12th graders. They are enrolled in a class called building Bronx. And the whole purpose of that class is to learn leadership skills so that they can run our freshman flex programming. So that has typically been something that ninth grade teachers orchestrate and run. But it is, I would argue, more fun to hear about homecoming and how to organize your Canvas page and how to pass physics class from upper classmen than it is from a nth grade teacher. So they are taking full ownership of our freshman flex programming. There's a social component to it with the focus on building connections where it's all about just having fun and getting to know each other and building connections with upper classmen. And there's also a structured component of it learning like how do I organize my

013homework? How do I plan for finals? Um so it has a balance of that. We have we have about 31 juniors and seniors who forecasted the class before they even knew what it was. A lot of them volunteer time over the summer to come in and get trained. They put on the whole student orientation by themselves. It was focused on like team building and whatnot. Um, so when we talk about connection, I would say this has been a highlight in our school. Um, and we're looking forward to seeing how it goes. So, any questions? >> Any questions? >> Thank you. Exciting. >> Thank you. >> And the last item I have under the superintendent report um is an exciting change for the fund. The fund for public education has seen some transition in the past

014couple months. We are very excited um to introduce um Jenny Stradley. Jenny, if you could please come up as the new director of the fund for public education. >> Thank you, Dr. Chris. Madame Chair, trustees. I too am very excited to be here. It's been a long way around the block. A little bit about myself. Um my great-g grandandmother came here in the late 1800s. Uh so my mother graduated from the high school, my grandfather graduated from here, my father graduated from here. Um you know was there's a a lot that I gained from this school and this district and um when I was in the third grade in Mrs. Grant's class, my father was killed in a car accident. So I know a lot about grief and loss and I am there were no

015programs but I felt so much support from a lot of the counselors and the teachers here. So I understand that when I was a senior in high school our house burned down, lost everything but the clothes on our back. Again, a lot going on with our family and the support that I got from the school. When I graduated from high school, I left the Keith was my neighbor. Um we shared um When I left here, I said, "Goodbye. See you. So long. I'll never come back." And my mother said, "You'll be back." She was right. My mother's always right. Um, graduated, spent the majority of my career in nonprofit, in education, uh, mostly in community and technical education, but building systems that didn't exist, brand new systems. So, um, I was fortunate enough after I

016I got my undergraduate in economics, I got my MBA. Um, I was working full-time, had three kids. Why not? Let me go back to school. So, as soon as I got my MBA, I came back to Jackson in 2011 and again continued my work and my professions and nonprofit. Um, it is such an honor now to bring this full circle and come back to work with the school district to raise funds on behalf of these students that need so much. And I was a student. I can bring so much of my personal and professional experiences back to the fund as their executive director. And I'm really looking forward to working with the the school board, the teachers. I've met with a lot of the principles already and and our board to to really do great

017work. There's great need and so there's I'm I'm excited to get to get going. I've only been here a week on the job a week, but it seems like a lot longer. So, uh, anytime, um, um, you need anything, I'm just open open to hear your ideas, open, and I definitely need everybody's contacts, and we're going to get busy making making some strides to fill some gaps. Thank you all. Any questions? >> Thank you very much. That will conclude the superintendent's report. >> Um will we have the district leaders report. Does anybody have any questions? >> Dusty Ary. >> Madam Chair, I just wanted to mention um there was a report from my can said I thought the schools just look great this year. You're driving around outdoors and the indoors. uh culture is amazing.

018If you haven't been inside there to see all the work that went on inside there, the carpet's gone. There's um I don't know what they call that, not lenolium, but whatever that um and then the the new roof on the high school is amazing. That's great that that got done. The over at Alta, the new red uh I thought the red's good. I thought there was there was one complaint from a neighbor, but I thought it looked really nice. Uh so the schools look really great. Uh I was so excited to see uh both Wilson Elementary and Summit are exceeding expectations. Um that's a huge celebration to see both those schools exceeding. Um particularly the I highlight the Wilson one. That was just amazing. And then I was really impressed with the with our YT

019top scores at 9th and 10th grade for ELA. Those were really high. Um, so that's something's going really well in ninth and 10th grade over at the high school uh on the ELA side. I was very impressed with that. U the only other thing I was going to mention was um there was some discussion there on transportation. We' sent a letter to the town about the uh dynamic messaging dynamic crossing um light. I ran into Johnny Ze um and Johnny was suggesting who is the public works person for the town. He was suggesting that the um the problem because what Bennett was explaining to us, what Bennett Leeman was explaining to us was that the u what happens is those kids get there at the three-way going over to the community school or or actually

020going to that bus stop to catch the start bus and they go slowly or they back up and back and forth and so it slows all the traffic down. Um and that's the problem is getting that three-way to go. The problem with the sign they were saying is all that's going to do is each time a kid walks up they're just going to push the button and now it's going to stop all the traffic again. He was suggesting and I'm just throwing it out to us. Um you seems a little um easy. Um he was suggesting a crossing guard. He was suggesting because then the crossing guard could do what Bennett was sort of suggesting sort of gather everybody up like hold on I'll I'll get you across here in a moment. wait and then

021take a group across and then come back. Um, and so anyway, I throw that out. That was Johnny's idea and and uh I don't know if we um he actually threw out there that when he was a kid in fifth grade, but fifth graders did it. I'm not sure if liability wise we want fifth graders stopping traffic. Um but um uh uh but maybe if we had um employee or someone uh that just in the afternoon I'm thinking and just as an experiment sort of a pilot project to see if it works um just that that 10 15 minutes right then if we just had a crossing guard and see if it even works um see if that but he didn't think the the Johnny didn't think the uh the pushing the button on the

022sign thing it's going to fix what we thought it wasn't going to resolve the issue I think Bennett was trying to to stress with us. So any I throw that out to you that I ran into Johnny at a meeting and and he he had seen our letter and that was his thought and and he's usually a very practical person usually comes up with all the right solutions. Um and he was very helpful. I don't know if everybody knew this during uh the first day of school still sort of a mess. So Johnny actually had all his team out there making sure all our kids could get across Gregory Lane and and the town was really nice to be out there to make sure all that that worked out. I think we were all a

023little nervous how that was going to play out. So that's everything I >> Thanks. And I um will say that um Devon Beman um called me or reached out to me and um I had coffee with her this afternoon as the liaison to the town council and they're hoping to attend the October meeting to present some of their ideas for for that that area and traffic patterns too. So, um, it sounds like we're getting some positive response and, um, and there's areas where we can be practical and helpful, too. So, thank you, >> uh, Trusty Bosch, >> Madame Chair. Um, first in looking at this, I want to give a shout out to a few um, well, kids really, but Jackson Hall High School uh, AP scores really impressive. That's awesome. Um, I just uh

024was I know you guys probably think of me as the trusty about metrics and that's all I care about, but um, I have to acknowledge when kids do that well. It was really a great thing. While pair sitting there nodding their head, summit exceeding expectations in all categories on why top all categories. That's impressive. Um, last but not least, the middle school. I don't know where Matt's at, but number one in the state in science. Um, again, just unbelievable. So, make sure you pass that along to your kiddos during the announcements or whatever. Great job. Really great job. Um, that's it. Thanks. If I missed somebody, I apologize. I thought I got them up, but I think that's great job. Great work. >> Super. >> Thank you. >> Here. Anybody else? All right, we will

025move on from the superintendence report to reports and items for discussion. Student schoolboard report. Welcome. We're glad to have you. You can come on up and give your presentation. Um, well, hi. My name is Georgiana. Um, I'm a senior at the high school and I'm not really sure what I'm going to study in college, but as of this moment, I know it's not going to be public speaking. Um, my name is Louisa and I'm also a senior and I either plan to study architecture or communications in college. >> I'm Diego as well a senior and I'm also unsure of what I'll want to study in college. >> Um, my name is Nyrie and I'm also a senior and I plan to study political science or international studies in college. >> Thank you. Um, so we

026had some potential ideas on what we were thinking about trying to address across the district and what we thought was both manageable but also important. So for the first one, we were thinking about environmental education and transportation across the district. So like primarily we wanted to lay a foundation of education across the district about both the significance of personal actions when you're driving a car every day to school, refusing to carpool, not wanting to take a bike, but also how those specific actions can have such a large impact if you do it in the opposite way too. Um, so we wanted to start K through five very light education relating to these issues because we obviously don't want to scare the young children. Um, so we were thinking some games that kind of teach concepts

027about climate change or recycling, but not really getting into the nittygritty of what actually is like so scary about all these topics. Another idea we had was kind of showing them recycled clothing and not normalizing it, but just showing how amazing and beautiful things can be without having a negative effect on the environment. Um, once we get through into middle school around fifth through 8th grade, we were thinking about getting more serious with environmental education, but still not get like laying it on thick. kind of just explaining what actually happens when you throw something in the trash instead of throwing it in the recycling bin, where it goes, what happens to it. The same thing with telling people what happens when you put a bunch of CO2 in the atmosphere. Um, but once we get

028to high school, we were thinking about more showing kind of the global effect that this is presently having and can very quickly have on Jackson, which is such a gorgeous town and like should be as we all live here and it's so amazing and should really be appreciated and protected by us and showing more the emotionally heavy side of um like environmental change. Um, and in doing so, we hope to kind of address a little bit. I know we were just talking about this, um, kind of driving yourself to school every day or having your parents drive you to school every day if you're in the middle school or elementary school. Um, I was talking to a friend's younger sibling in middle school today and they were talking about how they don't want to take

029the bus because it's not the cool thing to do and they don't they always want to drive alone and kind of why that's starting so young and figuring out ways to address that and hopefully through like some sort of education about what it's doing, people might take an emotional or accountable stance. Um, and another thing that we've noticed a lot of is people saying, "I can't drive to I have to drive to school because I have to sports practice after school. I have to go to work." And maybe doing some sort of skeleton project. And we definitely acknowledge that this might be out of our league with cost and spending of maybe seeing what happens if we have one bus taking people from the most popular sports practice. What happens? Do people take it after

030they know the effects of driving every day or is it just not worth trying? Um, and we have other things with other challenges, but we really want to encourage car pooling, having people maybe even stay a little bit later after school so they don't just sit in the parking lot and stall their cars and emit for an extra 45 minutes when they don't have to or 45 minutes might be a little excessive. Um but yeah, just really trying to lay a foundation where people are personally accountable and understand what they're doing and trying to encourage across the district like starting from young ages car pooling, bus riding and recycling really. So our second idea was financial literacy. And while coming up with ideas, I felt like it was really hard to think about elementary and

031middle school since it's a little easier to come up with ideas since we are all high schoolers. But what we've done to like fun games. I feel like when we were in middle um elementary, we would like have a be store and like be able to win prizes. So, I feel like having a money jar for the class and being able to win like something encourages like the habit of saving money and trying to spend something collectively to win something bigger. And then for middle school, we it would be more of an intuitive budgeting and money management. So, just like little classes maybe during the flex or after school. And then for high school, I feel like implementing also during flex classes more the idea of what a credit score is, what tax, how to

032make, how to fill out your taxes, what an investment, interest rates, and then the creation of or distribution of like little one pages around the school would be kind of helpful to get everyone engaged into these flexes. >> And then our third idea was um improvement with like improvement in student inclusion and in the activities. Um, we were thinking of like of course promoting like uh clubs that are going on at the high school, but we also were thinking about like mentorship programs throughout like all three schools and also closing like language barriers because I feel like usually kids who are learning English are kind of pushed into a classroom where they're stuck together and which is amazing like they have people to look out for them and like look be like a group but

033it's also kind of hard when they're trying to like include themselves into like only English speaking clubs and activities. So I think closing that gap is also important. >> We do next slide please. >> Um so this is a timeline kind of a rough draft timeline of the year um of what we hope to do. Um, so for the years of September, October, we'll kind of figure out uh give some surveys out to students of all grades. Um, kind of ask them what they would want to learn uh what they might want to uh learn more about and or be included in uh and narrow down on what the students say. And then November to December, whatever say we uh research on that and make a draft of a plan of how to improve what

034students would want. Um yeah, January, February, we think a launch and then from May to April have any feedback uh or ask students about what they thought about that and receive feedback and then May to June we'll evaluate on what we did on what worked and didn't work and then make our final report on what we focused in on. >> Thank you. Does anybody have any questions or comments? >> I have a question and it might be more towards um Superintendent Chris. Um Dr. Chris um last year Gillian was given this uh student senate. Are we doing that concept again this year? >> Just trust we are. We're actually launching that the end of this month. Um we are asking all students who participated in Senate last year if they want to continue and then

035potentially add additional students based off the grade level. These four will be part of the same as well. >> Great. I just found that to be a good way for you all to interact with all the kids in the and really get an idea of the diversity of our district as you go down your decision making process. to >> chair. Um, first of all, let me say, uh, Georgiana, that was a very good presentation. I don't know why you're worried about public speaking. You did a great job. All of you, >> I was thinking the whole time like, wow, would have never done that at your age. um with your financial literacy idea. Um let me offer you uh just a suggestion to look at is um one of the high schools that actually my

036high school that I went to um and then I was the attorney for that high school. They had a program that was then adopted countywide. was called Stepping Out. And it was a booklet that was produced that dealt with a lot of the issues you all will be facing next year. We're not that long away, like how to lease an apartment or how to rent a car, you know, all these things. And um I love the idea of talking about investments and things like that and providing that. Maybe think about all the types of things that you will look and I'll see if I might have one of the old books. I'll give it to you, but just think about all the types of things that you guys are going to have to do not

037too long from now that you have no idea about. And so I would maybe look at expanding that. I love the idea opening a checking account or savings account. Maybe you guys already have that. Getting credit cards. Why not have cards? Um might be the better reason. So, I just um I love the idea. I just need to think a little bit bigger with that one. Okay. It's great. Great job, all of you. Thank you, >> Madam Chair. Trusty G. >> Just if you were wanting some input, I I liked all three of them, but I think one of the board's highest priorities is getting traffic off a high school road. You could work on that car pooling and getting kids to ride the bus and to ride start and our school buses. I think

038that would be a great one that that transportation one. Uh if you could maybe make that one your life, but I understand you're going to go through a process to figure out which one of those you want to do. And the financial literacy and the improving student inclusion are also great. Um but I just know it's a high priority of this board to figure out some solutions on High School Road and I was hopeful you all would have some of those answers as to how we could especially in the afternoons when people are trying to leave that 10 or 15 minutes. If you guys had some ideas on how we could improve that, that would be great. >> And to build off that, if you can, you know, start a culture at the younger age

039of bus ridership and um carpooling and that kind of thing. Um you know, then it'll keep more moving upwards. So, but thank you and welcome. Is that all? Anybody else? Oh, Trusty Abrams. Sorry. >> Thank you. Um, well done for being brave for standing up here. It gets easier, >> but it still always feels hard. So, um, kudos to the four of you for standing up and speaking in front of us. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Um, we'll move on to We'll move on to BIS fiscal management committee. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Treasure. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Take it away. >> Um, Madam Chairman, we met on, I believe, August 28th, right before the end of the month, and I believe we circulated

040that agenda to everybody. Um, had a a lively discussion. We'll go through these things and we're then I'm going to come back at the towards the end and talk about um one of the topics that came up regarding leaison membership and our responsibilities and duties. So, >> okay. Uh we talked about uh the Cubs program and what the the future of that program looks like. We're we're going to do a little bit of studying and gathering some information um and revisit uh what that looks like in uh fin summary as we're having a lot of staffing challenges there which then in turns creates staffing challenges in the schools. Uh when we have to close cubs it impacts teachers who then have to stay home from work and then exacerbates the substitute pro problem. So, uh,

041we're just trying to brainstorm and figure out what the next step is with that. >> Just to jump in, Madam Chairman, Cubs is, um, infant care. >> Grizzlies is >> preschool preschool. >> So, this only is the >> So, this is just the infant care. Um, this is the facility that's down on the south end of the JES field. And then Grizzlies, we've actually moved into JES uh into the school. Uh, next on our agenda was the fiscal goals. We'd reviewed some of the priorities that the board set um both in finance committee and then in your collaboration with the consultant that we worked with. Uh, health insurance. I think we'll hold on that one for just a minute until we get to the recalibration conversations. I think we'll have more to share with that.

042Uh, fundraising review on this. I think the intent of having this here is just to create additional transparency with what we're doing, what the fund is doing, working together and then really coming up with a system that there's been such great strides in fundraising for our district both on the fund side and the district side. So now we're moving on to the next step of really refining what the process is, defining who does what, what stays in the schools, and then what's what goes through the fund for public education. um their support has been amazing in developing what we have now. Now we just need to move the ball and and keep improving that system. >> What reason would there be for some fundraising to remain in the schools rather than going to the fund

043for public education? >> So some of the conversations that we're having is you know we we typically have two different types of fundraisers that happen within the school district. one is to raise money for something. Uh the other one is this is educational value to students and so the fundraising amount of money isn't the ultimate goal. And those fundraisers typically might raise $500, but it's an educational lesson for the students. And so we're really trying to define what the difference between those is, what the criteria should be because the administrative lift on those fundraisers, the small ones that are happening are currently going through the fund for public education, but it's creating some administrative weight for them and it will come back to all of you to have an opinion on this. Uh do we

044want the fund, what is the goal of the fund? Is it to raise larger pots of money that can help support larger programs in our schools or do we want them spending time and money on administration of these smaller fundraisers that create a lot of time and energy? >> Thank you. >> Welcome. Uh middle school activities we reviewed shortly. Uh this was just this came this was a conversation that came out of the meeting that we had with the consultants that came in and just how are we looking at activities? What what's important when we think of activities and and mostly this is what's the participation in the current activities that we offer and could we get more bang for our buck if we expanded some others and maybe reduced some of the ones with

045little participation. And again, that's going to be an ongoing conversation. um just to start and really have an evaluation process. We reviewed the retirement and retention data um that Trusty Bosch had asked for. Trusty Wash, do you want to >> um Well, the I guess the biggest key is is that it doesn't look like based on the data that was provided that we have an immediate concern, but I think it's in five years we have a possibly eligible teachers that could exceed 20 for retirement. And up until that point, each year is about 5 to 10 that are eligible for retirement. But in five years, we're going to have a a bigger number. We didn't go beyond that, but I think for forecasting purposes, we're going to need to start considering and looking at those

046numbers uh a little bit more frequently, see what we're adjusting. So, >> and we did, and I think that will come up in the recalibration process as well, um how we're designing our compensation packages and what the state um what changes the state will make in compensation coming um in February. And then we just we just actually posted the exit interview data. What most people are saying um it's what you would expect. It's a lot of housing. It's a lot of I want to have a family and there's nowhere to live. Um and I can't afford to live in Tai. Uh the budget update is posted. Um, one of the one of the pieces that I like to look at when I look at the budget, and this is just a benchmark for me, is

047the percent consumed to date. So, you can see this hardly ever happens, but um, our total non-compensation is at 23% just like it was last year. Total expenditure 6% just like it was last year. And then, Andre, if you go to the top of that document, our our salary and compensations are at 3% and our revenue is at 8%. That never happens. That's a miracle. So, I just wanted to point that out. Um, if there's no questions on that, we can get to the recalibration summary. Would you like to speak about that or I can? >> Yeah, we can I can start it off. So um last week as everybody knows the recalibration um discussion over in Casper went on and was Trusty Dornan, Trusty me, uh Superintendent Chris, Principal Lieberman, uh Director Reynolds, um

048our truency officer Reynolds and uh and uh and Kristen Mayo, Director Mayo was there um two uh two days of uh listening to Taylor speak. No, it wasn't Taylor. It was uh >> Pas >> speak. And basically there's the legislative model um for funding schools. There's the evidence-based model which Pikus was presenting and they're trying to figure out what changes to make going forward to present in February where the where they will uh um tell us how we can fund our schools going forward. Personally, I and for those that were there, I didn't see a whole lot of change from the evidencebased model from 2020 to 2025. And I don't think um there'll be much of a change from the legislative model either from what I heard. Um same same staffing numbers basically that we've

049had. Maybe you can I'm trying to remember if there's any major changes. >> They really are taking the um school counselors staffing seriously. I think we'll see an adjustment there. uh SRO's they talked about quite a bit. Um they talked about the base salary for teachers. I think that there will be some change there. We were lucky enough to have a lot of time as Teton County. Um I I thought that they were engaged and they were listening and they asked a lot of great questions and I always think that that's a good sign when they're listening and they're asking questions as opposed to when somebody gives a presentation. and there's absolutely nothing after that. No follow-up questions and no testimony. It's pretty much a given. I think they already know where they're going. They

050don't really need any more information where um Superintendent Chris and I uh had a lot of questions which I thought was great and I don't know how far it will go but I have some ideas. Hopefully they'll listen. um Superintendent Crisp and um and Kristen did a tremendous job representing our district during um the first day of testimony. Uh they asked really probing questions um on how we do things here in Teton County and they were really amazed and this is a kudo very fascinated in our success in our English language learning programs and how we've adapted it um trusting me did a great job representing and pushing that forward. Um they looked up to us. >> Yeah. >> Which is good. Uh the next day we did got into health care. >> Um I

051think we I don't know where we want to go with healthare at this point. I don't think a consultant would be the fidiciary duty respons best for us to do at this point. Reading between the lines of the healthcare. So what we what we talked about in finance committee and then in advance of the recalibration meeting uh there is a proposal to the state legislature to put all school districts on the state health insurance plan and there's only one school district currently on the state health insurance plan. So I I don't know where they're headed. It seems like this is where they're headed. They didn't have any follow-up questions to anyone who presented on health insurance. Now, when we start talking about what the RFQ is for a flat rate consultant, we did talk about

052that in finance committee and what the timing of that looks like. And um the finance committee suggested that we have the RFQ ready to go ready to publish. The best time to put that out and publish that is right after a renewal. If we did it right now, we would engage someone and that might be wasted money only because the state could force us all onto the state plan in February. But depending on if we have that ready to go for March or April, we could um send that out, see what kind of proposals we get, our renewal will already be in the works if the state is enforcing us on the state plan. Uh so there's just a lot of questions that are outstanding right now and that's that's where the conversation led. Um

053I don't know even if the state decides to put all districts on the state health insurance plan. I don't know that they would be able to do it for fiscal year 27. Currently if you want to enroll in the state health plan you have to give them notice of 180 days. So if in the legislative session they decided to to make that change, there wouldn't be enough time for that state health insurance plan group of employees to onboard 47 school districts to the plan. You know, they might phase it in. They might say by this date, by this year, you have to be enrolled. Um so even if that's the change they make, I do think there's going to be somewhat of a a gradual move to that. So I think we need to be

054prepared for what does it look like for the next year or the next two years. And I think um at that time we might want to still do the consultant work. Um just depending on you know can we come can we come up with a proposal that will get us from where we are now to what the state proposes and what the state passes in February. >> Madam trust >> me. Uh uh Christenda, I would like to see what it would cost us uh to go on the state uh state plan right now. >> Okay. >> Um there's one school on it. >> We could go on it >> if uh if we decide that it's something we want to do and I'd like to see the cost of that if you could provide that.

055>> Okay. >> Uh we can definitely get um the timeline and the transition plan what that would look like. Heather and I can probably get to that together. If not by the November meeting, definitely by the December meeting and then that would give us enough time, I think 180 days to go if we wanted to do that. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Gosh. Um, Madam Chair, um, Director Mayo, um, if I understand what you're saying is I listened to some of that, um, online, but before they could even, they would vote on it February of 26, right? If they're going to do this, and then you're not talking until trying to get schools on the plan until 27th. If if they force everybody on the plan, that would be at least until then. And

056then if I understood you right, you don't believe they could add all the school districts at once. They would have to >> that would be >> that out >> a huge lift for their current staffing. >> Okay. >> Um they would have to bring on at least double the size of their team. Yes. >> At the state health insurance plan, uh that's just my opinion that this was not said in the meeting. Um what they'll do is in in the October reccalibration meeting, they're going to start drafting the legislation or the proposed legislation to come out of the recalibration committee. Uh and then we have one more final meeting in January for recalibration committee. And then I believe, correct me if I'm wrong if anybody knows the answer to this. Um Mr. Guru might have

057a better answer. I believe from reccalibration uh the bill goes to appropriations and then that's where it will be introduced to the legislative session. So, with that in mind, um, what I'm I'm going to repeat the same things I did during the finance committee is why aren't we at least considering just getting proposals from independent consultants? And I mean that in the sense of flat fee. They're coming in trying to review everything, advise us. Why aren't we going to do like I would I'm going to say this. I want that to start now instead of waiting for another year or two years or three years. I think that along with trustee meat's request to get information on what it would be like on that plan, that's just one of the possible options right now. So

058I think and I read the the former proposals or reports or whatever and what I didn't see was you know what I didn't see in all those was just here is what it's going to cost and break it down based upon now that we have data that we can present. So if we have that data I would request that we get somebody on board. That's the board decision, but I think we need to do that now and get this ball rolling instead of waiting until the legislators decide what they're going to do because that's another three years down the road. >> So, um, >> to have that cost analysis done by a flat rate consultant, we have to know exactly what we're asking for. So, when we go, let's say we build that into the

059RFQ that I've drafted, I shared with you, um, do you want us to cost out exactly the same benefits package we have now? Do you want there to be other vari there's so many different variables that work their way into that? So when we send out the RFQ, we need to be really clear about what we're asking for in order to get exactly what you're asking for is I want to know how much it's going to cost. Then the consultant can go out and they can bid whoever, you know, Sigma, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, whoever, United Healthcare. Um, and then all of those people will come back and they'll bid what what's happened in the past. We've said, "This is what we want you to bid for us." And some of them come back and

060they say, "We're not going to bid this one or this one. We're only going to bid this one." And then that gives us a cost. The cost to the district really depends on then how much do we want to charge employees. Right now, we don't charge employees anything. So, if we're coming at it from a cost perspective, I think it's also important to establish what our cost goal is. So, right now, our our health insurance plan costs around $10 million a year. So, if our cost goal is to get that down to $8 million, we need to keep that in mind. And then we need to say, okay, when we get these bids back, this is what the cost structure is going to be. That likely will look like employees starting to pay partial premiums.

061And we've talked about that before. >> So, Madam Chair, let let's start with the simple part which is the RFP. I guess they call it RFQ. >> One of these days Keith will explain this to me. Um but you know, you're asking for specifics. Go bid this. Go bid this. I'd like to have somebody come in that can look at all the possible options that we have, which isn't just going out bidding this based upon the existing death, but is looking at the number of employees we have. Can we self-fund or self-insure ourselves? Is there the state option and look at that? Or is there some hybrid of var various things with a high risk coverage or an overage coverage and and us self-funding a portion of it? But I don't think unless we have

062somebody that's going to look at all those possible options and explain it to us from lack of my knowledge an actuarial standpoint, you know, and and crunch the numbers. I I understand your concern for cost. That's my biggest concern is how we're going to continue to do this because the costs are going up. So, if we're going to do this, I want to I want somebody that can explore all those options and really be a part of our team to advise us as to what are viable and what are not. Not us saying we want to bid this and bid this and bid. >> So, we're not asking for a consultant to go out and find us insurance because that wouldn't be in this RFQ. What we're asking for then is just a flat rate

063consultant to come in and evaluate our current benefits package >> based on the numbers that at least I understand we do now or have on claims information and stuff like that. We should be able, I think, to take that out and have somebody look at it, say, "Hey, this is what this would probably, you know, this would run. This is what this works." And so to give us some options on what might be I don't know if we have enough employees to selfund. I don't >> Well, it it really doesn't come down to whether we have enough employees or not. It comes down to the level of risk the board is comfortable with. >> And that's what we need to look that's what I would like. Okay. I don't know what the rest of the

064>> knowing that we're bound by the state for cash cash reserves. I think that's where the risk is, right? So, if our if our claims all of a sudden go over by $10 million, we're not allowed to have $10 million in cash reserves in our district. So, not only would we have to pay out of pocket for those claims. I'm not advocating against self insurance. I actually think it's the way that we should head. I think that's the plan we're on right now. Um, but keep in mind, we don't have the ability to have a cash reserve that can support a a huge overage in claims. Not to mention, once that money is spent, maybe it's $5 million. Now, we've spent that on claims June 30th. Now, we have no cash reserves moving into the

065next year where our insurance rates are going to be higher because we've exceeded the claims um in this in that year plan. Right? So, it's not just the current year, it's the next year, then your rates go up. Um, those are just some of the risk portfolios. If if the board wants to move in this direction, um, you know, we'll we'll do whatever we need to do, I think that, um, you know, it's it it's a tough position to be in right now because the state is having conversations about what they're going to do. And so, we could be spending this money and nothing happens and we move forward with a different proposal or we could spend this money and the state says you're all going on the state plan in four months. So, >>

066um the health insurance >> I I got nothing on the health insurance. I mean, I think we just continue forward and see what happens in um so the next meeting is the end of October and Taylor will be there and I think we'll have a better flu by November first direction things are going >> and the final evidence. So they haven't even finished the evidence base model proposal for this year yet. Um they only had it about half finished with staffing and they had none of the operational pieces updated yet. So hopefully we'll have a final draft of the evidence-based model which is what PAUS is proposing the legislature take on in October >> and Taylor will be presenting the economics and >> regional cost adjustment and that'll be that's going to be literally the

067million dollar meeting. >> Thank you. Uh Trusty Gabriel just real quick. So they haven't really discussed RCA yet. Mhm. >> like to keep my head low, >> pretend like we don't exist and see if they forget we even um but if we did want to raise our head >> absolutely >> um there's something else we >> It sounded like you guys had a really good discussion about ESL and we've always said we love the SRO. Sometimes it's helpful to send proposed language because we have one to 100 right now on the ESL >> ELLL. Um I don't know what the actual ratio is. We get 5.4 FTEES for ELLL and then we get another 10 and a half for atrisisk students which includes kind of lowinccome and free and qualifying. So I it's a pretty

068good ratio right now. >> Yeah. For a long time they always told me it was one feature per 100 which never made any sense. I'm wondering if we could propose some language for the ESL department and propose some language for the SRO too. >> Um, and to say maybe find another school district or two that if I remember correctly u for some reason has a large ESL policy. >> Not sure what. Uh anyway, uh find other districts and submit that. And also on the SRO because those are the two that always frustrate me that we don't get compensated for the SRO. We don't get compensated for the ESL teachers. Uh sort of do, but not really. Um I guess that is how hard it's for. Should we keep our This is a strategy discussion. Do

069do you keep your head low and wait for them to finish the RCA discussion or does Teton County say, "Hey, there's some other things you guys should be looking at such as um you know, here's some proposed language on on ELLL. Uh we think it should be, you know, the way you could structure that is for any school district that has a population greater than you pick a percentage that clearly would take us in. Um and maybe take one or two districts other districts in. say if you have a population greater than that that you receive through the model X amount of dollars for ELLL uh now how you structure the SRO I'm not sure that might actually be a flat amount because everybody's going to have a different amount they're paying their sheriff's police

070and maybe that's the smaller amount um anyway that that was my thought but at the same time my every time we've gone through recalibration my thought has always been to keep our head and and hopefully they don't notice us because when you do notice us, we're the uh we're the thumb that sticks out because of RCA and they start noticing that and then I get worried. So um that's why I never really push for the other little things that I find small but um compared to the RCA. Just thoughts on strategy. I you guys were all there and you said trusty you you had a good conversation about ELLL. Did they seem like they wanted any proposed language? >> I I don't know. It's it seems like the the ratios, you know, you have atrisisk

071kids, you have ELLL kids. You can't combine those numbers, but um it seemed like the numbers were pretty fair. And besides that, we indicated how well we're doing with what we're doing currently. >> Exactly. So, um, it's a little hard to go back and say, well, but we need a lot more money. We need a lot more staff >> because over the last, you know, basically the last, you know, 20 years, we've managed to to get this done and and uh sort of perfect to come close to that. >> So, we don't do the yellow. What did you guys think about the SRO, though? >> I'm trying to find what? I I think of SRO's they're kind of up in the air, you know, I think mostly because some school districts don't really have an

072option for that. Uh to have anybody there's nobody nearby to help them um so they can't get SRO. So I don't know. I I do think we should push on them pay more for SRO's. I think um we were called by the board uh the the the chair of the committee the unicorns. He said, you know, we got rest of Wyoming. We got too young out of here. They're the unicorns and we understand that because of the cost of living. So, um >> they understand that. They you didn't get the feeling that in October they were going to pick on us. >> Nope. Didn't get that feeling at all >> except uh represented Bear. >> Bear. Yes. Yeah. Who was uh concerned that when they gave us the 8.5% in this last bled session that

073we didn't pay it right over to teachers and you know we explained that we're back filling for you know the 10% increase four years ago and then not them not paying ECA. He got really ouchy when I said that. He said oh that was a different legislature. But you know um of course every school was in the same position of backfilling for those uh ECA the failure to provide ECAS at all over the years. So >> thank you for >> I I think they rec they'll recognize our problem with that. >> Okay. >> And they did ask I mean the chairman of the committee did say you're here what can we do for you? And so I I don't I don't want to feel bad if you go back and watch the meeting because I

074already brought up the RC did not keep my head low. So um it's kind of out of the bag. The >> big danger is in regional cost adjustment and the comparative wage index >> and >> that hasn't even been presented yet >> and that's Taylor still doing and she loves the comparative wage. So, but the SRO was discussed at length and they are trying to figure out how to adapt it where districts are split and >> well and and one of the the asks on the SRO was for those districts that have a very small population that live a long ways away from maybe a town that has a sheriff's office, keep the funds that you're allocating for security flexible so that they can apply security how what what makes most sense in the community,

075not necessarily just to pay for SRO. So, I thought that was a good um but I love your idea of saying, okay, this is how you can actually propose the legislation. I think there's a lot of ways we can we could do that with the RCA conversation coming up, but um >> back on the middle school things more to the Treasury. What's the timeline? A I was really happy to see the finance committee was discussing middle school activities. Is there a timeline or are we waiting for the next budget cycle to talk about adding activities at the middle school or we thinking of doing that you know at the spring semester? Is there any opportunity to add for you to make a motion to >> I I know you were following the process um and

076I was trusting in the finance committee to tell me if there's actually money there that we could do some of that uh additional activities at the middle school and particularly I think >> I believe it's a next year deal. I think we're budgeted this year and you know we can't put the toothpaste back in. So if trusty me brings up gifted and fit and I bring up middle school activities. >> Yes, we will pop that into the >> Chris and we'll make sure it's fun. >> All right. >> Okay. >> Anything else for Thank you. We'll move on to educational service committee. Good evening, board of trustees. Madame Chair, Megan Fels, director of educational services, and >> Stephen Pringa, director of data and assessment. >> And we prepared the summary of EBG for you all

077to review. We also have the data summary. Um, we prepared some highlights that really showcase the improvements made in the SE in middle school and high school. Um, and we particularly chose the content areas that are leaders in EBG implementation. So, we are here to answer questions. We also have our admin team here from the high school and middle school to have answer any questions about implementation. So, we're here to answer any questions you have. Does anybody have any questions? Seeing none, thank you very much. I appreciated the um EDG sheet and the explanation. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Yes. >> I'd like to ask them a couple of questions. >> Oh, sorry. >> Oh, you thought we're getting out. >> I'm curious. This is EBG statewide. >> It is not,

078but there are several school districts across the country that are implementing. Um, we have are the consultant we're working with out of Chicago and he's really one of the he's created the framework years ago. Um, and he travels around the country supporting different school districts to implement. So, one of the um members of the recalibration committee was genuinely interested in knowing how we were handling our ELLL program. And I wonder if you um attribute some of our success to EBG. >> Well, we're we're in the stage right now where we're looking for trends. And so that was kind of the purpose of preparing the data highlights for you this evening. really we can start to see that upward trend of improvement and so we'll continue to look for that over the next several years. Um

079and we are entering it into year three of implementation. So, we're really looking closely at how that's kind of going across our >> because it seemed to me it's a more individualized system of grading. >> And therefore, each child comes and is met with his or her own ability right where they are at that moment. And I sort of wanted to go up to the recalibration committee and say, "Well, let me tell you, but I wasn't sure if this was a statewide system or not." >> No, much of the state is standardsbased grading or a term called standards reference reporting. So, that is a that I don't want to say it's an older model, but it is kind of a more traditional model of grading. Um, and we're really moving towards more of the competency

080based, proficiency based on evidence of can the student demonstrate the skill. Um, and it's surrounded by a body of evidence to show >> well because it's to me with EBG, you're tracking each student really closely, >> much more closely than ever happened in any of the schools where I ever taught. And I mean, we just sort of let most kids come up to the mark or not. It seems to me with EBG, you're much more concerned with bringing students up to the mark or noticing if they're not able to perform or >> Yes. I mean, it's definitely a more student centered moving towards a student- centered approach. Um, so the student is more involved in the assessment process. So the student is using like self-evaluation, understanding exactly where they are on the proficiency of the

081of the skill to know what they need to do next. >> Yeah, I think this is um this is working really well from an outsider's perspective. >> I don't know how teachers feel about it or students, but it seems to me this is one of our feathers in our cap. We agree. >> Yes. Very. Yes. Good. Thanks. >> Yeah. Trusty Gingry. >> A question to our student school board members. We sit on Reed and Kate and I sit on this committee and we've been talking a lot about base grading. Since you're all seniors, do you see a difference between when you were a freshman and now how the grading works? Do you like how the grading works? Do you find this new system we're using to be better or worse than when you were underassman?

082>> Uh, I definitely felt the difference from when I was a freshman to senior. Um, you know, when I was a freshman, I've always kind of been like my homework and then yeah, like stud. But now that orange don't really matter for grade, it kind of makes uh test. upcoming test, I get more stressed about it because I know that the test start my grade and so I feel more stressed from it, but I still do the homework, but I feel like feel less um like doing my own grade, but um yeah, I know like other students as well, so they kind of feel like it's not for my homework, but Um yeah, for a test it feels more stressful. >> Yeah, I feel simil I've always kind of been like understanding what's going on

083in the classroom. So, I don't really feel a little different in the way I'm motivated or like a beam in what's going on. If I have a meat or have an A or if I it says I have a 75% on something I'm approaching on something, I get the same message that I don't really know what's going on. So, I think I haven't had enough classes that have had it like fully implemented because the one class I had like strong on was physics and they were just starting to work it out and lit this year we have entirely evidence that we haven't really had any grades yet, but I can maybe say more like in a month. >> Um, I think I I haven't felt a difference just because I've always been kind of motivated

084to like do everything. Also, like it doesn't matter like if I get an approaching like I know I'm not like really understanding. Um, I think it's hard, especially like I've heard from other students that are like bad at test taking. It's definitely harder for them because that's their whole grade. Thank you. >> Unless you have a response or >> um I'll just mention that we're approaching at the high school. I believe we're at about 60% of courses have moved to evidence-based grading. So we're in as we enter year three. this is really that um point where we have the majority of courses moving in that direction. So each year students will have more and more courses that are fully EBG implemented. Um I guess I would have one more um follow-up question based on that

085and that um sort of in my basic understanding of it all is that there should be more than just a written test that assesses the students. that there are other assessment opportunities and that you know it's also >> you know for them providing evidence that they understand it in class or whatever else I mean is that is that true or that they would have a portfolio that showed that they had >> so the the framework is based on uh an assessment series that builds like that competency. So if the essential skill is um think of a math skill using mathematical models um modeling with mathematics >> you would have multiple opportunities to demonstrate um mastery and that practice or rehearsal we call them scrimmages. those mirror the game that that summit of assessment um so

086that you're getting multiple rehearsals that mirror the game. And so um that scrimmage really matches the rigor of kind of that what we always called kind of a final, but it's giving students that real time experience in assessment. And then there's um what we call a reperformance windows. So you can reperform that assessment. Um and that's what is mostly on flex Fridays. There are some other teams working on different um assessment windows when students can come in for a reperformance. >> Thank you. >> Anything else? I would just that like >> I think the point is that when you're doing all of those assessments leading up to an assessment, you're giving students information on what they are going to assess with and you're giving them real-time information to say you're not here with this, you're

087not here with this, but you are here with this. So you can focus on the things that you're trying to do. And I think the whole point of that would be to try and reduce the stress so that you don't go into a test and have more stress. I think we're trying to get it to a point where we're reducing the stress for students because they see the assessment again and again and again. Not the same questions obviously, but the rigor of the questions and they're getting constant feedback to say, "You're good at this. You're good at this. We really need to work on this because this is going to hold you back." So then they can focus on that and go into the assessment with, "I know what I've got. Here it is." Done.

088>> Thank you. Thank you. >> I think that takes us to other reports. >> Perfect. Madam chair, trustees, I have an item here. It's more of a visual um that I wanted to share with the board. This really came out of our board retreat last August talking about ways in which we measure student success. So, it's actually a good intro for Megan and Stephen. Um, as you remember, we got into groups. We had some small group discussions around yes, we understand the importance of our state metrics. They are important. They let us know where we are. Um, those are on the right in the dark blue. And on the left, what I have here for you is some additional thinking. Um, and I intentionally labeled this a discussion point because I think what we're always

089trying to do in our schools is trying to reflect what a child knows beyond one metric. So on the left you have a list of things that our district is exploring to some degree. You see evidence-based grading on there. You also have our learner profile skills. There's our seal of bi literacy student demonstrations. I created this for the trustees just to let you know we're we're strongly attacking and trying to determine other ways to show student success in addition to our accountability report cards. Um, and it's not a new conversation in districts, but it is a rich conversation as an educator, as a principal, as a parent to be able to get a report about your child that shows more than one metric. That's our goal. We're trying to show the whole child and move

090our district forward in a way that truly assesses what a student knows versus just that one and done test. So on the left, some people call that more qualitative and on the right more quantitative, but that's not a really good perfect summary. Just trying to kind of paint a picture of what this potential future vision of student measurements could look like. A lot to work out. It's just therefore discussion on moving into the future. I also have attached to this item, we receive our annual accreditation notice. That full accreditation notice is from last year. We get that every year we pass accreditation. That's not for this year. As you know, we have a visit in October. Um coming October 30th and 31st. That's a site visit accreditation which the team is preparing for right now.

091>> Thank you. Madam Chair, um Charlotte Reynolds on behalf of Capital Projects. Um so, um we have quite a few things happening. Um our housing project continues to make great progress. Um uh we had a a site visit uh last week, I think that was, or the week before. Um countertops are going in, cabinetry. I mean things are really looking terrific. Um so that's exciting. I do have Neil Zernon from uh Hoy Architects who is um our kind of point person for our housing project. So if the uh trustees have any questions about housing um uh we can uh we can stand for questions. >> Anybody have any questions about the housing project? >> Just have one comment. >> One comment. Can we get a big beautiful sign put on that saying on time on

092budget? Thank you Teton County for your 1% at work. >> We can certainly do that. There is a um there's a sign on the front of the building in terms of the um the design, you know, what it will look like, but we can certainly take a look at >> thanking the community. >> Thank I think that's a great suggestion, Trusty Scarlet. Thank you >> for the I like the on time and way under budget. way under budget might be a little misrepresent but but banking thanking the community and just I think that's a great idea 1% at work >> um that's a terrific idea uh thank you um summit bathroom um the um we are moving forward with the um design on that um hope to have um a proposal for a design uh

093here in um in the coming weeks to just get that forward moving forward so that then we can get um a permit and um get that uh bathroom um construction done um during some school breaks. Um obviously we can't do construction while school is in session. So um that is moving moving along. Our high school vestibule um we will um we are uh finalizing the contract. We're again using plan one to basically come back to the original design, modifying it um based on what uh was approved um uh through SFD and SFC. Um so that will be uh moving along. Um I know Jeremy Slater is very anxious to keep that moving ahead um so that we have um recognizing it's external to the building so that we can do construction while school is in

094session. Um Dr. Chris asked me to um mention that um we won't quite be breaking ground here in the next uh 30 to 60 days, but that is moving ahead and we'll be um >> he told us upstairs 30 days. >> I know I I clarify wrote it down. >> So that could be on Dr. Press rather than me. >> I like it. Um and then um so if there are no questions on those three projects um our primary update tonight is for our transportation uh facility. Um we have our owners rep Jason Jason Burning here um to um provide a presentation for you and answer any questions that you may have. >> Thank you Jason. >> Thank you. Thank you Charlotte. >> Um good evening madam chair and trustees. Jason with burning project management.

095Um, I resonated with the public speaking comment earlier. I think when I when I was picking the career path to go into, I chose engineering thinking that would keep me out of the public speaking, but there um so no, happy to be here tonight. Um, I've structured um I've sent a monthly report and we have a PowerPoint and that's what's worked in the past with board presentations, but happy to hear feedback. if there's other information you want to hear structure shorter or longer um open for feedback. Um with that I'll go to the next slide. Um I'll start just high level now that we do have a building permit um with what the overall schedule looks like. Um just in quick summary the foundations will be going this summer or sorry this summer this fall.

096um rolling into the uh winter with structural steel. Um looking to have a roof over our head in February, which will pave the way for mechanical, electrical, plumbing systems through the spring, interior finishes and uh site parts, keeping landscaping next summer. And right now, the goal is to have this building up and running for the school season uh for 2026 27. And then uh next fall will be the demolition September through November of the existing facilities. Um next slide, please. and um what we've covered. It's been just a few weeks in August since we've received a building permit. Mobil Orman has mobilized and set up the project site setup. It's always the first couple weeks to work the kinks out, but I think so far so good with the school up and running. Um groundbreaking

097occurred um and we've started with some site demolition. At the bottom, you're looking at a three-week look ahead schedule. We meet weekly with the team and that just shows more of the detailed activities coming up over the next 3 to four weeks. Um you're going to start to see foundation excavation uh this week. In the next few weeks, the concrete crews mobilizing and starting uh foundations. Um next slide, please. Um, from just a a protocol standpoint, we've started weekly project manager meetings where Charlotte and I and the school facilities representative meet weekly to check in on kind of the to-dos and um items that we're tracking um for the project. Our team also meets, the owner, architect, contractor. We track in that meeting public relations, safety, quality, schedule, budget. We track um questions that come

098up. Um there's another thing I was going to mention. I hear lots of acronyms here. We like to use our acronyms. So, I try and write these reports where everybody understands, but please ask if if I use terminology that's not um familiar with you, but RFIs are request requests for information when there's more clarity needed in the design drawings to build off of. And we track those weekly. Um submitts are a big component right now is material procurement. So, almost all materials that go into the project, the builder can't just order off the drawings. They've got to go submit shop drawings, samples, um detailed information on light fixtures. So, every material gets reviewed and approved by the team for order. We have a big push the next two months to getting all the material, those

099submitts reviewed and approved so we can get out ahead of deliveries. We focus on early and long lead times to start. So, electrical gear has been ordered, structural steel shop drawings are done. Rebar shop drawings just got finalized. Um that's that that would be the big push here the next couple months. Um, we've also kicked off our thirdparty testing and inspection from SCG Engineering, set up the protocol for those inspections, who calls them, how they're reported. Um, I'd like to hit on potential risks and issues. You know, early on in the project, I hit on material procurement, weather impact. Obviously, we're coming out of the ground as we're rolling into, you know, winter weather. Um, I always like to say the big milestones is coming out of the ground and the next big milestone is

100putting a roof over your head. Um we're not going in the ground with deep foundations because it's all on the the first level. So there's less significance. We don't know of any car burials that have happened out here. So uh similar like what we ran into at Center for the Arts, but that's that's always a potential burial. >> Yes. Um that goes back to Center for the Arts with the number of cars that were found which yeah for the EPA that holds things up. Um and um yeah, so unknowns of vaccations. So those I'll try and highlight any risks or issues in these med in these meetings and updates. Um next slide please. >> Um for project cost and accounting um we've set up a protocol uh with Linda and at school facilities for reviewing

101and approving invoices. Um all project budgets that you're seeing below all of those are fixed. Those are fixed contracts where as we're tracking the project budget, what is not well, it's fixed is the owner contingency, but the owner contingency is established um for the inevitable unknowns that happen with construction. Um so that that's one that we'll be tracking. You'll see that in a report with a a a contingency log and we always implore at least BPM employers that as soon as we know of an issue has potential cost or schedule that the team raises their hand. it's brought, you know, it's discussed in meetings and we track that as um the project moves along. Um, next slide, please. And then I've just included a few pictures. We'll have more to show obviously in the coming

102months, but there's just a quick rendering of what the building looks like, the first floor plan, and then moving forward. Um, we've got the project sign on the next slide, which I think everybody's seeing coming in and out. um would like to add on time on under budget or ahead of schedule and under budget onto that at the end. Um and then we have just a couple photos of the initial site clearing and demo. There's not a lot there. Um and then our groundbreaking breaking photo. So, thanks to all for uh who came out for that. And we'll also have more opportunities like a topping out and obviously a grand opening um for more PR exposure similar to the grand opening. So, with that, I'll open it up for any questions. >> Are there any

103questions? report. Great. Thank you very much. It was It's fun to be hearing about it. Great. >> All right. Um any other other reports? Um before we go in Oh, let's do public comment and then we'll take a break before we go into action items. Um is there any public comment? Please come up. state your name and um keep it to three minutes, please. >> Hi, I'm Jen Evans. I'm here on behalf of Protect Our Water Jackson Hole. Um I'm here to comment on the Munger sewer line transfer. Um I just want to say thank you all so much for the work you've already done um for this. We really appreciate it. Uh POW GH sees this Mungerline transfer as critical for for water quality um in our valley. Um, and we recognize that the

104work is really being done right now, but we just want to uh state that we see it as very urgent. Um, and we do think there are folks ready uh with money in hand uh lining up to connect um to the sewer line. So, as soon as that transfer happens, uh we're able to decommission some septic systems that none of us want um to continue to be going. Um and so we hope that the process uh continues on as quickly as possible and and thank you for your work on it. >> Thanks. >> Thank you very much. >> Any other public comment? Anything online? All right. Seeing none, we will close public comment. Uh let's take a five minute break and come back at according to that clock 7:35 and um we'll see you in

105a minute. question. >> All right, moving on to actual. Madam Chair, um after our conversation yesterday, um and I think we're all in agreement that um we're not completely satisfied with the national search for proposals we've received. I move we continue that item to a later date. >> Sorry. Second. >> It has been moved and seconded that we continue this item to a later date. Um any discussion? Just so this is based upon the meeting we had on Monday. Um just so I'm clear, we are going to pursue at least looking at other avenues including the Wyoming School Board Association. Is that that was the understanding that was going to be in October? >> Okay. And bring that up and bring something back in October. >> Yeah. >> So we that's that's the plan. >>

106That's the plan. Okay. >> That's that was my plan. They always tell you when you want to interrupt your opposition that you knock things off. >> All right. >> Was that am I your opposition? >> Thought we were on the same side. >> Any other discussion? >> All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Motion carries. All right. Consideration of the Jacksonville High School most cost effective remedy study. >> Drum roll. >> Uh Madame Chair, Charlotte Reynolds, Capital Construction Projects. Um before you is a um the um Jacksonville High School most effective remedy study report. Uh we have um the team at the state construction department um online. Um, Director McComy, administrator, um, Carlson is on, Rob Tanner with MGT, um, the consultant who, uh, led the study is on to present, um, present their report

107uh, for your consideration. If this, as a reminder, if um, the board approves um the, um, report tonight, it will go to the uh, school facilities commission um, at their meeting September 25th. uh for their um their uh action on accepting the report as well. So um and I would like to just quickly take a moment recognize uh Senator Guru for um coming up to be here with us tonight. He was down in Cheyenne yesterday um and drove up today so he could be here with us. So, um, I just wanted to recognize Senator Guru for being here. >> And with that, we'll turn it over to, uh, the schools construction department, um, Director McComy. And, um, hopefully we'll wrap this up quickly. >> Yep. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh again, Dale McComy, uh director

108for the state construction department, and I have uh Shelby Carlson, administrator for school facilities, uh here tonight, as well as, uh Rob Tanner, as mentioned earlier with MGT that's kind of leading the burser study for the department. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over to administrator Carlson. >> Uh good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board. Uh nice to be with you this evening. Um, so our our purpose here tonight is to present the final uh most cost-effective remedy recommendation uh walk through that study um and uh then give you the opportunity to ask questions um that you may have and make sure you got a good clear understanding of the final remedy that's proposed. um per uh performing andor contracting most cost effective remedies is one of the duties of the department

109when there's a determined uh need whether it be condition capacity or in this particular case uh adequacy. Um the purpose of the study is to look at all the potential remedies um and then balance those against the benefits and the cost to determine what what is the best remedy to address those adequacy issues um that the district brought forward. So in June of 23, the board of trustees actually forwarded a letter to uh the director at that time, Jerry Vincent, uh regarding the adequacy issues of Jackson Hole High School. Sure, you're all aware of that. Um and then in 2024 legislative session, there was appropriated $21.8 million uh to construct a remedy um for Jackson Hole High School. And along with that legislation required that the commission adopted the most coste effective remedy. Um and

110so then went before the commission in March of 2024. Uh they gave us approval to move forward with the Mercer study and um and we hired uh MGT at that time and to uh to go through that process and to perform the evaluation for us. So the objectives of the study were to address the identified needs that the district had brought forward, provide a sustainable and long-term solution for the district, uh balance benefits, costs, efficiency, and educational outcomes, um address current and future enrollment needs, and then ensure that the facility can deliver quality educational services. Unless there's any questions for me, I'd like to pass it to Rob Tanner now to uh give you the presentation. Take it away, Rob. >> All right. Good evening. Uh thank you for allowing me to be with you

111again um tonight. Uh I'll have to apologize up front. I am fighting an upper respiratory infection. So if you see me stopping for a drink, uh I I just can't help it. So, I apologize up front. Um, if you if you want to skip down u maybe to uh slide number four, I think uh Shelby kind of took care of the first two there with the why and what. Um the report that you have in front of you is a traditional report um structured with background methodology. uh a bit about the program and the facility overview. Goes into some community demographics, enrollment projections, capacity analysis, um and then looks at the adequacy standards and and and um where uh what the compliance with that looks like and then options for identified deficiencies and then finally

112recommendations. Uh next slide please. Uh, and so as we said in that report structure, uh, you know, starts off a little bit about the the facilities and the amenities, and I'm not going to read this all to you because you know what your facility looks like, but the report does have a little background on the facility. Uh, next slide, please. And then we go into um, uh, enrollment projections. And I know we've had a lot of discussion over um, our time together about enrollment projections. We do use multiple uh models to predict uh enrollment just much like weather forecasters use models different models when they're predicting weather. Um same thing for enrollment projections. We use uh these four particularly average percentage increase linear regression uh cohort survival um and student age of population. Next slide

113please. Um and and from those we uh we we can get to a uh a projection uh and a lot of it's mathematical and uh the projections uh as we've went through this do predict a marginal student enrollment decline in the high school. Um and that's a little bit concerning because we always like to say uh the past is the the best predictor of the future. Um, as you can see, you know, for the previous 10 years, there's been rather steep incline in uh the historical enrollment there at the high school. Uh, but we feel like that some of that is being um offset u by some of the declining enrollment in lower grades that will be metriculating forward over the next 10 years. That being said, the district has argued um uh multiple viable

114points around uh ongoing housing initiatives. you talked about your building construction um tonight. Uh there are uh definitely uh uh multiple work uh initiatives for working uh bringing working folks to Jackson and some affordable housing to Jackson and we're not really 100% sure how that's going to impact it um going forward. So, the recommendation does have uh built into it some capacity uh increases to marginalize any u error that might be there. Uh next slide, please. >> Madam Chair, >> um Mr. Turner, um thank you for being here tonight being so under the weather. Really appreciate it. And thank you everybody at the state construction department as well. I I just want to put on the record about the enrollment. Um I believe I received a note uh in our board packet that high school

115started with 890 students and looking at 2025. You show 853 students. So just a little off by 37. So just want to have that on the record for us. >> That's all. All right, next slide, please. Um, then we looked at capacity. The state, the the uh the district and and MT went um through uh the building room by room to make sure that we had accurate uses for buildings. Uh and so we did a reanalysis of uh the capacity. building that room by room, you come up with a restricted capacity of 1,177. Um there are there's a scheduling factor because you have to take into account for things like well first off not every room is going to be full all the time but you have the teacher planning periods and those types of

116things as well. So the state recommends 85% efficiency factor. So when applying that the functional capacity becomes just uh one one right over a thousand. So 101 is the official um functional capacity. Then we moved on next slide please. Then we moved on to the standards. Um the one thing that I would say and you've probably heard me say this before is not every standard in the in the state's adequacy standard is a uh enumerated. For example, it doesn't say how many labs you must have for science or how many music classrooms and stuff like that. there's a maximum um school facility square footage um that has is set and then it enables local districts to prioritize which educational programs are more important to them. That being said, there are specific compliance issues around fire

117environmental codes um building uh you know existing building code, international building code, ADA requirements. Um there are some site requirements around parking, buses, uh drainage, exterior lighting, um and then also um security features, access control, surveillance, perimeter barriers that secure vestible um that we've that we've pref previous previously was approved. Um those types of things. Next slide, please. And based on that analysis, we came up with a a a few um deficiencies or some deficiencies identified. First is that safety and security, that security vestible, and that's already been addressed in a previous supplemental Mercer, but I felt like it was still part of this, so I wanted to um keep it in here. Um and then the dining cafeter is 861. Um and then uh you know even at 1001 is the functional capacity. It's

118778 is even lower than that. So definitely a concern. Uh cafeteria point of sale is it's probably big enough but it's very awkwardly designed. There's multiple uh entrances and exits all exits all at the same place. And so there's really no flow or um metriculation that is efficient. Um and obviously that impacts uh students uh time because they only have a certain amount of time to eat. So um that was an issue. Um and then in inadequate CTE facilities uh space was limited but specifically specialized design space was limited. Many of the CTE programs were in general classrooms. The culinary program is in a dining space um and just other CTE uh just other nonCTE areas were being used for CTE classrooms. Next slide, please. And so there's a plethora of different um ideas and

119remedies in the report. Um some some decent, some not so good, some um good. You there's just you kind of have to name all names when you go through there and then figure out what is uh the most cost effective, but also is the is the best uh for educational purposes. Um so some of the individual ones was uh you know expanding um possibly expanding the CTE program for culinary into the weight room, the physical education room. Uh repurposing the auxiliary gym into CTM uh CTE uh space. Um both of those would require you know building a new auxiliary gym and u aerobic physical education weight training spaces. We also definitely need to look at student dining. So, student dining, uh, building on an option for that or or possibly even an option for a

120kitchen, um, to help out there with some of the individual options. Um, that totaled when all said and done about almost $24.5 million. And so then we thought, well, let's look at this more comprehensively. Next slide, please. And um we looked at having a comprehensive remedy where we are looking for um you know a construction I know you talked heard someone talk about it at the meeting earlier but you know some construction that's outside of the school now which would be helpful like on uh you're talking about it no no disruption with the vestable because it was outside the current perimeter. So we looked at you know something like that something that could just be a total add-on. Uh we looked at approximately 20,000 square feet. I think that total number will be decided during

121the design phase. Um but it definitely would should have at least 1500 extra space for student dining. A new kitchen um where then you can move the uh culinary space into the old kitchen u would not you would not have to move the weight room or the uh aerobics room the auxiliary gym could stay. Um and adding that 13,000 square feet of CTE uh instruction as well. Um and then some of the things that were on your letter to um to the state about adequacy issues that weren't specifically considered deficiencies under the adequacy standards were metriculation routes because the hallways um were were were smaller, you know, crowded um or and there the restroom. Not that you didn't have enough restrooms, but they weren't really in the right places. Um, so some of those things

122can also be helped out with this because of that extra hallway there on the back side on the south side that could connect those wings, those educational wings. So then now there's two ways to travel. There's two metriculation routes for students hopefully to cut down on some of that travel time, adding some restrooms um as well. And then if you want to build, you know, if you build a Bronx Center or something like that, having a point or maybe some of those restrooms, those hallways could serve double duty um with that uh construction project as well. Next slide. And so with that, you know, the recommendation of the report is that comprehensive option. Um feel like that it supports the enrollment um growth. We're estimating somewhere between another 100 to 150 capacity uh growth based

123on those new CTE classrooms and the opening of opening up to normal classes of some of those spaces that CTE CTE is now in. Um so that helps with some of that enrollment um uh issues uh but streamlines the food services and enhances the overall learning environment of of the building. And next slide. So the conclusion is there there are some facility uh um inadequacies uh that need to be remedied. The post solutions are aimed to improve the facilities uh and uh you know support continue to support that enrollment growth um and also uh have compliance with the adequacy standards. And with that, I'll take any questions you might have and a drink. >> Any questions for Mr. Turn Tanner? Sorry. >> That's okay. I long as I'm called to dinner, I don't care what

124I'm calling. >> Uh Trusty Bosch. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um Rob Jerry Bosch here. Um thank you for being here and waiting. Um, in the report itself, the first report I and I think you noted this already was there's about four, I think I count 14 bullet point items of inadequacy issues that were detailed by the district and um, we've been discussing these now for some time. I guess my question to you is the proposed uh option remedy option right now. Which one of these are we not going to address at this time? >> Uh well, that's a good question. Uh I feel like we definitely are addressing uh I have to look at every single bullet point because I can't remember them off top of my head, but um I feel like we're

125obviously addressing the CTE issues, the the dining issues. Um, I think we're somewhat addressing some of the the the travel because for the narrow hallways with having the second uh um way around um and then like again adding the restrooms I think as well will um will help um with some of that time travel um as well. Um I believe there was some issues around uh pull out spaces um and and and uh lab spaces. We didn't really like I said before there's not a an enumerated amount for those things um in the adequacy. So we couldn't find that they were deficient necessarily. Um, and then when we looked at some of the other high schools in the state, um, Jackson High School wasn't, um, uh, it wasn't out of the realm of, um, a

126matter of fact, it was right in the mix of of what we saw in other schools, unlike the CTE programs. CTE programs were um, much lower space at at Jackson Hall High School compared to other schools in the state. Um, so, uh, there was also one about not having, um, uh, the ADA buttons on locker rooms, and that that is not a, while that's nice, it's not a, um, an ADA requirement um, for schools. We had a discussion about that. It's more of getting in and out of the building. Um, it's not an accessibility requirement for the locker rooms because other rooms don't have that as well. um it's more around bathrooms having a turn radius um in them. Um but again, even bathrooms don't have to have the the handicap buttons, just the front

127doors, uh the elevators, those type of things. And I'm probably missing some, but that's the ones I can remember right off the top of my head. >> Yes. >> So Rob, the the issue we had raised was that the gymnasiums were too or the locker rooms rather were too small. Um, the new plan is not going to address locker rooms at all with regards to the additional space, right? >> Uh, there is not a standard for locker rooms. Matter of fact, the standards um, and Shelby can help me out if I'm wrong, but I think it says that they're optional actually. >> That's correct. >> Under the standards. >> Okay. >> Um, we also had on here LA assembly space. Uh, that will not be addressed by this. Correct. >> No. Uh again, I think

128there was a little more than 1,200 seats in the gym. Um and and and that being said, it's not something that's addressed in the the the standards as well. There's not a seat count for for the gymnasium. >> And with your plan, the CTE space would be moved inside out of the current configuration which is in, you know, a detached building, right? >> Correct. Okay. And will there be rooms in there for the art classrooms and stuff of that nature as well? >> Is that your thought at least? >> Uh I don't know about art. Um that was more of specifically CTE classrooms. There's other classes in the um school that are being used for CTE that hopefully maybe will have room for some some art. Um, but I will say that the design of

129that is really not, you know, that's something you can design into the project. I think that you just need to have at least 13,000 square feet of CTE space to bring you up to what is comparable with other with other schools in the state. >> Okay. >> Another question. Trust Gry. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, first of all, I just really wanted to thank uh Dell and Shelby for finding this. This is a really good solution. I I might not This has been a long, very long process. Um, and I might not agree with how we got here, but I like how we got here. I like what we finally got in the end here. I I never was real excited about the renovating auxiliary gym. It never made sense to me.

130Um, this makes a lot more sense that this design makes sense. uh what you're tackling makes sense. You know, expanding the dining area, expanding the kitchen, um moving those CTE classrooms in there, um adding our culinary program on there. Uh I I just like and I like where you put it. I think that I can remember walking this pike five, six years ago and uh this walking exactly where this is going to be and I remember us talking about that would be a good location and and we've gone through so many different iterations but um I appreciate Dell and Shelby finding a solution for us and u and I I'll certainly be supporting this comprehensive option. I I think u this is a good option for us and I'm just happy to see us moving

131forward. Other comments or questions of me? >> Seeing none, thank you very much for your uh thorough reporting. >> Madame Chair, this is uh Director McComy. If I could just make a few comments also. >> Uh please. >> Uh yeah, thank you very much. Uh you know, I think again this was a long process. uh we looked at a lot of different uh items and and so a couple of uh things that I heard in our previous meetings that you liked and some of the things that you disagreed with. Uh again going back to some earlier comments on addressing capacity and future capacity and growth. Uh I I think one of the things that where we settle with this I think that will be helpful uh should uh you know you see the growth uh

132through the through the housing and development that's going to occur uh in the next years uh within the valley itself. Uh, as Rob mentioned earlier that depending on how what you do with some of the classes, and I think that comes back to some of your CTE classes that were mentioned earlier, whether it's art or whatever, if they end up in the design that you all prefer uh under that CTE space, that will free up uh anywhere from four to six more classrooms, which would be 100 to 150 students uh for future growth. If you're at uh say the 900 to 180 90 uh but you're at 900 using math that gives you another 100. So now we're at about uh students and then through this you know we talked uh at great length uh

133over the last year of doing something in the auxiliary gym and the auxiliary gym uh is about 8,000 square foot. That's one of the things that I did hear from the board was the availability of maybe doing something with that second floor uh and and being able to address fairly quickly uh any future growth also. And so now that auxiliary gym is still there uh and so there's 16,000 square foot. If you just kind of run the rough numbers of 30% of that would be for circulation, maybe an elevator, uh restrooms over in that area. uh that would leave you probably somewhere of 12 more classrooms at uh 25 students per classroom. So again, you're looking at about another 300 student population that could be added. So in total perhaps uh from where you're sit

134today, another 500 students. Uh and so one of the things that has changed uh in how we look at population growth from when I was director previously uh we really kind of approached that threshold of 100% capacity for before the the state the department really reacted to that and and now that change is that we're forward looking eight years into the future and every year we will assess how many students you have in your school. So if we do see that trend starting up uh in the future, I want to assure the board that we'll have the ability to react to that in a timely manner so that you're not over capacity and be able to react to that. And again, I think that auxiliary gym is is perhaps a good option to add general

135classrooms in the future. And with that, because we would uh have that potential to add some general classrooms at that location, that would uh you know, I think the onus would be on the state to replace that uh auxiliary gym and and that could be added on to whatever you come up with for your design on the Bron Achievement Center in the future. So, I think there's still the flexibility. Uh, as Rob mentioned earlier, uh, you know, there's a number of different ways to predict this and and certainly we do hear the concerns from the board and and I want you all to to know that uh I will express that to the commission uh if you vote in favor of this and that I want to make sure it's on the record uh that

136you know there's that you expressed uh concerns over that and that it it it is laid out in the in the in more depth in the greater Mercer study uh uh and also in this uh abbreviated report you saw tonight. But I want to assure you that we'll make sure that's in the commission record so that uh if Dale's gone, Shelby's gone, perhaps uh members of the board are no longer on the board in the future as to when that might occur that there is a written record of that and and uh maybe an option on how to proceed. And again, that's something that we look at every year through our annual meetings with the school district and we'll keep an eye on that uh population growth. Uh one of the other things that I

137think uh we heard uh from the board was uh in your current CTE program uh the safety concerns. Yes, we could add cameras. There's different things we can door do with doors and and locking devices, but you still had your students exiting the building and going over that facility. And uh the way it's set up now uh in this proposal is that all that uh CTE space would be internal to your to your high school. And so that uh that safety concern of exiting going back and forth going across uh driveways as as well as getting over to that building uh you know I I feel you know this certainly addresses that concern that we heard. Also uh one of the other things it's not directly related here and I can't make any promises. Uh

138I'm sure Senator Grrew can promise you that, but uh I can. But that is uh you know, you were concerned with the extra space and uh the ability to uh uh have the major maintenance dollars for that. Uh we are current currently working with the select committee on school facilities and actually they're drafting a bill uh that would uh change that uh how we pay for major maintenance dollars uh on the excess square footage. Currently it's set at 115% of your total uh space uh in the district. And that uh bill would move that to 135%. And if that bill goes through and and this last year it actually passed. So it is you're seeing extra major maintenance dollars come to your district based on that 135 as of July 1st of this year uh

139for this one year. But it was only for one year only. The new bill would make that permanent uh if it passes the legislature. That would we did some calculations for your high school and then for your district overall and that would really uh you would not have any excess square footage in your district. And so all of your square footage in the district with this addition added uh would uh be eligible for major maintenance. So I just wanted to make that clear. Again it's another concern that is being addressed. again, it's going to be in the hands of the legislature to pass that. So, I really don't uh uh you know, have the ability to say this is what's going to happen for sure, but again, uh I just wanted you to be aware

140of that. So, because that was another concern. So, again, uh if you have any questions for Shelby and myself, we'd certainly uh be willing to discuss that also. >> Thank you very much. Any more questions? Thank you very much for being here. This is very exciting news. Um and we can go on to um we've had the separate questions. Any community input? >> Seeing none, I will call for a motion. Madam Chair, I move to approve the Jacksonville High School most cost effective study as presented. >> Second. >> Any more discussion? Madam >> Chair, >> yes. >> Um, it's been a long call. Thanks to Chairman Gingry for initiating this project back in the day. Uh, Dell, thank you for coming out of retirement and, uh, helping us get this over the line. Shelby, Rob,

141thank you. uh Governor Gordon and Randall Luthie for having a couple of exciting meetings with with us. Um Senator Landon from Casper and Representative Brown who were co-chairs and real champions of this project. Dr. Chapman, Director Reynolds, all the former trustees and current trustees for the thousands of hours getting here. And most importantly, uh, Representative Byron and Senator Karoo for being our advocates in Cheyenne. Thank you so much. >> I would second all that. >> Anything else? >> Uh, Trusty Me and Trusty Bosch. Um I may have uh missed this in the mix but um wasn't there some increase in the cost as a result of the time that this has taken inflation and all that good stuff uh that exceeded uh approximately 21 million we're talking about. >> Madam Chair, this is Director McCy.

142Yes, that I think that's an important issue. So the as was shown in the presentation the Mercer drives out at approximately 21 million uh as uh administrator Carlson indicated there was 21.8 million uh available. We also have about 1.3 million uh that was came through that same legislation for uh 6% for unanticipated funds for the project. But we are going to have to ask for additional funding for this to take into account inflation. So our next steps uh for the department uh is between now and the commission meeting uh we're going to anticipate 6% inflation for the next two years. So that's roughly about uh uh between 2 uh 3 2.5 nan. Uh we're also going to run it through our building calculator uh that we use for all of our construction projects and look

143at uh additional soft costs that may be in there. Uh if you go into the larger Mercer uh Rob has that broken down in a lot of cases, but we just want to double check and see where that's at. And so uh kind of timing for this is the commission meeting as was mentioned earlier is uh at the end of September and then so the commission's already approved its budget for the year. So we'll get this approved through the commission. Then the next step is uh uh the governor's budget has already had to been submitted uh the last day of August. So, we've submitted our overall budget for the state construction department as a whole, but our opportunity to insert this into the governor's budget will be uh September 30th. We have uh our annual

144meeting with the governor on the budget. We'll brief uh his staff. Uh certainly uh if this motion passes, we'll get a hold of them and and visit with them uh give them what the additional costs and then be able to put that into the governor's budget. And I think that's very important because then uh at the end of October we also have the budget meeting with the select committee on school facilities. That budget meeting uh with school facilities generally we like to try and have an alignment. It doesn't always happen, but the budget request coming out of the governor's office uh that comes from the commission to the governor and then what's coming out of the governor's office in alignment with that with school uh with this select committee on school facilities. So, we'll also

145ask that that uh additional funding for this project be included in that and then that would be in their bill as well as the governor's budget to be presented to the uh joint appropriations committee and then the legislature as a whole for that additional funding. Uh I think based on my conversations with the governor staff, he certainly wants to see this uh project move forward. I know our commission is wholeheartedly behind it uh to move it forward. So I think we're in a good place with getting the recommendations there and uh we'll we'll certainly uh look forward to our discussion with the select committee. Uh and certainly welcome uh anybody from your board or your uh district staff to attend that meeting also for any questions that might come up. Uh but we can certainly

146you know legislation says do the Mercer. This is the Mercer. we're done. If we get the approval, I think we're at that step to justify that additional uh compensation. >> Thank you, Director McComy. I appreciate that. >> Go. >> Um, in looking at this, um, I want to thank the state for addressing the two issues that were extremely important to me and that is safety with a vestibule and then getting kids out of that. um detached building um that has basically no security and you have kids walking back and forth all the time. That was my number one priority coming on to the board and I'm glad that it's being addressed and I'm uh very thankful that we're going to at least be able to start that soon. Um especially the main vestibule area. Um

147I am I have to admit I I think we still have a lack of assembly space. We have locker room issues um that are not being addressed. But that all said the pros clearly outweigh the negatives at this point in time. So, um, at least from my perspective, getting good CTE space, getting a new cath or lunchroom capacity, reorganizing some of that space so that we have actually a space where kids can learn and cook and do all those things, dealing with the restroom issues and hopefully science labs and art classrooms. As much as I love sports um and activities and would like to see that done, I think uh I will be supporting this because we got to get this moving. >> Thank you. Anybody else? All right, we have a motion and a

148second. All in favor? >> Opposed? >> Motion carries. Madam Chair, thank you very much. >> Thank you. Good night. >> Good night. >> Thank you to everybody who had something to do with this. >> All right, we'll move on to consideration of second read on policy DA uh fiscal management and goals. Is there Do we have >> Thank you, Madam Chair. We have revised this policy per the conversations from the last two board meetings as well as some feedback during >> uh any madam chair >> there was quite a conversation and recalibration regarding um reserves. >> Yes. And I think a little explanation um needs >> because the legislature, correct me if I'm wrong, >> sets these reserve limits >> not understanding that it's a checkbook issue as they called it and it dawned on

149them >> setting these because of the cash flow >> which um in the energy counties >> they are distributed monthly. their their royalties and tax in our county. We're only given the money twice a year. So, we do run. Correct. Um the there was a healthy conversation around cash reserves, the 15% limit versus the 30% limit. uh the legisl legislators on the committee asked a lot of questions about the people who from the people who testified about what's the right number, what's the right amount. And uh one of the one of the topics that came up was, you know, we call this cash reserves because it's the fund balance in the general fund, but really it's not a reserve account. It is the cash flow that keeps the district going between revenue cycles. In our

150county, we get most of our revenue in uh May and June and November and December because that's because we're driven by property tax and that's when the property taxes are due in our community. There's a lot of other communities that are depending on mineral payments and they end up getting a lot of their money either um on a more regular basis or um in different months than what we get. And so the conversation was really for each district. Uh it's going to be a different um a different need. And then also depending on if you're an entitlement district or recapture district and many times the entitlement districts are more able to cash flow their operations because they're getting monthly payments from WDE because of the entitlement. The recapture districts often qualify for the cash flow

151loan and that um application for that loan is submitted in August. Last year we submitted for that loan and we received just over $10 million and then it's due back in December. This year we submitted for the same loan and we only qualified for a million. And that's because our cash reserves or our fund balance in fund 10 was higher this year than it was last year. And then they base your qualifications for the cash flow loan on what your revenues were last year from July through December. Uh so when we for example we just received our August payment from the Teton County Treasurer and the biggest payment that we get in August from the treasurer are the um the motor vehicle fees and we get that on both the 25 ms and the six

152mills and it's about $5 million that we receive. Um Treasurer Smiths did give me a heads up with the new license plates. A lot of um community members are paying for their license plates for two years. It was a a change that they made to the way people could actually pay for the registration on their cars. So, next year we'll actually see we we're expecting to see that motor vehicle fee decrease probably by 25%. And that'll be an important conversation we have with WDE when we submit that WDE 106 report for the cash flow loan next year. Uh, all of that to be said, the cash reserves right now in most districts are being used to cash flow the district in operations um when they're not receiving the revenues. >> Thank you. So, I guess

153my my point of going through that is with this proposed policy change, will we violate this policy? Could we v violate this policy in just operations? >> No. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? >> May I ask a question? >> Yes. >> Um, Madame Chair Kristen, aren't there only three recapture districts now? >> I think there's more. I'd have to check. I I it it goes back and forth. just depending on um each district. Lincoln County actually might be right on the cusp. We were on the cusp for a while where one year we were entitled and the next year we were recapture. I think Lincoln County with their property values is starting to approach if not already a recapture district obviously. And then um I think there's a couple on the eastern side of

154the state. >> Uh I I can look at that up and check it for you. >> That's all right. I I I just think that there are not that many districts who are in the situation we are. That's the point. >> That is a true statement. >> Trusty need I I don't We are the only property taxdriven recapture district. Everything else is memories. >> Right. I understand that. >> Anything else? >> Thank you. Any public comment? Seeing none, I would entertain a motion. >> Madam Chair, I move to approve second read on policy DA, fiscal management and goals as presented. >> Second. >> There's been a motion and a second. Do we have any more discussion? All in favor? I >> opposed. Motion passes. Consideration of second read on JLC, student health services and requirements

155and JLCC communicable infectious diseases. Um, uh, no changes were recommended. These are still the original drafts that I shared with you last time I was up here. This one was just cleaning up some typos that we're not quite sure why those were there and just making that flow better. And then the second one was just eliminating that last statement about um testing for STDs. >> Thank you. Any questions? Seeing none, any p public comment? Uh, I would can I would I would take a motion. >> Madam Chair, I move to approve the second read on policies JLC, Student Health Services and Requirements and JLCC, Unicable Infectious Diseases, as presented. >> Any more discussion? >> Did you take a second? >> Second. >> Oh, sorry. Um, any more discussion? All in favor? I >> I >>

156opposed. Motion passes. Consideration of personnel request as discussed in executive session. >> Madam Chair, I move to approve the variance request from an employee as discussed in executive session. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion passes. Um and there we do not um consideration of litig litigation as discussed in executive session um with no further um action is needed. >> Then we'll move on to the consent agenda. We will >> Yes. Oh, wait. I was going to say uh with the last item, we are still investigating things. Uh, moving on to the consent agenda. >> Madam Chair, I move the consent agenda. A, approval of staffing considerations and reports. B, approval of the J register. C, approval of the executive meeting minutes of August 13, 2025.

157D, approval of the board of education regular meeting minutes of August 13, 2025. E, approval of Jackson Elementary parent teacher organization pumpkin sale fundraiser. F. Approval of special education related service providers contract and purchase order. G. Approval of Teton behav behavior ala elementary school counseling contract and purchase order. H. Approval of board member travel. I approval of consent agenda. >> Is there a second? Second. >> All in favor? >> I I opposed. Motion passes. >> Communication to the board. Uh there are seven letters as presented in the agenda. Any communications from the board? Seeing none future agendum agenda items scheduling topics. >> Madam chairman. >> Yes. Um, one of the things I've neglected in fiscal management committee as Jerry brought up, Trusty Bosch brought up um liaison's role on committees when we've been assigned liaison

158um versus being members of um the Boseies that were also assigned. Um just whether or not we have voting um should have voting authority when we're serving as a liaison. specifically are we really is under the fund for public education. Um are we voting members? Should we be voting members? Um and I think it's a it's a worthy thing maybe not to get into tonight but to ponder and also think about the other boards that we are leaison too and whether or not we should be voting on their action items. Um that's very different than where we're actual voting members on the >> BOSEIS. Trusty Bosch. >> Uh just to add some uh information to that. I did investigate look into that with regards to the fund for public education and the bylaws were amended

159several years ago. So the board members are actually voting board members um on that board. only the superintendent who attends is a exeicio member and not a voting member but that raised an issue and I had contacted uh span gend to just ask um and I think understanding when there may be a conflict of interest is going to be something that um at least I'm going to be conscious of and Reed and I will discuss that further but I think that looking at all of those situations like Boseis to find out exactly what our obligations are, but then also when do we have to recuse ourselves? Um, either from voting here or voting on that word, whatever it is. So, I think that that is a good subject to get some clarification on moving forward.

160Um, I'd at least like to know since V and I are the two that are sitting there on that board at least for right now. So, >> well, everybody else here has served there. >> Yeah. So, and it's >> asked us and we tell you that we changed the B. >> Yeah. Um, it came up and various information, but I'm hoping to get clarification on all of that. Um, specifically the conflicts of interest issue. >> Thank you, >> Madam Chair. Um very happy about our vote and the presentation with the Mercer study. We still have Bron Achievement Center as was last proposed. We have money coming from our community that was presented a package of goods with what has been proposed here. What does that mean? Um that we how do we move forward? What

161will it look like? What where's I think we got to reopen that conversation. So, there we go. >> Yeah, >> it's out there. >> Please. >> Um, we should also have that conversation about that strategic plan >> um that was approved in >> The land plan in 20 21, >> December 21, >> right? Um, and just rep prioritize that list, see where we are, where we're going. Um, gota >> the nice thing about the Bron Achievement Center, we have some time because we don't have the money. So, no money's been taken in. It's not scheduled for us to even get money till 2027. So, we have some time to think that one through. >> Great. Thank you, >> Madam Madam Chair. I'd also like us to have a a recommitment to uh chain of command

162in our district and have some discussion about that. >> Goody. >> Um for the next uh board minute, I'd like to have a discussion uh on this RFQ for the consultant on the health insurance. Sure. I just wanted to thank all the board members of TRA. That was amazing. I mean, what a I don't know how much what the presence of other school districts was, but that's got to be impressive when so many trustees show up and I heard such favorable comments about um Superintendent Chris and and Kristen and all their great comments they made. So um it appears to have gone over very successfully. So >> our numbers overwhelmed them. >> We are >> in a good way. >> Agreed. >> All right. Any other topics? Scheduling. Review of meeting. >> It was a

163good meeting. >> Oh my. uh advanced planning. >> Uh if there's a challenge there under that that you can >> uh pay attention to uh adjournment. >> Yes. >> Read. >> Oh, I move. Oh, we >> second. >> All in favor? All right. >> Thank you everybody.