001I like to call this meeting to order. Let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I need a roll call. Madam Chair, we have a quorum. Consider adoption or make changes in the board agenda. Do we have anything? We do. Um we will add F under number eight action items and we will add I under information items. Madam Chair, I would move we adopt the agenda as amended. Second. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor? I. I. Moving on, we'll look the consent agenda, approval of the minutes of the March 10th, 2026 meeting. Consider payment of bills including light pays and pre-authorization of
002payroll, insurance, utilities, officials, and automatic payments. Madam Chair, I would move that we accept the consent agenda as as presented. Second that. >> [clears throat] >> Any questions or comments? Okay. All those in favor? I. I. Anybody opposed? We will move on to our round table. The we have a a trip to brief from Kimber Tower and All Northwest Choir. All Northwest, sorry. Hey. Can I stand right here? Right there at the microphone. >> Right here. Perfect. All right. So, I brought with us Miss Austin Chitwood who >> I was the student who attended. And so, just for the record, it's her birthday today. Oh, happy birthday. Happy birthday. We won't sing to you. Thank you. Thank you so much. No. >> [laughter] >> We we figured you could outdo us. She can't. She's amazing.
003So, Austin here, if it's okay with all of you, will fill you in on the All-State Choir she attended and All Northwest. Perfect. So, in mid to late January, we attended the All-State Choir in Cody, Wyoming. We worked with the amazing clinician Dr. Redding. We did a six-song set and it is an extremely transformative experience for everyone in choir and I highly recommend everyone's students, if you have family members, to audition if they enjoy music. It is extremely extremely beneficial. Um and then in early March, we attended All Northwest Choir. In years past, we've had about an average of 12 students who attended. Unfortunately, this year due to some issues and changes of employment, I was the only student who auditioned and attended, but it was still an extremely extremely beneficial um event and I
004loved working with my clinician. We stayed there for four days. We had three intense days of work and a concert on the third day evening. All right. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you and thanks for representing us. Thank you. Nice work. Yes, well done. Okay, next we have Willow Creek Elementary, Principal Robin Johnson. Good evening, members of the board. Um I am forever a teacher at heart, so every teacher's dream is to stand up in front of a large group of adults, let me tell you. So, [laughter] you will have to bear with me. Um pretty excited and proud to talk to you about Willow Creek Elementary. Uh this year, our school developed a new school mission. We didn't have a school mission, we had a student motto,
005but we didn't have a school mission. So, we worked to develop that school mission and our school mission is to empower stronger minds, stronger hearts, and stronger communities. So, I want to talk to you a little bit tonight about the glows and the grows around that school mission. You will notice that you have a handout that is a two-pager. So, um on the second page, I want to talk to you with the uh beginning with that first bullet point. One of our glows at Willow Creek this year is that we worked to develop consistent expectations around academics and behavior. Our elementary principals work together to develop a behavior matrix based off of the middle school model so that we would know when a given situation arises, what do we do? And how are we consistent
006with that? So, that's been very very powerful in having consistent expectations for us. We also, when behavior does arise, reteach the students the appropriate behavior and so that maintains those consistent expectations. With regard to academics, we've used long-term planning days so that we can take a standard, break it down, figure out how we're going to teach it and what resources we're going to use, how are we going to test it, and everybody utilizes the long-term planning days in the same regard. So, that has been consistent across the board. We've also done classroom observations, collegial rounds where I get to go in and watch another teacher, that other teacher gets to come and watch my teaching and give feedback. Each of us give feedback. We've even videotaped one another. Even with, "Hey, can I come and
007videotape you in 10 minutes?" Sure, come on in. >> [laughter] >> And then watch that as a staff to make sure that we are aligned with our expectations academically. So, that's been a definite glow for us. Um next bullet point, culture and climate. Willow Creek is a pretty positive place to be. And our teachers model every single day friendliness, laughter, we have fun. We model how to treat one another. We model supporting one another and being helpful. And that carries over to the kids, so that serves as a good model for them for how to treat one another, how to treat other kids, and how to treat adults. So, that is another positive for us. That's another another glow for us. It's a pretty positive place to be. Your third bullet down, collaboration. We have
008worked hard to collaborate as first day first through third campus and then a Boost Kinder through fourth campus and now a Boost Kinder through fifth campus. And so, that collaboration is ever evolving, but we work hard to collaborate and work well as a team. Just an example of that, we have WyTOPP summative assessments coming up. You know all about that. Those are hard tests and they are long tests. And so, our third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers got together with our instructional coaches and said, "Hey, let's develop effort tickets so that kids can earn effort tickets for when they work hard on the modulars and the summative assessments." We took that idea from the middle school. So, they worked collaboratively to develop effort tickets and the kids have never been more excited to take the
009WyTOPP in their lives. So, um that was an a a great example of collaboration. Um we've also had a vertical um alignment conversations and collaborated around our phonics screener and our math screener and those tell us phonics holes that the kids have as well as foundational math holes that the kids have. So, another great example of collaboration. Our WIN data teams, WIN stands for what I need and our data teams are us getting together as teachers and analyzing the data to see, "Okay, the kid went to a WIN group time. They we test them, we check to see what skills are they missing. We have them be taught in a group. Um then we check in with them and see if they've mastered the skill and then they move on to the next group. So,
010um that is we're filling those foundational holes very very quickly and that's another glow for us. Kindness Day, Kindness Day is a big deal at Willow Creek. It is um where our entire school goes and completes service projects. They've gone to this year they went to the fire department, the police department, um the um Sweetwater Garden. They make notes, motivational notes or little cards to put in the library the books at the library so that someone who pulls a book off the shelf finds a nice surprise and that note makes their day. Um so, Kindness Day is something that is a definitely a glow for us um and works to build stronger communities. Um I can't take any credit for Kindness Day. Our PE teacher organized that entire event for our school and um the
011only complaint that the students have is that they can't do more service projects in one day. They absolutely love it. So, uh definitely a glow for Willow Creek. Our Wolf Pack Ethics, this is our example of character building and we teach lessons to the kids based on things like fairness or optimism or um courage or heart. And just to give you an example of the heart lesson, kids will take a heart-shaped piece of paper, they write down things that they value, things that matter to them. And they talk through what it means when somebody uses unkind words to you or unkind actions. So, they crumple that heart paper up and they throw it in the middle. And then middle of a circle. Then they talk about what it means to use kind words and kind
012actions to people. They grab someone else's heart paper and they try to flatten it out because kind words help us to erase some of the negativity. But they notice that it never truly goes back to being perfectly flat. Those scars are still there. So, we talk a lot about the importance of heart and kind words and kind actions toward people. That's definitely a glow at Willow Creek. Um our our playground grant our parent group wrote a grant and we received a large amount of money. You guys know you saw that from our wreck. We are very excited about that. So, we have a playground that was designed for first through third grade. We're going to be able to add a playground for our littles and and be able to share that with our Willow Creek
013students as well as the community and we're very excited about that. Lunchroom volunteers, that has been a godsend for us at Willow Creek. We had to combine lunches um because we didn't want kids eating at 9:00 in the morning and we didn't want kids eating at 2:30. So, we combined lunches to be able to fit everybody in at one certain time, but that's a lot of kids in the lunchroom with uh very limited adults. And so, we reached out and had people that were willing to um volunteer to serve for lunch duty and for recess duty. A shout-out to trustee Ray and her husband uh who volunteer every single week for us in our lunchroom duty. Um that has helped to build strong relationships with our kids um and they have they have benefited greatly
014from it. So, the volunteers don't know, but I've already signed them up again for next year. So, [laughter] Mr. Ray will be fine, I'm sure. Um parent training, we have provided parent training for our our uh parents. They ask us um what do I do when my kid is learning to read? How do I help my kid when they are learning to read? So, we've provided parent training for them to know what it is that they can say and do when their child is attempting to decode a book. They've also asked us, "What is with the new math that you are teaching? What is this new math that you are doing?" It's actually not new math, but we've brought them in and taught them about the way that we teach math now, which is so
015much better than the way that we all learned. And once they go through that parent training, they say to us, "Man, I wish I would have known this way to learn math and I wish that I had been taught this way." So, building stronger communities. Supportive parents and families, we have received support from our parents and our families in so many ways. The night before school started with students, I realized that I had more than 120 kids that were going to be picked up at Ryan Park. So, I called Superintendent Iba freaking out a little bit cuz that's a lot that's a small park and that's a lot of people. So, thanks to Superintendent Iba and to Ed McPherson, I developed another plan and changed dismissal procedures the night before school started. Our parents were
016flexible. They were supportive. They were very kind. In the midst of all the construction, I've had to change dismissal procedures on them and then go back because they didn't close uh Major Avenue and Riverview Road. And that whole time our parents have been flexible, supportive, and kind. We had an issue with having so many cold lunches delivered all during the morning time. And that was hard on us to be able to connect lunches with the students during the morning. Talked to our parents about it. Supportive, flexible, and kind. So, that's definitely a glow for Willow Creek. Now, I want to talk to you about some of the grows. You saw that consistent expectations for behavior and academics was on the glow. It's also a grow. We start out the year with a bang and we're
017consistent in everything, but then when you add more to your plate as the year goes on and you get tired and more tired and more tired, it is hard to maintain those consistent expectations. And so, that's a continual work in progress for us, a continual grow. >> [snorts] >> Culture and climate, Willow Creek is a very positive place to be, but according to our WIN culture survey, we have some issues with climate and culture that we need to work on. So, I have tasked my leadership team and my teacher teams to analyze that data, look at it and say, "How do we bridge these gaps that we have and how do we go forward?" That is a grow for us. Explicit tier one planning and instruction. So, we have a newly adopted at the elementary
018level, all elementary schools will have a newly adopted lesson plan format. And it will outline specific things that the teachers need to plan for and teach in order for kids to get the lesson the first time, not the second time, not the third time, but for them to master it the first time. And that's going to require a lot of planning on their part, a lot of planning on their part. So, that's a grow for us. We have to continue to work to have kids understand what we're teaching the first time. Boost through kinder, boost kinder through fifth vertical alignment. Like I said before, we were a first through third school, then a boost kinder through fourth, now a boost kinder through fifth. So, we continually have to work on what does that vertical alignment
019look like? How does that transition from kinder to first to second to third to fourth to fifth? What does that look like? >> [snorts] >> And that's going to continue to happen, that alignment with grade level conversations among like first to second, second to third, third to fourth, all of the grade levels. It's also going to um continue to we're also going to be able to continue to have that vertical alignment through our classroom observations and our our collegial rounds and videotape lessons even when they don't want to be videotaped. That will help us in that alignment. >> [snorts] >> Teaching students to problem solve situations and have restorative conversations, we do a good job of that and the kids have to understand the other person's point of view and able to in order to
020be able to have empathy for them and recognize both sides of the story and their part in that. The challenging part is to be able to find the time when you're teaching a group of 20 kids and then you've got to find time to have a restorative conversation, that's difficult to do. So, we rely on each other for that, but that's continually something that is a challenge for us is to find that time. Realizing our strengths in multiple areas, we have a tendency to find a comfort zone and want to stay in it. All of us do it. Um I never thought I would be standing before you today as principal of Willow Creek Elementary. So, but we all know that we have strengths outside of those comfort zones. And I have staff members who
021are realizing those strengths. They're realizing their strengths uh with regard to AI. They're realizing their strengths in serving on a committee that they never served on before and that they bring value to that committee. They're realizing their strengths in serving on a different grade level and the value that they bring to that grade level. Um or just to teach using a new approach. I have a brand new uh fifth grade teacher. She wasn't afraid to go out on a limb and try teaching fractions, division of fractions using Play-Doh. I went into her classroom. All of the kids were doing 2/3 divided by 3/4 and cutting it with Play-Doh. Everybody had their own little Play-Doh, their own little tool, and man, they understood that concept. Teaching using a new approach outside of her comfort zone. So,
022that's something that we continually work to grow at is recognizing that we have strengths outside of our comfort zone. Those are all grows that we'll continue to work on in achieving this mission to empower stronger minds, stronger hearts, and stronger communities. That's all I have for you this evening. Do you have any questions for me? I just want to say thank you for all you do for kids and your staff. Thank you. Anybody have any questions? Nope, I was just going to say thanks for the great information and keep up the good work. We will. We definitely will. Thank you. Nice to >> Thank you. Nice to see you growing in your job. Thanks for signing me back up for lunch duty. I need to work on my math. I will. >> [laughter] >> Hey,
023moving on. We have Chad Fallon with a 2027 Costa Rica EF tour. Did I say your right your last name right? >> Yes, Fallon. Yep, thank you. Um hello everyone. Uh first of all, I just wanted to say thank you for uh granting us kind of um permission to go on our um 2025 trip. And um as we came back after the summer or it was during the summer and um everyone kind of evaporated, so we didn't make it to uh report to you our uh what happened during the trip, but it was a great experience to go down and back and experience the culture there um with 15 students and they um really just shined as Riverton High School students and they always make me proud when we go. Um and then last summer
024you guys were considering um changing the policy for that trip or for foreign trips and um then have kind of rewritten that and I wanted to thank you for that cuz I was afraid that we wouldn't be able to continue that trip. So, thank you for reconsidering um how the language of that policy was and um I feel confident that we can go forward and that's why I'm here today is to ask your permission and um uh uh Miss Iba, your permission to go and start exploring a trip for uh right after school's out in June of 2027. Um so, but after my last trip, um I took a class um kind of the follow-up with uh EF Tours and my class was um called Leading Global Discussions. And so, it kind of helped solidify
025the reason why I want to travel with students. And so, I thought I'd written a paper, so I kind of did um just a summary notes for you guys, but I wanted to let you know kind of why >> [clears throat] >> um I want to travel with students. So, everything is global. Whether we like it or not, the components for an iPhone are sourced from more than 30 countries and my Ford F-150 is sourced from about 25 countries. From supply chains to tech and the fresh fruits and vegetables at the grocery store, we're more global than ever. The United Nations created sustainable development goals to address important global issues and given the interconnected nature of the world, global competencies have never been more important. The ability to navigate and act on global issues like
026ending poverty, protecting the planet, increasing prosperity for all, um require a global mindset >> [clears throat] >> that isn't easily developed. And the concept of global competence is gaining traction year after year. And as a teacher, I have the unique position to instill behaviors, skills, and values in my students to address global challenges. Global competence is rooted in investigating the world beyond and drives a student to understand local and global connections. The more we see ourselves in others, the more we see that we are the same. And because we're so connected, having a global mindset helps [snorts] us see that your problems are my problems, too. Here in Wyoming, our students often have a limited world view outside of Wyoming. >> [clears throat] >> That's the key reason I work to take students out of
027the country. I want them to get the bigger picture, but I also want them to observe how alike we are. If my students can see them as they see themselves, then the world is smaller. And then my students have opportunity to see themselves as part of the bigger picture. Finding what's common helps to demonstrate our similarities. Students need a global mindset now more than ever. In a paper by the Aurora Institute Institute, global competence is viewed as more than simply knowing about another culture. It's exhibiting skills, critical thinking, rational optimism, and innovation um that uh endure. In addition, the values of self-reflection, humility, and finding comfort in unfamiliar situations are highlighted. These are powerful tools in the global toolbox, whether at home or abroad. Self-reflection promotes empathy and humility and being okay with the unfamiliar
028um provides a level of resilience to make one brave in the face of the unknown. Traveling with students provides an opportunity to develop and exercise these skills. These are all part of the um the uh um profile of a graduate. I hope you probably recognize some of those. Foreign travel promotes investigating the world and highlights the need to pose good questions to better understand problems. And it requires suspending assumptions and judgments that it might impair where an investigation might go. >> [clears throat] >> Global problems will only be solved by thinking beyond oneself and understanding other perspectives. And finally, communicating ideas is a common theme among um global competence skills. Traveling with students places them in new situations and encourages active listening, empathy, and engaging in civil discourse in new environments. Students begin to see
029beyond themselves. My students are frequently guilty of tunnel vision with regard to a global perspective, but then so am I. In a world where we become where we are becoming increasingly polarized, active listening and empathy might be the best solution. Placing ourselves outside of our comfort zone requires an empathetic response. The more we see ourselves in others, the more we see that we are the same. I want to travel with students so they see themselves in the world and they're inspired to make it a better place. So, it was fun to kind of come around to why do I do this? It's not just about going to see neat stuff in Costa Rica, although that's a huge part of it. But it really is part of watching students grow in a way that, you know,
030they can start to to uh gain these skills here and then they take them to an unfamiliar place and they get to exercise them there and see, "Hey, I'm part of this much bigger picture." So, with that, I wanted to say thank you for all the times that you have granted us um your uh permission to go and also wanted to ask, you know, and formally ask if we could go and start um having a uh talk with my EF Tours group and uh about going in June of 2027. So, that's um why I'm here and then also to ask uh answer any questions that you might have. I just am appreciative of the opportunity that you give these young people to be able to expand their horizons outside of here. Because it's just it
031makes them see a bigger picture. Makes them appreciate sometimes, too, where they are. Yep. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Anybody else? Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, too. What a great opportunity. Thank you. Okay, moving on. Board members, let's start over there. Jayda, you got anything for us? I don't have anything, Terry. Thank you, though. Okay, Colton. Nothing tonight. Thank you. Okay, we'll be back to Jody in a minute. Carl. Bruce? Me, either. Are you kidding me? You guys >> [laughter] >> I don't have much to say. Our Northwest BOCES uh meeting will be tomorrow night and we did move to assembly through Northwest BOCES, so that's a nice um feature that we're not getting 14 emails with the board packet all spread out. So, that's nice and uh thank you for
032coming tonight, Miss Johnson and Mr. Fallon. So, it's nice to hear what's going on and I appreciate all that you do for our kids. I don't have anything this evening. Oh, but my granddaughter's going to be one tomorrow. That is something. >> [laughter] >> Still aren't walking, but we're doing a a butt scoot crawl. >> [laughter] >> It's the cutest thing. So, kind of a boot scoot and boogie? Yeah, kind of. Um I just want to say I went to state gymnastics this last weekend and got to see several of our folks from Riverton uh and and I just it's just been so fun to watch them excel through the year cuz we we've got to watch them at all the the uh tournaments that they've had. And uh ended up that the next level
033gymnastics took third in the state as a team. So, that that's actually we're used to doing a little better than that, but the Cheyenne schools had some just rock stars that were there. It was just really a fun fun meet to watch. And I, as well, just want to say thanks for thanks for coming. Uh Robin, you have just been a a huge positive for at least three of my grandkids now and I know lots of other kids, so thank you so very much for that. You do a great job. Mr. Cantrell. I just wanted to say that our debate team did really good in state. Congratulate the to them. And then a a couple of girls come up the other day and they were so proud that they beat Green River at soccer. Oh,
034yeah, they should be. Because it's been a long time since that's happened. Yeah, they should be. So, they were really happy. So, and that's about it. Okay, over on to Jody. I just would echo what what you had to say. Thank you. Well, Miss Fallon left, but thank him for coming and sharing that and um Robin for all you do for kids. I I've gotten to see a little bit more of an up close view of that. And as you're going through some of your your things here about I kindness day and and work or wolf pack ethics, I see that. I see that in the lunch room, but I also see it in our community. I attended a fundraiser [clears throat] for the hockey this weekend and um uh during the during that time,
035a a Willow Creek student happened to come up to me and she had they had this area where they decorated pucks and different things like that. And she came up and she handed me a puck and and on the puck was a sticker and around it was a bracelet. And she said, "This is for you." because of everything you do. And I and and I I it struck me because I looked at the the puck and on top of the puck and um I used to wear a bracelet until I lost it a year ago. I think it's probably somewhere on a hillside up at the cabin, but I wore it for 20 years and it's it has my favorite quote on it, which is "Be the change you wish to see in the world."
036And she handed me a puck and there's no way this little girl knows this about me. And on the front of that puck it said be the change. So thank you for what you do with kids because it's being reflected in a lot of places that you don't often get to see that. So that's all I've got. Oh gosh, I almost need a tissue for that one. That was a good Tear jerker. All right, Christina, you got anything for us? It's going to be quick. We received a comprehensive literacy state development grant CLSD and to support our literacy efforts going forward with the legislation. We Jody and I will get more details on Thursday so that we can share out what that looks like, but I just want to let you know that we just
037found out Friday last week that we got it. So we're all super excited and looking forward to see what that is going to do to help our district with literacy. So Great. >> That's it. Allie, you have anything for us? No other than sorry, I had to excuse myself because I forgot my credit card at Mount Everest last night. So I had to drive over and get it. And they had it. So Everything's good. And >> [laughter] >> if you haven't eaten there, I highly recommend it. It's delicious. It is good. So I apologize for having to excuse myself, but I'm back. Okay. Thank you. All right, we're back to you Jody. You have anything? So I would like [clears throat] to try to schedule a work session with the board for all of the
038things that we have Okay. I think the round The round table just isn't going to be sufficient for us to get some of the work done that we need to based on the new legislation and the recalibration and some of those things. So we'd like to do a preliminary one if you can next week. Ideally, I know I know I'm sorry. What day? Um Monday would be ideal because Colton is going to be going to a conference on not a conference a committee meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. So he wouldn't be able to be here for two for two for a Tuesday. >> What time? What time would you all be available if we could do a And we would plan to keep it no more than an hour. Just Six. Six, yeah. Six o'clock
039Monday? Yeah, that'll work. Okay. No, for the whole committee piece. That'd be the 30th. Yes. Yep, that'll be the 30th. And then and we'll have just Okay, I'm sorry. I've shared I shared quite a bit with you too already. Um so Excuse me, what day did you say that was? Monday? Monday. Monday and you said at six, right? >> Six, the 30th. And it's very preliminary information in in budget planning around the new legislative directives. So Okay. >> Just to get your feel on it to see if we're moving in the right direction. Could we could we go at 5:30? For me? Good to know. Okay, six will work. I'll make it work. You're not going to be here. Not at 5:30. Oh, but at six. Oh, we'll make it work. Okay. Yeah. Well, I
040mean there'll be no business coming from it so if everybody's there. Perfect. I'm sorry I can't. No, it's okay. And I It was the week following I could, but not that not next week. Well But that's okay. I we got to get it done. We may yes, we're probably going to have to do several. So this is just a very introductory to give you time to think and process. So other than that, I did go to the Northwest superintendents meeting this morning and shared some of the information that we've been working on together and they were very appreciative of our insights with that. We've met with Lloyd Garrison, talked with Senator Salazar Representative Larson really appreciated the spreadsheet that we put together jointly. I started it and it was a mess, but Colton cleaned it
041up and made it make sense so somebody besides me could read it. I had numbers all over the place. I knew where they were. I knew what it meant, >> [laughter] >> Colton had it make sense for the rest of the world. So thank you Colton. >> [laughter] >> I I don't know how he did it to be honest. It is. It's Those are the some of the things that we'll be sharing with you um next week. Anything else? That's all I have. Okay, at this time it's visitors or delegations. This is one opportunity for public comment or to address the board of trustees regarding action items on the agenda. Does anybody want to say anything? Okay. We'll be moving on. This time we're going to be talking about the public calendars from RHS and
042kindergarten through eighth grade and Frontier. Okay, so We provided you the calendars and a list of the differences between the two calendars at the last board meeting. Of the process the elementary principals went through. They gathered staff input and had opportunities for parents to give feedback because we thought it might be a little bit difficult on families to have a different schedule than the high school students. The the feedback was positive for the most part. They understood the impacts of having a substitute in the classroom is more impactful than to their students than having less or having more teacher time outside of the classroom without a substitute. So we're confident coming forward with these schedules and if anybody is in the public audience that would like to ask questions or comment, that's the point of
043the public comment. And if you have questions for me or Robin graciously said that she would answer any questions if you had any and Christina was in the meetings as well. So um For the foremost part. The what? For most part we're happy, but we're the Oh, the for most part. Well, I didn't memorize the comments. They did say that it could potentially cause hardships, but they understood that the positives outweigh the negatives of it. So and >> what was that for? For the for the K8 schedule being a little bit different Okay. um than the high school schedule. So um If you would like to look at all at the comments, um They they just were >> Staff. Yeah, no these are from parents and staff. So your teachers you all met with them,
044correct? Yes, and if I could just speak a little bit about that. Here I am again up here which I don't even know. Oh, you love it. Yes, [laughter] but at the elementary level we took a lot of time and thought through this. Right now what is happening is your teachers are going to yellow sheet days and that just is where they take a look at the upcoming units that they are teaching and they work as a whole district and figure out a plan for teaching that takes them all day. The sub plans, if they leave good sub plans, takes them five hours or six hours to make those sub plans. And then those kids experience a sub that day. If they have long-term planning where they work in their school and they talk about
045okay, what are we going to do to teach this standard? And those long-term planning days I have been a part of them for years and there is no better way to get on the same page and figure out the best possible way to teach those standards. They take all day. They take a standard, they break it down and say what skills and concepts do we need to have the kids master to meet this standard. What order should we teach it in? Let's make a sequence of that. What tests are we going to give? How long will it take to you to teach all of this? What materials should we use? Is it enough? Do we need other materials? Where should we go find that? Let's go find those. It takes them forever all day long
046just to do reading, writing and phonics or math or science. So again, five hours for sub plans for those days if they do a good job with their sub plans which they do. That's another day where you are having subs and you cannot leave the same lesson plans for a sub that you would if you were introducing a new concept. It takes you a while. So putting these extra days in the calendar is going to eliminate those so many days of having a sub. That means teachers get to be in front of their kids teaching and that's what parents were very grateful for. They said so many days that my kid because they have to be at yellow sheet days and they have to have that time to do long-term planning. There is no other
047eight hour or seven hour chunk of time for them to get together as teachers to long-term plan around the next standards that are coming up. So yes, parents did have concerns about the calendars being separate, but they were far more concerned about these number of days that teachers have to be out of the classroom and it would essentially eliminate that for long-term planning and for yellow sheet days and those are two big times each month that they get pulled out. Thank you for the explanation. Any other questions? Perspective. Yeah, and so the main concerns were child care. Um parents having to miss work and we're going to partner with Boys and Girls Club and then we've been talking about some of our paraprofessionals and how we could use paraprofessionals potentially to provide some relief for
048that. Um so we're not going to leave people hanging hanging 100% you know, we'll do our best to help with that issue. The other issue we see right now is that we have some half days and we have a lot of kids that are missing school on those half days. So we made those into full days without kids and that's going to give us teacher work time as opposed to having to save everything you were going to teach on Friday and then either teach it on Friday and reteach it on Monday or save it for Monday because you have so many kids that are out. Okay. Okay, that's good to know. Is there anything else anybody wants to ask or No. I don't feel like >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much.
049Thanks Robin. Thanks Robin. Okay, at this time we will move into an executive session for personnel. We have to have a motion motion. Second. Okay. Anybody have any questions or comments? All those in favor? I. I. All those in favor? I. >> I. Approval of the minutes of the March 24th, 2026 executive session. Madam Chair, I would move that we approve the minutes from the executive session. Second. Any discussion? Comments? All those in favor? I. So moved. Let's move on to action items. Consider an administrative recommendation to approve an out-of-state travel request. Madam Chair, I would move that we approve the Riverton High School speech and debate team to travel to Richmond, Virginia in June 2026 for the National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament as per policy. Second second that. Any questions or comments?
050All those in favor? I. I. Consider an administrative recommendation to approve Frontier Academy early graduation requests. Madam Chair, I would move to approve the Frontier Academy early graduation requests for Tanner Carver and Marcus Gray. Second. Any questions or comments? Okay, all those in favor? I. Anybody opposed? Okay. Moving on, consider an administrative recommendation to accept resignations. Madam Chair, I would move that we accept the resignation of Kelsey Gorgeous as a Riverton Middle School Assistant Girl Eighth Grade Girls Basketball Coach effective March 3rd, 2026. Annette Ben Thorton as Riverton High School ELA/Language or Theater Teacher and Rebecca Brothers as a Riverton High School Social Studies Teacher, both effective May 22nd, 2026. Second. Any comments or questions? I'd like to thank Ms. Ben Thorton for her years of guidance of our students. She will be missed. Yes,
051she will. She will. Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay, moving on. Consider an administrative recommendation to offer contracts to certified and licensed professional staff for the 26-27 school year. Madam Chair, I would move to offer contracts for the 26-20-2026-2027 school year to certified and licensed professional staff as listed on the 2026-2027 contact list document in executive content. Second. Any questions or comments? All those in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay, moving on. Consider an administrative recommendation to offer contracts. Any I need to read this next part. Interview teams are recommending the board offer contracts to the following. Okay. Okay. Madam Chair, I would move to offer contract to Jordan Christiansen as a Riverton High School Social Studies Teacher, Blaine Christiansen as a Rendezvous Elementary School SPED Teacher, Charles Palmer as a Riverton
052High School Computer Science Teacher, Brady Eliason as a Riverton Middle School Girls Basketball Coach, Assistant Girls Basketball Coach, Betsy Belken as a Rendezvous Elementary School SPED Teacher, all for the 2026-2027 school year. Second. Any questions or comments? All those in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay, moving on. We'll consider an administrative recommendation to accept a resignation. Madam Chair, I would move that the board accept the resignation of Michael Bosner as the Riverton High School Girls Head Basketball Coach effective immediately. Second. Any questions or comments? All those in favor? Aye. I just want to say I thought he did a great job this year. I thought he was wonderful with the girls and did a good job, so we're going to thank him for that. Sorry. No, that's okay. All those in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay,
053now we'll move on to information items. Boys and Girls Club Sixth Annual Awards and Recognition Breakfast on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026. The breakfast is served at 6:30 a.m. Program begins at 7:00 a.m. at the Fremont Center in Riverton. Board members, please notify Jayda if you plan to attend. Notification of Fremont County BOCES fund funds of up to $14,000 to be used for the Fremont County School District 25 Technology Internship Program. Notifications of 10-day drops, you can see executive session or executive content, sorry. Stipend agreement which has been violated and moved to an expulsion. You can look at executive content. Job description, elementary teacher, computer science library specialist. Save the date. Frontier Academy graduation is Monday, June 8th, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. at the Frontier Academy. Certified staff changes, transfers, Sarah Witzel to a Riverton High
054School ELA Teacher, Nicholas Fenton to a Willow Creek Elementary PE Teacher, both effective for the 2026-2027 school year. Classified staff changes, resignations, Riverton Middle School Para Heather Hallowell effective March 11th, 2026, Willow Creek Food Service Worker Christina Dodson effective March 16th, 2026, Aspen Aspen Elementary Para Cheryl Taylor effective March 20, 2026, RHS Secretary Katherine LaDuke effective May 9th, 2026. Jayda, how's our enrollment? Uh 71 students difference from last Okay. Classified staff changes, rescind resignation of Willow Creek Food Service Worker Christina Dodson, resignations from Rendezvous Elementary Para Taylor Coogler. I think it's Taylor-Ray Coogler, sorry. Effective March 20, 2026, Aspen Elementary Para Katrina Paredes effective May 22nd, 2026. Second. >> [clears throat] >> All those in favor? Aye. Aye. We'll be back. No. Oh, we stay here.