School Board Live Stream

001call um this meeting to order. And I would like to this is the first time I've done this. He's running a little late. Okay, let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can I have a roll call, please? Madam Chair, we have a quorum. Do we have any uh adoptions or changes to the board agenda? We do not. Madam Chair, I would move we adopt the agenda as presented. Second. All those in favor? I I Let's look at the consent agenda. I just go through this. Yeah, just read. Okay. Approve of the minutes of the April 8th, 2025 board meeting attached. Consider payment of bills including late

002pays and pre-authorization of payroll, insurance, utilities and officials, and automatic payments. Madam chair, I would move we adopt the consent agenda as presented. Second. All those in favor? I. Let's go to the round table. Looks like we have graduation ready. What do I need to do next? Oh, let's stand. Sorry. [Music] Sorry. Just Carrie, can I shut this? Can I shut this real quick? Superintendent IBA, Mrs. Mills, trustees, uh, guests this evening, and graduates. I am Nicole Showning. I'm the social worker at Frontier Academy, and I am honored to introduce both of our graduates to you this evening. Our first graduate is Joseph Lane Grover. I have had the privilege of knowing Lane since his days at Rendezvous, and um, it has just been delight and a pure joy to me uh to become reacquainted

003with my former students who are approaching adulthood. You can probably imagine the growth that I had the opportunity to witness as um and if I had to identify a theme for graduation tonight for both of our graduates, it is just that growth. In the past year and a half, Lane has matured and began charting a course for his future. His passions lie in anthropology, archaeology, and paleontology. Lane loves nothing more than a campfire and being outside, carving stones and foraging. Lane is our resident survivalist at Frontier and an all-around fact guy. He knows every piece of trivia that one could need to know. If I happen to be stuck in the woods with any of our students, I would pray that I was stuck with Lane because he would make sure I survived. I am

004hopeful that he will find his way into a post-secary setting after securing employment and saving some money for his future. I am pleased to introduce the board this evening to Mr. Joseph Lane Grover. Greetings board members, frontier staff, fellow graduate, and superintendent Iba. For those of you who don't know me, I am Joseph A. a lane Grover, but I go for Lane for simplicity. In my time of at Frontier, I have made friends, grown as a person, and finally found help for my future. Without Frontier, my life would be a wreck. I was in a dark place coming from high school, and I was unmotivated for my future. Frontier helped me find the light at the end of the tunnel and has given me a push into my future. It was also taught me social

005skills that I lacked in my old self. I used to be harsh and uncaring for the world and the people around me, often causing conflict just for my amusement. But now, thanks to the friends I have made at Frontier, I have relearned compassion and patience. For those who knew me two years ago, I'm sure you can see how much I've grown and matured as a person. Frontier has also given me the motivation to follow my passions in life. After Frontier, I'm currently wait that this is outdated. Uh I'm going to find a job and I will use that money uh to go to college and pursue my dream of being a paleontologist. I have always had a passion for the natural worlds and the secrets that yet to be discovered and I am so excited

006to play that small part in those discoveries. Frontier has rekindled that fire and passion inside me and I cannot think thank the program and the people there enough. I was told to write something about a positive experience or anecdote about my time at Frontier. This task was harder than I expected it to be. Not because I had I haven't had any good experiences. It's because I've had so many great things happen there that I can't just choose one story to tell. Even within my first month of attending, I knew that I belonged there. One of my first random things that I did, I was wear a full suit for a day and go to the college to pick up chicks. Needless to say, it did not work out. But just those days and those little

007fun things that are almost a daily occurrence at the school is what makes it so special. There's never a dull or unexciting moment. I need to acknowledge the people that have brought me here and helped me in so many ways. Miss Edgington, Mr. Ziggler, Dr. Iba, Miss Stan, Mr. Taylor, and Miss Shoing. The f and all the friends that I have made and most importantly my family who puts up with me, which is quite the feat. Thank you board members for giving me this opportunity to speak and to tell a little bit about myself. And one last thanks to Frontier for giving me the best opportunity and giving me hope for the future. We learned that that was called peacocking that day that Lane wore his suit to the college. Never heard that before. It

008was pretty cool. But it didn't go so well for you. Dang it. All right. Our next graduate this evening is Miss Aurora Pate. I met Aurora two years ago when I mentioned that growth is our theme for graduation. Uh Aurora is certainly no exception. The young, apprehensive, and shy student that I met in August of 2023 has grown into a more confident, focused, and prepared young adult. Two years ago, young Aurora didn't visualize herself where she is right now. She lacked confidence, motivation, and vision. She is here tonight because she turned a tremendous corner and took charge of her education. She got out of her own way. Aurora stopped making excuses and she showed up. Her attendance improved as did her desire to complete school. Aurora has been our resident cheerleader at Frontier. She has

009decorated our school. Any holiday that comes up, she is the go-to girl for decorations. And she knows that this opportunity to attend Frontier has been a privilege, and she seeks to promote an atmosphere of inclusivity and acceptance. She is kind and welcoming to every student. And Aurora is looking forward to continuing to grow and has a couple of short-term goals that she is really focused on. It is my privilege and honor to present to you our second graduate tonight, Miss Aurora Pate. Good evening board members, um, superintendent, Frontier staff and family and friends. My name is Aurora Lee Pate. I attended two high schools before attending Frontier, neither of which worked for me. I was behind and not confident in my abilities. Slowly over time, the staff at Frontier helped me, each one in their

010own way. They taught me valuable things to carry throughout my life, and I appreciate them deeply. The environment in Frontier was safe and secure, a place for me to grow. Through our connection circles, I made new friends. We're like family now. My fondest memory here at Frontier is the lockins around Halloween. One of the activities we would play is hide and seek in the dark. For two years, I was the last to be found. I had so much fun enjoying the games with the students and staff. After graduating, I want to further my education by by attending CWC and pursuing cosmetology in hopes of becoming a licensed esthetician. I plan to help many people with their skin troubles and more. Thank you, Frontier staff, for being amazing at your jobs. And I want to specifically

011say thank you to Miss Rihanna, Miss Shaing, and Miss Stanley for pushing me to work so hard and helping me when I was low. Thank you board members for giving me this opportunity at Frontier. I appreciate it and I worked so hard to be here today and I'm thrilled to see what the future holds for me. Yep. So board members, board chair, it's with pleasure that I present these students, each of whom have met the standards required to be a graduate of Frontier Academy High School in Fremont County 25 as they receive their diploma. Congratulations. Congratulations. Well done. Congratulations. If you all want to come up and take pictures up front here, we'll get out of the way. Oh, yeah. Move your tassel to the other side. Yeah, I know. It's nice for pictures when

012you have in the picture. You ain't done yet. [Music] Swing out small one. There you go. Are you serious? Congratulations already. She did. She did. Yeah. [Music] I think so. I'm gonna start sending you a text every day on Tuesday. Monday. It's okay. Yeah. You wanted me to have a slam dunk, didn't you? No. It's okay. Not quite ready for this. No. When it's my turn, I'll be fine. Rack board's getting me broken. We had twice as many people that one night without meeting. I sent that to that lady. Yeah, we really because that came last Thursday. We've already handled it all. Oh, really? Yeah. I handled it through Jeremy last Friday. I think we handled it. So, now we're going to have a presentation from Miss Thornley um about present science primary resource curriculum.

013Is that correct? We're back in. Okay, we'll just wait a couple minutes. Yeah, use your big boy. Okay, Miss Thornley, would you like to come up and tell us about present science primary resource curriculum? Yes. I even brought my own little have to remember to put the the uh the USB back in. All right. So, yes, I'm Yvon Thornley and an instructional coach um and uh currently or recently put into a title one specialist position that Thank you. you approved I believe the last board meeting along with Carrie Oer Gray um and Amber Williams who was not able to be here this evening. Um we are presenting information for you uh to adopt a primary resource for science for grades three through five for Aspen um Willow and so we present our information. We want

014to make sure that we uh share with you and thank the teachers um who since November went along in this process with us. Um they were the committee um that held true with us um like I said from November all the way through um to I don't know April 7th. So, it's been a it's been a long uh process, but um without them, we would not be able to present this to you tonight. So, we have for you actually a nice handout um a pamphlet that we shared at we had two parent sessions um and we actually um had one parent, we were so thankful, Kimhart for for uh our evening. But um so we're hoping that our choice, the teacher's choice, bring science alive, um is going to be the choice um that you

015feel can be adopted for third through 5th. Um TCI actually stands for teachers curriculum institute. And so um it's a program or it's a teachers um company. Um and so that's um not the program that we are going to present for you tonight. It's going to be called Bring Science Alive. And so that's that pamphlet just gives you a little insight um to kind of the things that the teachers were looking for um which K's going to talk more about. And so then we've just prepared a very short um very nice but presentation for you. So where are we now in science? We are right now um third through fifth in a in a mirate of resources and so teachers don't have a primary resource a primary tier one resource and so that um with

016along with the Wyom state standards for science and the approved GBC that you approved last year the guaranteed viable curriculum for science for third fourth and fifth um were a driving force for us to ch an actual just primary one resource that would be their first go-to for um for science. So um and along with that, I think I already covered why the need for the change. Um our teachers were looking for um the the the resource that would give them the flexibility. Um if I have 30 minutes, I have 45 minutes. um if I don't teach science every single day, if I'm a third grade teacher um to I'm a fourth grade teacher and I'm going to teach science every single day um because we know we talk at fourth grade in science. So

017Carrie is going to share with you. So when we origin originally got all of the committee members together um we needed some criteria. So we pulled what had been adopted by the district as criteria to use in the adoption of potential programs. And so um in addition to that we had this teachers do a nice to have and a need to have. And they found that there were some things that they couldn't quite classify as either. So they put them as it'd be an added bonus to have and so we went with that and looked at where they matched both the criteria and the teachers needs. Along with that um then we had all all of the vendors there were 10 to begin with uh send materials to our district so that the teachers could

018dive into the materials and look at what they had as far as copy what the program looked like on a student book or the student activity pages. Um, and how easy was it for them to just pick up, look at, assemble, and do. And that is has been a key component recently with all of our new staff and with the reconfiguration even teachers moving to new grade levels and many of them are already learning and um going to put into practice what they've learned this year uh their CKLA for language arts and um our EM2 for math teachers. And so they wanted something simplistic as they got into science. So this process that started um in November was really driven by um that initial thought, but then they made their little check mark. Does this

019program really cover everything that we want it to do or is it just fancy and looks fun? Um from there, um during our weekly meetings, we did that and then from there we narrowed it down. Uh we were trying to narrow it down to three. We got to five. Um so uh yeah, 50% reduction. We felt pretty good. And so we contacted those five vendors and asked if they could please put together for us a onehour presentation so they could walk us through again the materials that would be available hard copy and what the platform digitally looked like. Um both on the teacher side and on the student side. Um while they did that proc while they did that presentation, our teachers were also given a criteria review um document so that they could go

020through and make sure again um that yes, these components were part of it or they were lacking a little bit or they just weren't evident. And so from that we compiled all of the data and looked at the results and TCI's bringing science alive um was the program that met um all of the needs that they were looking at and matched the criteria um that was put forth by the district um earlier. So, um, their voice their voice was there 100% of the time, um, through conversation, through dialogue and questions that they were able to ask the vendors. So, they really knew um, what they wanted out of it and what they were getting. Um, so with a 35 science team vision, then they wanted to be able to implement this program starting August of

0212025. TCI brings science alive. has stated that they will be able to provide some teacher professional development at the beginning of the year um so that teachers can jump right into science um right away and not wait for half of the year to be gone before we are able to implement an adoption and then they will provide professional development throughout the year. So their thought is they will provide a really small snippet of PD and let teachers know where they need to go and have teachers do some exploration on their own and then there's a chat box that's a live chat. So if they have questions through that small process um they can do that and then they will come back and give a more broad um training to them because then teachers will have

022had the little experiences with it and um then hopefully be able to have um better questions, questions that are going to be more meaningful them for them as they continue on with the program. [Music] Um, with that being said, they have asked us to please present TCF bring science alive to you for your approval for science grades three through five. I will kind of a PS um bring science alive does have program available for younger grades as well. so they can support our younger grades if that is a decision that is made by the district later on for them to have a program that would be um a program kids could continue to move through. So if I'm understanding correctly, the driving force behind all this was to find an integrated science program that was

023streamlined and could go through the the third through fifth grades. Correct. Is that what primarily? And it it came from the problem that we really had no resource for all three of those grades to teach science from. So some buildings were using science kits and teaching science once a week. Others were trying uh another program because we just happen to have the books here. So more uniform across all the schools. Yes. Yes. and make sure that we were truly teaching all of the standards that we were guaranteeing would be taught. And you think that this program does all that? The teachers have really dug deep into that and looked at that. They've matched up the standards and um yes, through the conversations with the vendors and the teachers, we believe that that would that will

024happen. And and the teachers really gave their due diligence to what they've been using. And so they've been using HMH science dimensions for many years but not at a consistent across the three, four or five. And so we wanted to make sure that we were looking at what has been used and what are are the possibilities. So we went from nine resources to five to three to one. Um and it was the teacher voice that was most important uh because they're going to be teaching it. So I heard you say integrated. Do you did you being integrated into other content all through through the three the third, fourth, and fifth and through all of the schools. So that so somebody wasn't getting one thing at one school and then if they transferred to the other

025school, they're going, "Well, what the heck?" Yes. And that's where we were at currently is that um our teachers have been peacemailing, if you will, what they could. And after we had talked to teachers and our company, something that came out from the state is that the content performance standards start at the third grade and that your priority standards have to be met at third grade. And we start to realize our teachers have been working over time to build their own stuff and they've been putting it in a system. But what we found is when one teacher is the expert and is building it, they know it really well. when they're handing it off, the other people are trying to pull that together from the brain of somebody else and it wasn't effective. So by

026doing this, it would be consistent with we currently have a math program goes all the way through all of our grade levels. Our ELA, we have several of those go all the way through. This was the one that was large content or that we did not feel we were meeting it consistently in all the buildings. brings so our social science okay I was like that currently that's integrated with our CKLA and our C yes and our CK for how many years the state test has been lacking in any kind of evidence based results from districts on science social science and several other things but we are driven by it So we over the years we've lost science, we've lost social, we've lost so many things and now we're trying to get back to where we

027should be. So I appreciate hearing that we now looking at science as a field that third graders, first graders all should have some feeling for when they get to upper grade. important things. couple kids are going to go to an engineering school this year and science is you know it's important all the things when we were driven by a state test that left it out we know many people talked about it was I appreciate not to be as well and science is not always an easy content area for teachers to to teach if they're not, you know, in that mindset. And so I really appreciate the fact that you've given them the tools that they need to be able to successfully work through that without a tremendous amount of work, it sounds like. So I

028that sounds like a great approach. So is there some flexibility built into this for the teachers? I mean, we've we've heard about various programs, especially in middle school and stuff where they kind of eb and flow based on what the class is interested in and what some part of the class is interested in and stuff like that. Is there going to be some of that? Yes, absolutely. And that's one of the things that the teachers did have on their need. They wanted to be able to um adjust um the pacing or adjust what was taught where um throughout the year and they wanted it to fit within our calendar and not feel like they were rushed to try to get everything in um and then have to cut something out. So, this is a very

029flexible program and um in making some things shorter, they're still getting the content and the necessary information um for learning, maybe not as deep as another topic where they could spend more time on and then just go deeper. Good. Good. It seems to be that teaching kids is much easier if they're interested in it. Yes. So, this this program will make it easier for people to to teach with Fidelity and use the resource with Fidelity. Yes. Okay. Instead of hit and miss. Yes. And then it comes with a kit for for the teachers. Y um so the teachers will all have a kit. We're going to get lucky. It's going to last us for two years without having to get anything because of our class sizes. But um yeah, so so they will have everything

030that they need and it it really is handson but easy to do. Thank you. And I just went back to this slide because the the teachers actually that very top gra uh image the hands-on updated easy prep engaging all of those indicators were really important to them. So that was the first check that we that they that they were looking for in a resource. Still having print, I still want print, but I also want a digital resource that is teacher student accessible, very important and the assessments were very important to them. Jody, so I guess um thank you. Um my my question comes along with kind of what Lynette alluded to with the fidelity. So my my understanding of this is with the three through five program because that science is very important. It's something

031that we've just let laps that this is going to actually make that step into the middle school better for our kids within their science pro program. That fidelity will carry right on into there and then on into the high school. Am I That is one of the goals. Okay. All right. May take a couple years to actually get there, right? um because it'll be a learning curve, but that is the ultimate goal. Yes. And they will have to work um in their yellow sheet days and make some time for science so that they can align that and go through this new program so that they have everything they need. One last thing, I want to thank the teachers who participated in this to help you with that program and and getting the information so that

032they you could make it an an informed decision, an educated decision. So, thank you. You put in a lot of time. I don't know how many ended up having it. It was it was they met after school for at least two hours to 5:30 couple times. We had the nine to Yes. So, um it was really teacher driven in terms of making sure that what we value as a school district and what our community and our kids need and there was a lot of discussion around it. I wasn't involved but keep me updated really well so I was impressed with a lot of time and it meant that they valued it and that many names that many people said this is a priority for us so I think that's amazing our teachers are excited about

033using this excited about making it meaningful our students thank you for leading the charge But it's not really about buying, it's about ownership. And and those teachers on that first slide, they own that decision. And I'm sorry, I think I just started to say thanks for leading the charge. Yep. And for the explanation of the graph, too, as well. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, it is. Any further questions? Thank you very much for giving us your time. Thank you. We appreciate that. Yes. Thank you. And the website said it's carried in middle school and high school. Mr. Taylor, we would like to hear from you if possible. Don't forget your USB thingy. You're welcome. So now you guys get to hear about everything that I get to oversee uh here in the district. So there's

034a lot of things that you might know and might not know about. So please ask questions. You can stop me in the middle. If there's something that I kind of speak in lingo and I just kind of speak too fast, so please make me uh stop and answer those questions for you. um because it's not just uh Frontier and Spur, but there's also some other things that uh Christina and Jod have asked me to take on over the last couple years. So, it's a good opportunity so that you can see where we do have students uh getting the help that they need. It just not might not be in the normal setting that you're used to. Um so, we're going to start with Spur Virtual. Uh currently right now, we have 53 students. That's uh

035kindergarten through uh 12th grade. We will actually have our first uh student graduating from Spur that spent all four years with us. So, that's going to be an awesome achievement for that person as well. Um I'm excited to see what she has in store for her when she graduates. But, it was neat to see that we found a way uh for us to have the flexibility to work with CWC um as well as just with our online programming as well. Um that is slightly higher from last year. We could be probably even higher than that, but um I kind of do have some strict requirements for students. Um it's not to put down certain families and what they need, but if they're not meeting our attendance goals or um rigorous of how they turn in

036assignments, we recommend that they go back to the brick and mortar. Can I verify that all of them have gone back to brick and mortar? No. But I can verify that they've gone back to something. Um, when we started this or when I was asked to take this on, I said that we were not going to be the biggest, but we're starting to get the families now that realize what we're having to offer. Um, and it's starting to we're starting to get that positive feedback. Uh, our Venture Upward is the same uh company that we've used for the last two years. Uh, they're starting to get a better hold of what is expected for the state of Wyoming. And when I've gone down, they're using um a classroom down at the old Ashgro, now the

037Boys and Girls Club for their adventure school um one day a week. So, it's kind of neat to see uh the 20 to 25 kids that I see down there on a weekly basis. Um I believe they're getting ready to do a food truck here in a couple weeks. Um that will be down by um it's across the street. It's like by Ace I I want to say is where it is. So, it's kind of neat to see. Um I I'll get to have uh students in here next week for Wtop testing. So, I will have like 36 kids that are virtually um coming in. So, it's it's neat to see that it's growing, but I also believe that we have the right families in place there. Um the next thing on that is DRC

038and StepUp. Uh DRC is our day reporting center. We've partner partnered with um Fremont County Youth Services and also with other districts. Currently, we only have I think one student from a different district. The rest are from Fremont County 25. Uh they're down at the county building that used to be with us in Tonken. And hopefully within uh the next year or so once we get our new building uh fixed, they're wanting to come back to us. And the reason for that is is they don't have a gym. Uh currently, same as us. Um and then also they want it more of a school setting. Uh they want these kids to have that success. they realize and we're seeing a lot of great success. Um I have a I think this is my second or

039third year with the same staff member down there and he's set forth a very good culture. I've only had to go down there for a few things. Uh so the rest of the time when I go down there is mainly just to connect with the kids. So um I believe the county and um my success coach or my academic coach down there has set up good boundaries. It's just now getting it back into a school setting will be nice to see. Um what's been good on that is we've always had about 8 to 10. Uh what's been interesting with that is uh the county has been flexible and allowed us to take two middle schoolers down there. Each kid has their own kind of different circumstance of why they need to be down there and

040why they can't be with our stepup program, but that can be discussed at a little uh different thing. But um probation officers and the courts asked us and asked the county to do that as well. So I consider that to be quite um successful with step up. Um this is the first year and Jody realized um that we still needed to continue step up. It's for students originally was for students fourth grade to 8th grade. Uh we're again down at the boys and um uh girls school down there. We are using um some days three classrooms, some days four. Um, but this is our first year that we're doing it all on our own. We were partnering with a county entity, but uh we couldn't get consistent help with that. So, we saw that there

041was a need and Jody found a way to fund that. We currently have three staff members down there full-time. But then we also found that the need was not just limited to fourth through 8th grade. We actually have a second grade second grader down there as well. Um, I was a little apprehensive, but the staff was willing to take her on. It's been interesting to see their patience. Uh when that student has had rough days, um they've been able to stay calm, cool, and collected. And we're working on ways to get that student back into the building so that she can be successful. And that's the goal even with DRC, whether they're going back to um RHS or their home school or they're even trying to transition into Frontier. And then um the staff down

042at StepUp is working on transition plans to help those students uh get back. Has it been 100% successful? No. Um but at least um the district is giving opportunities so that we're not uh implementing expulsions or um giving them away so that they can still earn their education even though they weren't behaving correctly in their regular home setting. So again, those are two um great entities. that's high stress, high reward at the same time. And we're grateful because we have good staff down there that willing to have that patient to work with those kids. Um, and then we come to Frontier. Hard to believe that this is uh the end of our 10th year with the district. I've been lucky enough to work with them for six. And as of today with those two students,

043we have 159 graduates. Um, what I look at is is in 10 years we pretty much saved an entire graduation from RHS. Kids that would not have had the opportunity. Um, could they have gone through high set? Yes. But it was an opportunity. Whoever had that vision 10 or more years ago. So, it's kind of neat to see that we've got almost 160 kids, 16 per year. We'll have probably eight more by the end of this year. Um, but we've um 16 graduates every year that we've been able to get in the right direction. Um, my staff sometimes hates me, but we get up to 46 students and that's pushing it in that building that we're in. Uh, once we get to Jackson, could we go a little bit bigger? It's possible, but in the

044same sense, we have our culture that we need to keep intact over there. Um, it's a tight-knit community as you guys can see with the emotion that we had today. But because it's true, it's genuine. No one tries to fake that. Um it just takes time to grow. So is it possible we could get bigger? Yes, because working with Mr. Jasmine at the high school, we're coming up with ideas. Um we're started interviews already today. Um and I know we have I think already 30 kids that are interested. We just don't have that space. Um so how are we going to continue our success especially at Frontier? Um, I think you guys have seen some of the videos that we've sent. We've got our drones um that we've sent you guys. It's kind of neat

045to see those kids do that. Um, uh, Mr. Sorry, I I don't want to say Mr. I call him Ed. Um, so he wanted some pictures of our gym floor. So, we took over um actually one of the basketball players and he's a drone pilot and he went and took pictures of the floors so that um we can send those off to if we get the money to replace our bleachers and gym so that the artists the the consultants can see how to do that from a different and it is it's a different type of view and you can see it above instead of just at 68 feet to be 30 40 feet in the air and see where all the lines are and how intricate it needs to be. Um, so we've got that

046going um with our new staff member that we're hiring because of Mr. Ziggler retiring. She's excited to take over the drones and our RC cars as well. So that's going to continue. Um, but other things that we're doing are still the gaming. Um, we're missing a little bit on the sense of students wanting to do the gaming after school because we do hold an eligibility for that and what we do on that is attendance and how much percent they get done in their normal classes. But again, we have um culinary horiculture which is going on right now. This year we had um people participating in boys basketball, indoor and outdoor track. So it's neat to see that we have um again with Mr. Jasmine, Miss Richmond, and Mr. Miller that we can have those activities

047for those kids to partake in. But then Mr. Jasmine allowed me to ask another question and it took a little bit, but again, he's been very supportive. We were allowed to add some additional classes. So we have students that are in autos and he actually we have two kids in autos and one participated in Skills USA and Casper last week and placed quite high. Then we have multiple kids in arts, band and choir. So the partnership that I've been able to build with Mr. Jasmine um we do have behavior contracts um which is nice. So then he understands if students aren't meeting those expectations we don't wait until the end of the semester. We just say you're done. we say that I'm just glad that we haven't had to do it and I hope we

048don't have to because the kids understand the privilege that the high school's giving us to take those. Um and then another thing that um Miss Shing because she's got the opportunity to now go do her dream up at CWC, she's built a partnership so that um we have kids up there taking um art classes and CNA as well. Um, so she has found a great way for kids to see that there's uh things outside of high school, not only just to help them if they want to go to college, but then to start a career as well. Um, according to our state data that just got I hope I was able to release this. So, um, if I wasn't, you didn't see it. So, um, our four-year graduation rate I thought we were, so I'm

049going with it. Um our four-year graduation rate is um just above 68%. Um where I believe our greatest successes, our five, six, and sevenyear graduation rate is at 80%. Um what is impressive about that, most of our students, uh I think the highest year that we've had was 85% of our kids when we get them are behind. So they don't have a chance to graduate on time. Um so for us to get it up to 68% uh gives a lot of credit to the staff that we have there. Um the areas that we meet or exceed according to the state, excuse me, is our growth and what they look at is um how we're meeting standards. Um how we're testing kids. Um also it's just a matrix of how they grade um alternative high schools.

050But then we meet it for extended graduation rate, our post-secary readiness. Um, which we were at 0% a couple years ago, but then we found a way to integrate it into a class so that the kids didn't feel like they were doing something extra. It's just a part of the class. They work with me. It literally takes them a couple hours and it still constitute parts of their uh careers. Um, we're working on that to get that higher because the way the state looks at it is if a kid comes from RHS or a different school and comes to us and they took a different class at that school, it doesn't constitute for college and career readiness for us. And I said, why are we penalizing the student because they didn't take it with us.

051Um, so we're working on that. I can't say we're going to get a lot of success, but that's okay to have that conversation. Um, other things are credits earned. Um, and then our school climate is always one of our strengths. Um, things that we did not meet, and I'm sorry, I'm not going to hold this and lose sleep about it, is our on-time graduation rate, and I said before with us being at 80 to 85% of our kids behind, I think we do pretty good. Would I want it better? Yes. But first thing is to get them to buy in and then we can get them to store after that. Um, the state department did meet with us and I did talk to Superintendent Denfelder about this because I think it's a poor decision. So,

052and if you guys want to help with this, that'd be great. Um, the state department um met with us and said they want to think about changing u how they score alternative schools because I think there's 29 in the state and a far majority of them and Frontier is one of them that is exceeding or excelling and they don't like that it's not a perfect bell curve and so they want to look at how they're changing the grading system of how they look at if we're successful. And I said, "As long as you have a reason for it instead of because it's not a bell curve, I can get behind it." But they haven't been able to give me and the reason is is they just feel like too many schools are too successful. And

053I'm like, that's not a good enough reason to do it. I say, let's be proud. Awesome. I know. I'm just telling you what the none of us when we left that virtual meeting were happy. So, it was interesting. So, um, I think they kind of heard our voice during that meeting and they tried to get their point across and we'll just say it didn't go over well. Um, so since we're not like a large school, we're always going to have a school improvement plan. Um, so things that we're trying to still work on is uh continuing our partnership with CWC. Um, we had great success this past year. Um, a majority, I would say 90% of our kids um, passed with flying colors up at CWC. I'm crossing my fingers. I could have one or

054two students that are going to do our partnership with JobCore next fall. Um, so I'm excited to see I've got to create a class because the way the kid wants to go is I haven't made those electives yet with us. So I'll be coming to you guys in uh June so I can get that taken care of for that student. Um, we just finished our ACT. If you remember last year we had a little full paw but we got that figured out and all the kids did well. This year they thought I did something incorrectly. Um, and we actually found a mistake in their uh handbook, but anyways, that's so we're good there. Um, and then we always want to have positive communication. So again, we continued our letters going home. So that's on there

055as well. Um, future goals is again still working with JobCore. I know they kind of get a lot of turnover, so it makes it a little bit difficult, but that's where we're kind of looking there. um with our new person um if we get the right person hired for our next counselor or social worker is to continue that CWC. The students really like to get that adulting kind of sense, get that freedom, but also we're there to catch them once they start to realize that they don't have the skills yet and we were able to pick them up and help them there. Um I still have a goal of getting high. I'm talking with other people around the state. uh they see the need elsewhere as well. Instead of just having it at CWC, I

056would like to be a high testing facility. We'll just see if I can get that going. Um and then our biggest thing is is we've got a lot of staff that are choosing to go in different directions, whether that's retirement um or goals or dreams that they have. Um we're going to have quite a bit new staff. So, if we're able to continue that culture as we have some massive changes in staff. So, that is I know that was fast and furious. So, please uh ask any questions that you have or if not I could sit. I also cannot believe it's been 10 years and honestly of all the things we've done while I've been on the board, this is in my top five favorite. I it I didn't used to be a crier and

057I drank Kool-Aid after you listen to these kids and their stories. And I always knew when I worked at the high school, there were a lot of kids who you didn't realize the stories behind their their trials and their tribulations, but it really brings it to light when you hear them talk um at graduation. So, like I said, of all the things we've done, and we've done a lot, this is in my top five favorite is Frontier and the success that you've had. So, nice job. Keep it up. Yeah. I always say that I I spent some time when I worked at high school in Ptoriette and I always say that that was the infant of Frontier because a lot of the kids that we see come through here. I had the value of getting

058to know them in that setting. And I like I said, I I think this is a great program. I think you guys have you knocked you knocked the ball out of the park all the time with these kids just getting them here and coupling with CWC and a CNA program and coming from someone whose sister spent 45 years in the nursing profession and I don't believe that's going to be going away anytime soon. I think that's a wonderful skill and we need those skilled workers and if and if you can bring a young like you did a young man in here tonight who had fully admitted that he was a problem wanted to be a problem just to be a problem and turned him around into maybe reigniting his thought of becoming a paleontologist. That

059is a huge gift not just to that kid but to the to his family, to our community, to all those involved. Um, thanks for what you do. Thank you. I want to commend you and principal Jasmine for working together to get access to those programs at the high school and also with CWC. But that is a big thing to so that the students can see that there are other things you know that you know being an auto mechanic might be the way to move forward or in art or whatever the case may be. And we're diving in a little bit more. He's asked us to open our eyes a little bit to help certain students maybe with some IEP needs. We don't have the staffing uh because we only have seven staff, but how can

060we build their schedule? So, we're working on that to if the kids are able to do to work on their own, but then have them get their let's say a student is needing help in math and getting that additional help to have that done at the high school and then they would come to us to finish their day. So, we're working on that as well. So, it's it's going both ways. how can I help take some students off his load? But then in the same sense, these kids are still ones that might need that more one-on-one help, but still get their special service. So, we're working on that as well. So, it's give and take both ways. It's been good to work with Mr. Jasmine. It's good to see the district evolving into a districtwide

061working on the problems and working on the solutions. you know, it's not just frontier and the high school and the middle school and you know, it's kind of all all working together. And I can say that for even step up uh because working with uh sorry Miss Hernandez and then Mr. Wahed on their students, we still have some bugs to work out, but it's been better. Um they're grateful. I I know they've said it to us many times. is just helping with those certain students has calmed down the climate um in their buildings as well. Um so it's just how can we refine that so that we're still giving the rigorous instruction when they have good days that we can give it to them. So I just think normalizing how that these kids a lot

062of the reasons that they're be they have behavior issues is because they don't they're not your typical sit in a seat and learn kids. And so normalizing that for these kids, I think also really will make them and has, as we can see, made them so much more successful. True. And I'm sure that there are a lot of parents out there that are so thankful that you're here and helping to make their kids feel good about themselves because that makes their life a lot easier as well. So, thank you for everything that you've done. It's great opportunity. Thank you. All right. Thank you. You want me to close this? Okay. Okay. All right. Now, we'll move on to board members. Carrie, would you start for us? Um, not much tonight. We, uh, as part of

063the rec board. We did get the lights on down at the skating. Saw that. Perfect. So, that's a major accomplishment. That'll extend the usefulness of that quite a bit. Definitely. And uh I was able to do the Zoom meeting with the graduation and that was very interesting. Come away with some great ideas that were already presented. I mean, but opened my mind up about what was they're trying to do. I think that's great. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. And I don't have anything. Well, um you may or may not have heard we did hire a new director for Northwest Boseies. Um she'll start July 1st. Um she is a um actually lives in Thermopoulos. So that's good. She doesn't have to we don't have to worry about trying to find someone housing and all

064of that. Um she's going to do a great job. She has huge shoes to fill. We all know that. So if any of you have worked with Carolyn, please reach out and let her know how much we appreciate her for the last 41 years in her job. She is Northwest Boseies and it's it's a daunting task. The rest of the board members and I all left the interview the other night and we all said I feel about 150 pounds lighter because we had found the right person. A huge difference. It does. So that's about all I have to report. And I actually watched those interviews. It was uh and that's the person that I thought would be an excellent fit. I I really felt like she had some some great ideas and insights into what

065could happen at that at that school. And u and I concur. Carolyn is amazing. I've worked with her for a lot of years at the Department of Ed and you know in other capacities and it's just been she's just a wonderful human. So but that's really all that I have. I participate in that and that's about it. Yeah. Um I actually graduate the meetings on that got some great from Christina when they had us you know about or look at the chapter 31 what we received didn't have they had made the changes with regards to um gosh I guess better for not being able to better say it but it just basically if you had a you had a student that came in and they are fluent in Spanish or Spanish or French or whatever

066but within that under section four they had years but they didn't actually have in there and along with like a competency base right a competency base but they and I knew we had talked about it but they just hadn't got that in there but it is in there and we discussed some of that and then how it ties back into the It is a draft and so they will be going through and making sure they clean all the language up and everything before they were going to meet I think what did they say like next day or something like that with the state department of just trying to remember that I thought it was May 10th May 10th maybe that's it maybe I just have the next day on my mind who knows but anyway

067so I did do that I found a lot of value in in that work because I think it is important that we what it'll do, what their thought is is it's going to give eventually that local control and district control in in adding this. And I think that's huge because we all know that um educating kids in Cheyenne, Casper in Riverton or Rollins or so we need to be mindful of that. So outside of that, I just I went to I went and my grandson for he asked me when the last time I did that was I said, "Oh, for heaven's sakes, two years ago, remember?" And so we had I had fun with that. I want to remind everybody about the the pink game for the soccer kids. Um and that you can, you

068know, purchase you can go through is it stitches or donations? It's on the Anyway, where you can do either a cash donation or you can buy a t-shirt or a sweatshirt or something to to help with that. Um, so that that's out there. Um, and just that I'm really proud of all of our kids and how hard they work. I see a group being very patient in the back. So, I'm not going to hold you up. I just want to thank the graduates tonight. That's it. I guess Carl talk to Oh, is that it? You don't have any more to add? Oh, everything's going blown up things. my patient but it's you know we're still state driven it's a good start it's not Yeah, it's been going on for five years. So words and it's

069kind of cute and there's a lot of reason that it came in the first place because black trust in education. So they state came down on education. Well, now that the fossils being opened back up and I don't know if the balance is work in progress. I read the thing over about five times put it through a chat with Genesis another It was interesting the results came out. There's a lot of open interpretation that a district. So we're still state driven and that probably another five years from now we'll be doing something else. Education is always We're always reacting to some external political push that starts us going down different roads. You know, when I first came on the board, yeah, it's sometimes it does everything, you know, trying to bring science back into so

070that it's not a Well, it was was left up to the district how to take care of lower grade science. There was no guidance and since there was so much push for language, math, reading, a lot of things got the ditch and now we have to lose all that because teachers have no experience in teaching science than just do it on your own. Uh the same way with social science, history, the constitution, all the different things that when I was going to school all the way through science, math and we dropped some of that integrated your English study or your whatever study it so many things to the teachers and people that care in the district. There's so many of our staff members who have passion for education. We care. Our superintendent cares. We're all

071trying to do the right thing. But it's really hard to watch what's been going on over the years and not have some indigestion about processes that just keep going on and going on. And I know that it's a work in progress always, but we were doing a pretty good job. and it was getting better and then the finger came down. So I hope this portrait very doesn't come back. Well, I think that looking at this I mean I don't disagree with what you're saying at all but I think in looking at it it's a living document. It's like education is a living thing. is constantly changing and we all know that and I think what we're doing is try to do the best that we can with what we're what we're given and how if

072we could focus on our own district if we could yeah have our own standards that we can trust and then we but then we have to not worry about why we have to We cannot depend on the state to guide us. They can us but we cannot we have to focus on our own standards expectations so that we can get those high school students jobs in the future going to college doing what they want to do. go to the Marines, go to the whatever their heart desires, we give them the springboard. That's the main thing. We've been doing a good job and I still think state interference local as is as is federal interference. Yes. Yeah. It's like they want us to earn I'm sorry, Jody. They want us to earn our funding. They want

073to make sure that we're not Well, they're pretty sure that we are wasting that money. Yeah. So, that's what I mean the whole legislative session, the last goround pretty much drove that home, right? When he said that they wanted a bell curve. I mean, that creates failure. That's what a bell curve does. I remember reading years ago about Purdue Masters and Doctor programs where these students were getting 97% in their test scores but they still put them on a bell curve so that they have a failure rate is meeting Thursday at I have also next week I'll probably state and also this weekend and they move the meetings to Riverton. Good. Christina, I really don't have a lot tonight, but um just going back to I think the one thing I just really want to

074work with our teachers so much and so often I will say our district has been blessed with amazing teachers that really are in the best interest of kids and it's like when I work with them I learn so much and I've gained so much insight from being around them because they get it and we have really truly amazing teachers and they are what's best for kids and so just talking through the science is exciting because they dedicated a lot of time to just be like this is going to And so working with them and really trying to stay but then also do our thing. Our teachers are just working with them for the last year and a half almost very few of our teachers are 8 to five. Well, and I think I hopefully I'm

075speaking for the board. We're pretty impressed with the teachers also. I agree. Roy, Jada, nothing for me. Thank you, Bruce Bolton. Nothing for me tonight either. Cody, would you like to go first or would you like me to you want to finish up? You know what? I'll just say that we are working on a multitude of things. We have lists and lists that we're working on at central office and we're going to be having some work sessions where we'll be covering those. And so, just want to remind you that come with your your brains prepped and and ready to go next Tuesday for our work session. Okay. Hopefully I'll be on time. Um, I'll finish up. I just kind of want to add to what Carl was saying about education is kind of under the

076gun. And if you don't have to look very far on any internet site and see that people are pretty much down on public education, like actively calling it out as being not effective. And every time I see that, I'm like, what are you talking about? our education system here works well. They're not talking about um so but you know it's awareness some of it's just awareness of what actually but we have that problem in our own state too. Um and anyway none of that um I'm glad to see the science is being brought into the elementary schools. Um, my whole life has been kind of science-based. So, I didn't even realize that it was not a part of the the third through fifth grades or, you know, I didn't know that, but now I do

077and I'm glad to see that we've got a a remedy for that. Um, I also wonder how did Frontier get started? Who wants to started out expulsions about 15 years ago. Did we have a rash of expulsions? I can remember. Wow. 52. Oh, 52. Expulsions. Yeah, we had more than 20 the first year I was on the board. So, that started So then we came up with the contract and some of the other things. It was Terry Snend who started let's try to you know and there's a lot and then there and then there was a um an opening that the state allowed us the opportunity to do alternative high schools because they that wasn't an opportunity even an option for a while and that that came about 2014 and I think it was We

078have what we call the school and we were always out of compiance for most of my career on the school board because we were not students even now that is starting to back into according to special ed which is another thing which is good but uh yeah it it was Terry and boards that were tired of but we were kicking kids out kids it was terrible I do have one more it sorry we all got that email the other day from the newsletter from the state association of schools and one of the talking points in it was about and that next year you know anybody that wants to conceal weapon pretty much can and there's a lot of school districts that are now having an insurance problem And we really need to think about that

079something down the road. What we're going to do if our insurance company has given us any kind of indication we're going to lose certain levels of coverage we may have to go back to slurp we might but they do cover that but I'm not pitch on that but the other thing is having a conversation with board member neighboring district is that we want to be we might need to put in a polic for guns so that we can have a that we're trying to make any staff member that does decide to carry we can't say can't but we should give them tools possibly to be able to say that I have been trained that I know the caliber of my I know these things and if there were an incident our staff us behind them

080and our insurance. So, so being in you're talking about that training as being an insurance driven type thing. Well, you know, the new law has created a situation where right we're losing insurance and other districts. But if if we have this person that is hired by us is caring. We can't say they can't. Yes, we could. I don't think it can. No, we give them training and some expertise on being more expert with their weapon. At least we're giving them some more tools. We're trying to make it less like and it may work out that the insurance likes that. Yeah, be our hope. But we can't do the things that we were talking about doing before. We can't do the psychological tests and all that kind of stuff. You could just offer better solutions to

081if you just buy a gun, right? Well, and I wonder too though within that process like said if you are going to put together a policy stating that you know should they choose it'd be their choice to carry. It wouldn't be anything that we're choosing for them and that was never the case. No, but I mean I think that that's one of the things that has to be made very clear if we're going to if we draft a policy because otherwise that places puts liabil liability back on us if if it's not an individual's choice. They they don't have to do this and then they and also the training we I don't know that we can enforce them that I suppose this offer, right? That's what I mean. But we'd have to make the verbiage

082and the language very specific. So there's an awful lot of people there that are in first round discussions of it and we've seen I've already seen three or four different attempted policies and every one of them that we had about a 45 minute maybe even an hour conversation on just that and every one of them was shot down and so rather than spend our time talking about the whatifs until we have some solid guidance I didn't want to bring any proposals to you. So, it's um we've got our bidding procedures, the firearms, our sex designated facilities, some homeschool stuff that needs to be done, and all of those are just the tip of the iceberg because of the new legislation. So, they're here on my list, but those will be the things that I start

083bringing to you during our work sessions when I have a good solid foundation of knowledge to bring with it. But right now it's all such speculation that we could go on and on and on for hours about it without coming to any conclusions. I've talked to a couple of people that should know about this sort of thing and there the consensus is not there about developing a policy just that we don't know enough yet and if you write it down then you're stuck with it. Yep. And you know there's no room for interpretation that what you wrote down and put in that policy is the policy. That's right. I I think Jod's point is good though in when she was talking about uh not making all teachers carry which was never our intent. Oh no.

084But when you talk about that to the community sometimes they do they do think that that that they were requiring all of our teachers to do that. So I think that's a really good point to make when we were talking about this before every meeting started with this is not a you will carry this is if right but it still is out it's still out there I I have been talking to uh Kurt Paxton uh quite a bit about it and he's looking into it. They're still even on their end, they're not sure exactly what that looks like, but he said as far as he knew um when I talked to him a few weeks ago that there he does think we would still be covered in in some capacity, but it would be an

085extra like 15 to 20 grand um possibly. Um but he also said some of that could also depend on what we decide as a board like um what our policy says too. So he's looking into that for me and he's going to get back to me as soon as they know. But it's a new thing and he works with multiple school districts. So um all school districts are kind of um trying Yeah. the same boat trying to figure it out. Well, if they add on 15 to 20 grand, aren't we back to where we started from? We're kind of losing the reason that we what we're kind of losing the reason that we switch with them. Um we do go out for you know so he he can put us out for bid and so

086um every three every three years he tries to put us out for bid within the companies he works on and so this is the year so he's trying to put us out for bid. He said we are a school district that a lot of these insurance companies love because we don't really um we don't really have a lot of claims and stuff like that. So we'll see. But he's putting it out to bit again. We and we'll see what that comes back. But maybe you can kind of feel them out for what kind of policy, not that we're going to go, you know, write that down as a policy, but what would what would make us less unattractive. So that's what that's what the WB SBA and the superintendent or group is working on is

087in collaboration with insurance partners. So So they're they're talking with the insurance and they're talking with everybody. So that's why it's just it's it's almost pointless at this time to have any conversations because we don't have near enough information. We don't know anything. Maybe we can get the legislature to help fund the additional the additional premiums. Good luck with that. I had that conversation with several legislators through the process that if so if you're going to require this, what are you going to do about liability? Because that was our issue before with not implementing anything in our district and and crickets. I mean, nobody had anything to say. But if they're going to require it, I mean, if they're going to allow it, then then they should probably help the funding. But not just allow

088it. When does our insurance policy? It reduces uh 71. Yeah. July. July 1st. So if we were to put it out for bid, uh it would be prudent to us to do it now so that we know what we're our policy is going to be. So to make a policy, huh? To make a policy. No, no, no. It's insurance. Insurance. Okay. So he is doing that. That we are going out to bid through Kurt Paxton with several of the companies that he deals with. Not a widespread just a specific. Yeah. With with the companies that he does like we have for the past. Every so often we need to go out there and look at the whole field. Right. So what? It's every three years right now. Right. This is our first renewal cycle with

089Yeah. This is our So, I think we have I think we have a little bit of time before we go out outside of his organization, I would think. But if I mean, it's a little bit too short of notice for us to do that by July 1st because we're almost at May right now. So, if we wanted to do that then at the next before we renew the next time, we could start looking next year in December or January. But shouldn't we also have more information before we Well, we need this. All of this stuff is too new. It just passed. Absolutely. The legislature doesn't even know. They don't know. They aren't. Anyone else have anything to add? No. Okay. Um, we have a delegation here. We do. We would like to hear from them

090at this time. Finally. They've been so patient. Yeah, you've been quieter than most adults. Yeah, harder than need be. Hi. Thanks for having us tonight. Um, glad to have you. We're always excited to be here. Um we're here uh to ask you um to travel out of state for nationals this year and um we always appreciate your support. Um I always brag that we have the best support in the state. Um Fremont 25 is always the best support. Um and uh we have our team here that's going to be coming. We're missing just a couple, but most of us are here. and um and yeah, they want to tell you kind of what they've qualified in and everything and um for well for nationals but you might if you want to talk about state you

091can do that too and um just you know talk guys but um so yeah go ahead guys thanks all right once again fourth year in a row I am Ayanna Mayado I have done speech and all four years and this year I triple who qualified in congressional debate, policy debate, and world schools debate. And I will be attending nationals in world schools debate along where are you? Along with Sam over here in the corner who's hiding as well as taking the congressional debate state champion title title for the second year in a row, by the way, subtle brag. Awesome job. My name is Ashton Griffin. I have also been doing speech innovate for all four years. Um, this year I qualified in both of my events which were humor and duo. I will be taking

092humor this year, my first time taking an individual event. And for state, I was a finalist in both my events including humor and duo. Hi, I'm Paige Wood. This is my first year doing speech and debate. I'm a sophomore and I qualified in policy debate with my partner Aurora Baldez. Good job. Nice job. Hi, I'm Aurora, Paige's partner. Um, so yeah, we both qualified um for policy debate. We did really good this year and it's my first year as well. And then I also qualified for nationals for my informative speak um which is really cool. I also had a really good season and we're super excited to go to nationals. Um, and we're both taking policy for nationals and go together. Excellent. I'm Sam Pearson and I I qualified in uh I've gone to speech

093and bay for three years and I this is my first year qualifying for nationals and I qualified in um policy or CX, but I'm going in world schools. Hello everyone, I'm TK Brown. Uh this is my first year doing speech debate for Riverton and I qualified for congressional debate. So pleasure being here. Thank you. Hello, I'm Cornell Davis. Uh I am the state champion for humorous interpretation and I will be going as a supplemental in short story. I guess we're just saving the best for last. So um I am Royce Hancock. I've been doing speech and debate for a lot of years, but two years with the high school. Um, this is my second year qualifying and I'm going to be going in congressional debate. So, all right. Um, yeah. And so we've already started

094um practice uh uh definitely in world schools because I think I talked about this last year, but that's uh I'm the coach for the state in world schools and we take kids all around the state. So I've got kids um geez this year. Where do I have them? Oh man. Yeah. And then that's just for one of the team and then the other I have two teams and then the other team is Green River, Rock Springs, Casper. Geez. Oh man. Anyway, so I take him, they I take all these kids and coach them all basically for months and um and then we go to nationals and um and their teams pay for all their stuff and then we meet up there. Um so that's what World Schools is. And then we've already started in policy

095and I don't know I think you guys will probably start as soon as your play is probably done, right? Yeah. So they got to wait for that. But we've already started on the debate and practicing, you know, it's kind of intense. And even though like we don't usually like win, you know, we try our hardest, right? We always bring our best, right? We're not going to like Yeah. Worlds usually is the one that Wyoming does the best in. Um, and we we bring it really it's Anna. It's not just because you're here, but you know, we we do work really hard at it. So, um anyway, these kids worked really hard and I know um Paige and Aurora were like this their first year, but just um as a little brag, those two and Sam

096and Ayanna, you know, there's only two teams that qualify in policy debate and that was ours. And then what about in the other events for speech where they're Yeah, because I know that the top two qualifiers for humor were both it was and then um the qualifiers for duo was also a her and then um my duo with Adriana. So we had the and the same in Senate. It was TK and Ayanna. So like Riverton's taking the tops two spots in a lot of these events, you guys. This isn't like 20 kids. This is like 80 kids doing this and Riverton's like top two, top two. It's a little It's kind of embarrassing, but not really. Like, you know, we're But we're kind of like trying to be humble. But anyway, but and like I

097said, we we work hard at it and we try hard and and we do bring our best and and that's what you know, every time I'm bumping in front of you guys, I tell you that like Riverton, we work the hardest. You guys know this like we have hardworking people in our community and that's what we bring. And so we just want to say thank you for every opportunity that you award us because truly my kids know because if you ask them, I tell them it's because of you that we have every opportunity and they know that. I very much tell them that. So thank you very much. You're welcome. Well, we know we have the best kids. Absolutely. Well, and in and in following them, like should you have the newbies who who pop

098in here and they and they do what they're doing. You know, I read something the other day about commitment, practice, teamwork equals success. And that's what I see standing up here. It, you know, from the top to the bottom or however you want to take that. And you know, we'll take as many of those top spots and I'll brag all day for it. I say that we have the best speech and debate kids in the state of Wyoming and all the time to people. So, thank you guys for working so hard and for representing us so well. And like I said, I've watched so many of you grow up. Some of you I can't believe that you're old enough to be doing this page because I remember meeting you when you were in diapers. So,

099that what does that tell you? I'm sure that's great what you wanted to hear tonight. Same thing with Ayanna though, but and Ashen and I kind of got to know each other on the very first beginning. Um, uh, you came in as a student for profile of graduate. I remember you attending that and doing that. Yep. I hope that when you're in de mo and you get ch a chance to see some of the other really cool things that are there. Tell us what to see. Make sure you go to the world food um organization. It's cool. We had a national garden club fall board meeting there. Um, they have a and it's it's pretty cool. They have a great sculpture garden downtown. And the sculpture garden I looked that up. That's where Better Homes

100and Gardens is printed and produced. And if you ever see your mom or your grandma's Better Homes and Gardens book, the pictures of the garden, the magazines, the gardens that are there with the little shed, whatever, you can walk through them and it's pretty cool because you're like, "Hey, I saw that in I was in the doctor's office, whatever, scrolling through." But it's cool. So, and there's a really neat um if you like plants, there's a really neat um garden chambering. No. But one of the best things that I've gotten to be involved in I did look that up because one or two things something that started when I was in I was a speech and debate kiddo in high school at Wind River and it's it's transformed I've used it lots of different places

101and being involved in the community. I have served on um lots of national boards and I continue to serve on a national board um as an officer and I have gotten to travel a lot of really cool places that I would never have gotten to go had I not been involved. So I guess that's my speech to you is to stay involved and look for areas in your community in in things that you love um that you can find to give back. It might be it might be student council, it might be garden club, it might be whatever it is, but find that passion and keep it and use the skills you're learning now to take you places. And um you like I said, I would never have gotten to go I've been to De

102Moine, but I would never have gotten to go to Portland, Maine. No. Why would I go to Portland, Maine if I hadn't had to go to a meeting? And it was a great experience. Yeah. I mean, so you get to go and see new places, but De Moine has some really neat stuff. at that sculpture garden downtown and it'll be hot in June. So, there's a the water there's a water feature there, too. Run through it. She just gave you permission to run through a water feature. Exactly. No, something to remember. 80-year-old ladies walking through it, so it was great. It isn't bragging if it's true. That's right. That's right. Exactly. There you go. And it's pretty easy to support to support you guys because you are what we strive for. Yep. We are so

103proud of you guys. Absolutely. And I like the shirts. Great job. Those are good. Those are pretty darn cool those for us this year. I kind of really like them, but they're making me hungry. I like donuts. Thank you all. Tell you this. I had um I had the Jackson coach tell me this year our kids these two these first year kids I said to them at the beginning because you're up against that is commitment Saturday morning at the hotel and he got he did good for you. same thing you know we did all this and I said you guys are behind you know your first year itach they're committed and I just told her and they did it whatever how are you how are you not doing it you know she said that she's

104like how are you How are you? And we met with this DC lawyer that patents and I just called him up. I was like, "Hey, you know, I know you published things and you're really important guy, but can you meet with my people?" And he's like, "Yeah, I'm in a deal. Let's do it." You know, he's like this totally guy. He just meets with us, you know. We get in there at 8 p.m. there until like 11. Okay. So, the lesson in that for everybody, the answer is always no unless you ask. That's exactly right. It is. I like I had no idea he presented all this stuff. I just like watch YouTube. But the answer would have been no if you hadn't asked. It's always no if you don't ask. Do you know what

105I mean? If you know these kids, that's because they they were committed and they put in the work. They put in the work. That sounds a little jealous. I sense a little jealousy fact inspire you and I think you deserve a little credit on all this. It's not all it's not all their skills. You have somebody that believes in you big time. So that's awesome. and someone who's willing to get up in the morning and come down and meet with you or be there till 11:00 at night and probably goes home and thinks about this or has a notad beside her bed and wakes up and writes down ideas. She's got all over. There you go. I don't know. Yeah, keep it up. Thank you. We are very proud of you. Thank you so much

106for coming. We would really like to pre-invite you to come back after this and share how you because you're the best part of the board meeting. Also share with us everything that you saw. You are did tell us that De Moine was as good as Lynette made it up. Bring Yeah. Bring a picture of you going through the water sculpture and I have lots of pictures. We need photo proof. Thanks for hanging in here this whole time so you could visit with us. We appreciate that, too. for being so polite. And gosh, you guys were quieter than I'd have ever been. I want the best kids. I want to say to you all, I'm listening to podcasts on manifesting your own success. Remember, as you step into these roles and you go to these places,

107you decide your success. Y awesome. It is. It's all mindset. Love that. That's a goalie for you. Thank you very much. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys. Good luck. You know, see, we're gonna be we're going to be acting on this soon. Little seeds of doubt. You're real nice. Thank you guys very much. We're not going to keep them till 11. No, we're not gonna keep them till 11. I don't want to be here till 11. I know they hung out. Yeah. Are there any other visitors or delegations who would like to speak before the board? They didn't get the three minute limit, but that was right. Hearing none, we'll move on to action items. The first action item is to consider an administrative recommendation to approve an outofstate travel request. So moved. Second. Any

108discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? That out of state travel request is Good luck. They didn't even get to see. You get to go. Oh, they're gone. Just kidding. No. Sorry. Oops. We're now going to consider an administrative recommendation to approve another outofstate travel request. Mr. Chair, I move the board approve the high school FCCLA students to travel to Orlando, Florida in July 2025 for the FCC National Convention as second. Any discussion? I'm thinking that Orlando and July may not be that delightful. But yeah, hearing none. Uh, all in favor? I I Any opposed? Okay, we'll grant that travel request also. And another consideration to move to re to approve an out ofstate travel request. Mr. Chair, I would move the board approve the Riverton Middle School Leather Crafting Club to travel to Sheridan,

109Wyoming in May of 2025 for the world leather debut per policy. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Any opposed? That travel request has been granted. Also consider an administrative recommendation to approve student handbooks. Mr. Chair, I move the board approve the Frontier Academy Student Handbook 9 through 12 Spur Virtual Academy student handbook and the K8 Venture Upward Spur Academy student handbook for the 2526 school year as presented. Second, any discussion? Mr. Taylor, do you want to bring anything to our attention? Just saw that was Mr. into one of the files. So, I just had to update something. So, it's just uh the reason why we have to have different policies or not different policies, different handbooks for the spur ones is some are for local students and some are out of district. So,

110that's the major difference between those. Um and then, um I tightened up a little bit of our student handbook with the behavior matrix for Frontier for the major changes that we made from last year. So, all right. Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Hearing none, we'll approve that student handbooks to consider an administrative recommendation to the pro to approve the use of BOS's activity funds. Mr. Chair, I would move the board approve the use of up to $10,000 from the Bosey's funds to cover Riverton High School CNA course related costs. Second. Any discussion? Uh just that it is held by the Boseies, but it is a district fund. District 25, right? So Julie likes because it's in her special revenue accounts to have all the paperwork in order.

111So we do this process for her benefit. Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? for approving that use of activity funds. Consider an administrative recommendation to approve a change order. Mr. Chair, I move the board approve change order number 14 with Samson Construction Company Incorporated in the amount of $11,397.85 for the addition of carpet to the theater and adding a sophet and shelving over the trophy case for the Riverton High School auditorium project. Second. Any discussion? I had a question about why this wasn't in the bid to begin with. I thought that same thing. I believe originally there was going to be sealed concrete at the upper part of the seating. Okay. And believe the outfit's name is DL Adams. The uh theater lighting rigging sound specialty people advised us to carpet that due to

112the acoustics and the sound in the turned out to be too noisy without the carpet. Yeah. Too much reverb and stuff coming back. Okay. Overall, it will look better. Okay, good enough. And that is I believe that's only $1,000 onto the district out of that, right? Yeah. No, it's a small amount. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Thanks for the clarification. Thank you. Thank you. All in favor? Any opposed? Hearing none will approve that change order. Uh consider an administrative recommendation to accept resignations. Mr. Chair, I would move the board accept the resignations of Kayn Meer at as a rendevous elementary school fourth grade teacher and Jeannie Carper as a rendevous/Jackfed teacher effective at the end of the 2024 2025 school year. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Hearing none, we'll accept those resignations. consider

113an administrative recommendation to accept another re resignation. Mr. Chair, I would move the board accept the resignation of Dr. Jeremy Hill as a as Willow Creek principal effect effective June 13, 2025. Second. Any discussion? We wish him well. All in favor? I. Any opposed? We'll accept that resignation. consider an administrative recommendation to offer a contract. Mr. Chair, I would move the board offer a contract to Christa Stinson as a rendevous elementary fourth grade teacher effective for the 2025 2026 school year. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? We will offer that contract. We have some information items. A reminder of the Boys and Girls Club's award and recognition breakfast. That's the 23rd. Tomorrow. Tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning. Yep. 6:30 a.m. at Square. I will be there. It's Wednesday. Wednesday. Yeah, I

114know. Today's Monday for me all day. Uh and a reminder that we have a board work session on Tuesday the 29th. That's a week from today. Right. We'll remind you of that too next Tuesday. Please do. At 5:00 pm, a light dinner will be provided. Just a note that I mentioned to Jada, I do have to be u at a meeting for Blue Cross that night and so I'm going to try to participate by my phone or however I can participate. So, and we're going to have a an auditorium tour on Friday, May 2nd at 100 p.m. Meet at the front entrance of the high school. I'm looking forward to that. Call me on that one, too. Okay. I won't be able to attend that. I will be gone. And the Riverton Middle School 8th

115grade restaurant is Tuesday, May 3rd. 13th. 13th. 13th. Oh, okay. Uh, please arrive at the middle school by 4:20 so that we can be seated and get out of there and back here for our regular meeting. And I will be attending later with my family that day. I won't make the 420. So I will Not everything is about you, Jody. Well, I know it's about my grandson. And there's a senior barbecue on that same day at 11:30. Is that right? I have that on my calendar for now. Yes, I think there is. Okay. And we have a revised policy one or 5145 certified licensed professional and professional staff early notification of intent to intent to resign or retire. Do we need any explanation on that? It's just very simple. um a little language change to

116make it optional to where if there's a year when we don't need to offer that incentive for early notification or we don't have the funds to do so. Um the current language said we'll do it annually and so we just tweaked the language to where it's our choice. How how would you you know down the road 10 years uh how do you put that into practice so that we remember to uh make that decision? Are you going to be here in 10 years? Should it be something exactly? So we put on our count board calendar to have an action item. Make sure that that is something that we discuss somewhere prior to oh let's don't do that the day before it's due just something in our calendar right so when when you're not so I

117think it's something that we do annually unless we come to you and we don't do it that's how it's okay so it's just been an annual recurrence but if there's a year when it seems like it would not be a a fiscally responsible thing to do. We would say to the board, I just don't want it to get lost in the dust in the shuffle. Okay. Over the years, you know, personnel change, right? That it gets kind of like the last the retirement incentive did. Okay. Exactly. Okay. And we have some certified staff changes transfers effective for the 2526 school year. Nicholas Espazito to district instructional coach. Jordan Hoover to an RMS sped teacher. Noel Rogers to a Willow Creek teacher. Sarah Witell to a Willow Creek teacher. Elizabeth Lenhard to an RHS sped case

118manager. There's a lot of these. Brendell Christensen to an RMS sped case manager. Trisha Brown to a rendevous case manager. Kazayiah Zamora to a RMS and eighth grade ELA teacher. Cammy Eller to a sped academic coordinator. Classified changes. Uh we have resignations of Aspen Elementary Per Cougar Cougler effective May 23rd of 25. Transportation bus driver Pam Adams effective May 23rd of 25. and a transfer bell young chief to a RHS academic coach effective February 5th of 2025 and enrollment 74 students. You've done a good better job. It's getting better. We're down 74 last year. And is there anything else? Any other business before the board? No. Just make take a look at those calendars. We can discuss them a little bit at the work session. Have two public hearings regard regarding the calendars before we

119do an action item. Okay. Okay. No. All right. Thank you. Meeting adjourned. I