TORRINGTON – The Goshen County School District 1 Board of Trustees met for the regular board meeting on Tuesday, May 14. 

Chairman Michael Sussex called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. In attendance were vice chair, Sarah Chaires, clerk Chris Alexander, treasurer Carlos Saucedo, and board members Lena Moeller, Matthew Cushman, Dylan Hager, Justin Hurley, and Wade Phipps. 

After the meeting was called to order, three additions were made to the current agenda. Superintendent Ryan Kramer added accepting the resignation of Torrington High School (THS) counselor, Michele Ogburn, consideration for offering a contract to Christine Henderson as a special education teacher at THS, and consideration to approve the post job description for a secondary work-based coordinator to the Tuesday evening agenda. 

The new agenda was adopted, and the board moved on to the next item on the agenda, district recognition of Marilyn and Rick Cotant for their contributions to “The Backpack Program” and renaming the program to “The Cotant’s Totes of Hope”. The board also recognized district retirees and district staff resigning with 10 or more years of service. The board of trustees presented Southeast High School senior Sydney Moeller and Lingle-Ft. Laramie senior Jordan Napier with scholarships. 

Moving on to the information and proposals, item D on the agenda, Lincoln Elementary gave the board a short presentation.

During the public forum, item e, on the agenda, Bobby Mills spoke to the board on the policy of registered sex offenders on school grounds.

Lindsy Booth spoke to the board on allowing Michael Booth, a registered sex offender, to attend the high school graduation at Southeast for his senior daughter.

“In 2017, my husband made the worst decision that a person can make, and it has affected my family eternally, honestly. I wouldn’t be here if he had not turned himself in,” Lindsy said. “He was rightfully sentenced and went to prison. My kids endured incarceration and if you experienced that it’s hard on children.”

Booth expressed the current policy does not allow Michael to attend the commencement ceremonies. 

“People took it upon themselves to get this policy changed to keep my husband out of the school systems,” Lindsy said. 

Southeast High School graduating senior, Baylie Booth also spoke to the board, requesting the sex offender policy be changed so Michael could attend the commencement ceremony. 

In item F, recommended actions, the board approved the consent agenda and quickly moved on to old business.

The board considered the approval of a proposed revision to district policy 3410, written standard of conduct for procurement of federal funds where it was recommended the board approve the revision on the second and final reading, which passed. 

The board moved on to the first item under new business, considering a request for an exception to district policy 1260, sex offenders on school property where no motion was made by the trustees to accept the exception and the item failed. 

The board moved on to considering the approval of the FY2025 preliminary budget as presented which passed. 

During item c of new business, the board considered the approval of the superintendent’s salary for the 2024-2025 school year.

A motion was made to increase Kramer’s salary by 3% for the 2024-2025 school year, which passed.

The board moved on to consider the approval of revisions to district policy 5131.21, elementary district-wide discipline consequences on the first reading. The board accepted the recommendation and approved the visions on the first reading. 

On item e, the board considered approval of revision to district policy 5131.7, interscholastic athletics and school activities, on the first reading which passed. 

Moving on to item f, the board considered approval of contracting with Solution Tree for professional development. It was recommended to approve contracting with Solution Tree for teacher professional development services with Breez Daniels on August 13, 2024, in the amount of $6,500.00 from Title II funds, which passed. 

The board moved on to item g, under new business on the agenda, where they considered approval of contracting with Crafted Consulting LLC for professional development services for the 2024-2025 school year, with this contract replacing and negating the previous out-of-district personal development contract approved in March 2024. Kramer explained to the trustees the original plan was to send four administrators to the program however the company offered to come into the district and provide follow-up training for a similar price. Kramer noted, due to district interest in the training, was the reason for the change.

“This is a really exciting opportunity to provide this to other administrators in our district,” Kramer said. 

The board voted to approve the contract with Crafted Consulting LLC.

Moving on to item h, the board considered approval of the license renewal with Xello and item i, Zearn for the 2024-2025 school year. Both motions carried.

The board also approved the license renewal with Edmentum for Platte River School, item j of new business. 

Moving on to item k, the board considered the approval of the purchase of Lexia Core 5 licenses for the 2024-2025 school year, which passed. 

The board moved on to accept the recommendation to approve contracting for professional development services with the Writing Revolution and after a brief discussion, the board voted to approve the contract. 

On item m under new business, the board considered the approval to purchase of five Comprehensive + courses and related services from the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education for $7,350. The item carried.

Under item n, the board voted to approve the amendment to the current 2023-2024 contract with TinyEye Therapy Services in the additional amount of $15,020.

The board voted to approve the special education contact with TinyEye Therapy for the extended school year, June 3 through June 28, on item o of new business. 

For item p of new business on the agenda, the board considered the approval of purchasing cleaning and disinfecting supplies and paper products for district buildings, totaling $21,281.22. A motion was made and seconded. The motion carried. 

The board considered approving the maintenance support agreement with Long Mechanical Solutions for district building automation and HVAC systems controls for 2024-2025 in the total amount of $26,790, which passed. 

On item r of new business, the board approved the purchase of eight replacement unit heaters for the THS ag/auto shop. 

The board also approved the purchase of two scoreboards for the Lingle-Ft. Laramie gymnasium for $18,780. 

For item t under new business, the board approved the purchase and installation of a fire panel for Torrington Middle School.

The board considered the approval of the purchase of replacement district security cameras and door controllers on item u under new business and after a brief discussion, a new amended motion was made.

“II would like to amend the motion to include ConvergeOne as the vendor for this purchase,” Chaires said.

The motion was then seconded by Saucedo and the motion carried. 

Under new business item v, the board approved the purchase of carbon monoxide sensors. 

The board acknowledged the additional purchase of addition library books for Trail Elementary School, which were already purchased. 

It was noted the purchase had come in after the prior purchase. The item carried. 

Under the amended agenda, the board heard the recommendation to accept the resignation of Ogburn which became item x under new business, which carried.

The board moved to item y under the amended agenda, where it was approved to offer a contract to Christine Henderson as a special education teacher at THS, pending certification.

On item z of the amended agenda, the board approved the post job description for a secondary work-based coordinator.

“The reason we chose to create a new job description is we wanted to more articulate what that job requirement was,” Kramer said. 

During the topics for discussion, Alexander mentioned the theatre department at THS was losing a storage area and Kramer explained he would be meeting with all stakeholders to devise a storage plan. 

Moeller spoke on on item a, which was requesting an exception to policy 1260, which failed. 

“I would like to speak to the request by Baylie Booth,” trustee Moeller said. “So many times, after these meetings I regret saying things out of a fear of upsetting people or what have you because this is so public. This is pretty close to me, and I feel like I need to address it. Baylie Booth is not the only child in that Southeast class who would benefit from this exception if we voted to do this. My own daughter would. But as a board member that’s not right. That’s not our rule. Our rule is not to make exceptions for people on an individual basis. As a board, this is not an appropriate thing for us to address. It is a slippery slope, and our duty is to the entire district.” 

During the superintendent’s report, Kramer explained the special board meeting date was incorrect and the meeting would be Tuesday, May 28 at noon.

District-wide graduations will be held on Sunday, May 19 at 1 p.m. for Southeast High School, 2:30 p.m. for THS, and 4 p.m. for Lingle Ft.-Laramie High School. Platte River High School 2024 commencement ceremonies were held on Wednesday, May 15 at 5 p.m.

The meeting was adjourned to reconvince for a regular board meeting on Tuesday, June 11 at 7 p.m.