TORRINGTON – The Goshen County School District Board of Trustees held the December 10 meeting at 7 p.m. In attendance at the meeting were board members Sarah Chaires, Chris Alexander, Lena Moeller, Wade Phipps, Val Sharp, Tony Goulart, Kate Steinbock and Kelly Strampe. Also present were Ryan Kramer, superintendent, Kevin Derby, director of curriculum and instruction, business manager Marcy Cates and administration secretary Loreen Fritzler. Board member Dylan Hager was absent. The meeting was promptly called to order, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. 

A motion was made to adopt the agenda with no addenda which was quickly approved by the board.

Moving on to the third agenda item, the annual reorganization of the board where Kramer was appointed as pro tem chairman and the board moved on to the election of board officers. 

“The organization of the board we will begin by appointing the superintendent as chairman pro tem. Do we have a motion?” Chaires said. 

A motion was quickly made to accept Kramer as the board chairman pro tem which was seconded.

“As chairman pro tem, I open to floor to nominations for Goshen County School Board Chair,” Kramer said. 

“I nominate trustee Moeller,” Chaires said.

Moeller accepted the nomination.

Goulart nominated Alexander for the position of board chairman to which he accepted.

A vote was then taken for the trustees, based on nomination.

Moeller received votes from Chaires, Strampe and Steinbock whereas Alexander received the votes of Sharp, Phipps, Goulart and Alexander himself. 

Kramer then asked for a motion to be made to accept Alexander as board chairman.

“Superintendent Kramer, are we allowed to vote for ourselves?” Moeller asked. 

“Yes,” Kramer responded.

“I apologize. I did not vote because I assumed we could not vote for ourselves. My apologies,” Moeller said.

A recount of votes was taken where Moeller leveled the race for chairman with her own vote in favor of herself.

“We do have a tie,” Kramer announced. “In that case, then we would go back and accept other nominations because as statutorily required we are obligated even in a situation where there is a tie vote to come up with a chair to move the meeting forward,” Kramer said as he asked for additional nominations for board chairman.  

Phipps nominated Chaires and Chaires accepted the nomination. 

In yet another vote for board chair, Moeller received votes from Chaires, Strampe, Steinbock and Moeller. Alexander received zero votes and Chaires received votes from Alexander, Goulart, Phipps and Sharp.

Nominations were opened yet again with a tie for board chair between Chaires and Moeller.

Sharp nominated Phipps and the nomination was accepted. 

Again, the board casted their votes for chair. Moeller received votes from Strampe, Steinbock, Chaires and Phipps. Counting her own vote in favor of the accepting the position as board chairman, Moeller took home five votes whereas Alexander received none. Chaires received the votes of Sharp, Goulart and Alexander.

A motion was made to accept Moeller as the board’s new chairman by Chaires which was seconded by Steinbock. The motion passed and carried although Alexander voted against the acceptance. Moeller assumed the chairman position and moved on to seeking nominations for the remaining offices. 

Chaires and Phipps were nominated for vice chair and during vote, Chaires earned four votes and Phipps earned four votes. Moeller opened nominations once more for vice chair and Alexander was nominated. Another round of votes ensued where Chaires took in four votes; Phipps brought home zero votes and Alexander’s vote count was four. 

Again, Moeller asked for nominations and the board fell silent causing them to revote on the three candidates for the vice chair position. Chaires received four votes; Phipps received his own and Alexander received three votes for vice chair.

A motion was then made to accept Chaires by Steinbock as the board vice chairman and Strampe followed with a second. The motion carried and Chaires was elected as board vice chairman. 

Nominations were accepted for board clerk where Steinbock nominated Alexander. Alexander declined. Phipps was then nominated. Phipps collected all votes and nominations were collected for board treasurer. Sharp was nominated and declined. Goulart also declined his nomination for the position however Steinbock was then nominated and took home the majority vote. 

The process continued where Phipps was elected board clerk and Steinbock was elected board treasurer. 

Moving on to agenda item number four the board designated depositories for school district funds. It was recommended all banks and lending institutions in the county be designated as depositories for school district funds.  Phipps motioned to accept the designation which carried by vote. 

The board next moved on to item five where a meeting day and time would be set for the newly assembled board. Recommendations were to continue to hold regular meetings on the second Tuesday of each month, year-round, at 7 p.m. Chaires motioned to keep the meeting day and time the same which was seconded. The motion carried and meetings will be the second Tuesday of each month, year-round, at 7 p.m.

Under item six, the board chairman appointed the following trustees to the following board committees for 2025:

WSBA Advocacy Liaisons to represent GCSD#1 –  Chaires (current) and Sharp; WSBA Board Delegate and an alternate to represent GCSD#1 – Sharp (delegate) and Steinbock (alternate); Northeast Wyoming BOCES (NEWBOCES at Gillette via Zoom) representative and an alternate to represent GCSD#1 – Alexander (representative) and Hager (current, alternate); Eastern Wyoming College BOCES (EWCBOCES) representative and an alternate to represent GCSD#1 – Goulart and Strampe; Salary Relations Committee representatives –  Chaires (current), Moeller (current), Goulart; Board Building Committee representatives – Phipps (current), Alexander and Hager; District Activity Advisory Committee (DAAC) representatives – Alexander (current) and Hager (current); Calendar Committee – Steinbock and Strampe; Wellness Committee – Alexander (current) and Phipps (current); District Policy Committee – Alexander (current), Sharp and Chaires; Recreation Board – Hager (current), Phipps (current) and Moeller; curriculum coordinating council – Chaires (current) and Steinbock.

The board moved on to item seven of the agenda under information and proposals where they heard reports by board members who attended the WSBA annual conference and a strategic plan goals presentation by Lingle-Fort Laramie schools. 

Sharp and Goulart attended parts of the conference. Sharp stated the experience was “wonderful” and well worth the time. Goulart explained it was “good information”.

Lingle-Ft. Laramie principal, Corey Gilcrest spoke to the board on the strategic plan goals for the school.

“Thank you for the opportunity up here and go over this. When we presented, when we hosted it Lingle, this document hadn’t been completed and it was nice to come back and revisit it because as we set these goals and we started getting data in we found out we set the bar a little too low on a few of these, so it was nice to revisit them,” Gilcrest explained.

Gilcrest is pleased with the improvements the school has shown.

“We have made a lot of gains,” Gilcrest said. “I remember my first year taking over as the high school principal, I had been elementary principal there for five years and I remember going across, got the ACT data and I remember writing in very big letters at the beginning of the year staff meeting ’14.3’ and that was a tough one. It was a tough one for all of us to see. I wanted to make sure it said 14.3, that is not acceptable.”

Gilcrest’s presentation noted, Lingle-Ft. Laramie students will have a composite average of 21 on the ACT during their junior year. 

“We’ve done a lot of work. Most of you have heard the presentation around the work we are doing with ACT prep and we are a 18.7 this last year,” Gilcrest said. “Again, not close to our goal but our super score, which is the highest score between their junior and senior year, is approaching 20. So, we are gaining and I think we are doing a lot of good work that’s going to get us really close to that goal, even this year.” 

After an in-depth presentation on the Lingle-Ft. Laramie strategic plan goals, the board moved on to the public comment portion of the agenda, item eight, where Thomas Massy spoke to the board on procedural questions, noting the new board took position on December 1 at 12 p.m., according to Wyoming state statutes. 

Under the consent agenda, item nine on the agenda, the board approved the regular board meeting minutes from November 12. The special board meeting minutes for November 25, 9.2 on the agenda were pulled from the consent agenda for discussion. 

The monthly bills were approved as presented and the district monthly fiscal statement and fund balance comparison report. Approval was granted for the Lingle-Ft. Laramie National Honor Society students to travel to Denver to participate in Operation Christmas Child next week. The board also approved a purchase exceeding $5,000 for the renewal of PowerSchool Enrollment Express and Ecollection from February 12, 2025, through February 11, 2026. The $8,506.08 request will come from the general technology fund. The board also accepted the 2024 USDA Equipment Assistance Grant from Wyoming Department of Education for the purchase of a three-door freezer for Lincoln Elementary. Grant funds total $9,783.

The board moved on to item ten, old business, where they considered approval of the proposed revisions to the district policy 6111, school year/school calendar, 10.1. A motion was made by Steinbock and seconded by Chaires. The motion to accept the proposed policy revisions passed on the second and final reading.

Next the board approved the proposed revisions to district policy 3410, written standards of conduct for procurement of federal funds on the second and final reading, 10.2. A motion was made by Chaires and seconded. The motion carried to approve the revisions. 

Moving on to new business, the board returned to the item 9.2, approval of the minutes of November 25 special board meeting and work session, which was pulled from approval by Sharp. 

A motion was made by Chaires which received a second by Strampe to approve the meeting minutes as presented. Moeller opened discussion before calling for a vote. 

“I’d like to discuss the fact that the minutes indicate that the meeting was started at 8:25 p.m. by Sarah Charies and Sararh had left following the personnel discussion, so we need to make an amendment, I believe,” Sharp said. 

After a short discussion, it was recommended Sharp make a motion to remove the portion of the special meeting minutes which stated Chaires had moved to adjourn from the special meeting. Kramer explained there are no adjournments for work sessions so the adjournment would have come from the official meeting. A motion was made by Steinbock to strike the adjournment from the special meeting minutes which was then seconded by Goulart. The motion was then made to accept the minutes with the revision which was seconded and the special meeting minutes were approved with revision. 

Moving on to item 11.1, the board approved the 2023-2024 district financial audit as presented. The board also accepted the certified staff resignations submitted from Torrington High School (THS) Spanish Teacher, Lisa Willie-Racine, Torrington Middle School (TMS)/THS Instrumental Music Teacher Gary Glass, Lingle Ft. Laramie Physical Education Teacher, Nate Jones and TMS Principal James Catlin in the spring of 2025 as listed on item 11.2 of new business. The board also approved offering Jessica Davis a contract for school psychology, as recommended in 11.3 of the new business. 

Moeller and Kramer noted hiring Davis would replace some of the third-party or contractors for the same services. 

Under item 11.4 of new business, the board approved the proposed revisions to district policy 5131.25, student threats of violence. Kramer explained revisions had taken place with the older policies after staff had attended trainings, CSTAG or Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines. 

“This is the update for that information. It’s pretty extensive and provides a lot of clarity. We had an existing policy that was, in comparison to previous districts I was a part of, certainly exceeded what I worked with in other districts, but this one even refines the practice of what we’re doing so I am excited to continue work with this policy and the update to that threat,” Kramer explained. 

After reviewing information, Goulart spoke to the board. 

“On paragraph three, with regards to parental notification, I noticed that in this version the word ‘promptly’ as far as notify parents promptly, has been removed. So, it says parents will be notified by the principal designee when a student has been interviewed. So, that’s after the fact,” Goulart pointed out. “I would suggest that if we’ve got a child where a threat assessment is being conducted that notifying the parents should be job [number] one.”

“The challenge can be, in regard to if that threat could also be evolving with the parent too because we do have the piece of where there could be links. I don’t disagree. I think the one challenge we have is the timing of that and when and how specific we get. In those threat situations, they can kind of vary,” Kramer said. “So, what we’ve been asked is to be relatively not specific in timing and that where I have the removal of ‘prompt’. Define prompt. Does that mean when I find out when it is? There’s a loose definition there of promptly. It didn’t actually contain where parents would be not notified but it’s the timing of it.”

Goulart posed the question of at what point should a child have legal representation stating the decision should come to parents. 

“Law enforcement does not, without an adult present, so that means the principal or another adult, has to be when we involve law enforcement, has to be part of that conversation also,” Kramer explained.

After a discussion on the issue at hand, including information provided by Kramer, concerns of HIPPA violations and the question of legal liability the board decided to table the motion, sending it back to committee, to approve proposed revisions to district policy 5131.25.

“I’m trying really hard not to play attorney because that’s not my role in this board, but I will just tell you that rights are not what people think they are when your children are in school,” Moeller said. “It’s a public school and I will leave it at that because I don’t want to be providing legal advice but if it is the desire of this board to kick it back down to the policy committee to have further discussions, I would entertain a motion for the same,” Moeller said. 

A motion was made, seconded and carried and the approval of proposed revisions to district policy 5131.25.

Moving on to item 11.5, the board approved the architectural proposal for summer 2025 major maintenance projects where the district contracted with JEO Architectures for five major projects and item 11.6, where the district approved the purchase of Millermatic multi-process welders for Lingle-Ft. Laramie agriculture education. 

On item 11.7, the board discussed and proposed possible revisions to the Leadership Governance item 2.3, meetings, where zoom meeting attendance was heavily discussed. It was mentioned a roll call vote should be cast during zoom meetings and it was also mentioned board members should be physically present. Kramer noted the rules of the board could be adjusted at any time and he suggested to table the motion for revision. There was also discussion on Robert’s Rule of Order and the modified or loose version the board uses which Kramer agreed to research.  The motion was made to table the proposed possible revisions to the Leadership Governance item 2.3.

Moving on to board topics for discussion, there a brief discussion on staff turnover and resignations.

Future school board meetings will include the regular school board meeting, WSBA winter board development workshops (online) and the 2025 annual legislative forum hosted by WSBA and WASA on Sunday, February 2, 2025, in Cheyenne. 

During the superintendent’s report, Kramer provided a current 2024-2025 school year student enrollment data. 

The meeting was adjourned to reconvene at 7 p.m., Tuesday, January 14, 2025, at LaGrange Elementary School.