TORRINGTON – The Torrington Rotary Club held their weekly meeting on Monday, April 7 at the Cottonwood Country Club in Torrington. Kim Evezich called the meeting to order which was quickly followed by an implication and the Pledge of Allegiance. 

After a brief introduction of guests and Rotarian formalities, Evezich announced there would be a board meeting Thursday, April 10 at 5:30 p.m. at the country club. Evezich also stated the club needed a president-elect nominee. With the changing of the gavel ceremony quickly approaching, Evezich also asked club members for input regarding the event. Evezich explained last year’s ceremony was over lunch. She further explained some board members felt it should have been a dinner and fellowship event. Evezich will seek additional input. In further announcements, Evezich noted a satellite board member, Cody Powell, was looking for a few Rotarians to attend a career day at Southeast Schools.

Britt Marsh introduced Goshen County School Board Chairwoman, Lena Moeller, to the club and Moeller took the podium. 

“I did not prepare anything today but am happy to answer questions,” Moeller said. “Ryan [Kramer] told me that you needed somebody to talk. I feel bad because we’re asking a lot of the board right now so, I put myself in front of that bus.”  Moeller stated she is only one member of the board and can only speak to her own opinions and not on behalf of the entire Board.

“It’s a pretty exciting time to be on the board right now. There is a lot going on. The legislature is spicing it up a little bit too, giving us some things to work on,” Moeller said glancing around the room. “Chief [Matt] Johnson, we will be calling you about the gun legislation and working with you on that. You know, there’s lots of changes but overall, I think this new board is learning to work together. I’m trying to keep it very positive as much as possible.” 

Moeller then opened the floor to for a question-and-answer session.

“You brought it up. Let’s talk about the gun legislation. What changes would you like to see?” Rotarian Cactus Covello asked.

“Well, your timing is fantastic. We just spoke with our [legal] counsel this morning and guess what? We don’t have a lot to control or have a lot of say in what’s going to happen,” Moeller said. “So, we’ve been working on what that’s going to look like. It will be interesting.”

Catching a glance at the school superintendent, Kramer, Moeller explained to the club the district would be holding public comment forums.

“We are going to open up some public forums because we do need to hear from the public on this topic.  We’ll be doing that here very soon,” Moeller said. “We have to do that in 45 days before the board takes any action. So, we’ll be opening those up here very soon.”

To provide further explanation, Evezich asked Moeller to clarify the issue at hand. 

“Basically, the new open carry legislation allows people to carry anywhere in the state, no matter what, no matter where,” Covello explained. “A little bit scary.”

“So, what you’re saying is that anybody can bring firearms into the school?” Evezich asked.

“Correct. But there are some limitations on it. It has to be in a biometric box or on your person and in your control 100% of the time,” Moeller explained. “What we’re looking into is what exactly we can require. So, we will look at the education or training that will be required for anyone to bring a gun into the school. It’s scary. I mean it is no matter what side of the line you’re on, it’s scary because it’s a big issue and the ramifications could be huge.”

According to Kramer, one of the things the district can clarify is pertaining to volunteers or employees only. Kramer also explained the district is unable to provide rules to the general public regarding the conceal and carry laws. 

“There is discussion too about requirements of disclosure, what that looks like, who’s going to enforce it – it will be an ongoing conversation and an interesting one for sure,” Moeller said. “The other thing is, how do we define who is a volunteer? Are our board members volunteers? Who does that term encompass?”

Moeller noted legislation has also passed related to transgender use of bathrooms where again, the district has limited control. 

Marsh also asked Moeller about district funding. 

“You know, it’s no secret you guys – we really didn’t hold our breath for several months, kind of wonder what that was going to look like. We lost some funding for a pretty big program, grant funding, so we didn’t know how it was going to shake out. We just spent a lot of time talking about the budget. In fact, we had salary relations on Friday, which is an all-day ordeal for that committee and it is actually looking pretty good,” Moeller said optimistically.

Moeller noted it was tense for the last couple of months not knowing if the district had funds to continue certain positions but she reiterated things were looking good for the district. 

“There is a lawsuit out there right now that some of you might be familiar with that the court found that schools are underfunded and so, we’ll kind of see how that’s going to shake out, after the appeal process,” Moeller noted. “But it’s always changing. Boy, that is one thing I’ve learned in education is you cannot sit still for very long. Things are always changing, and a lot goes into these decisions.”

Bringing the discussion back to the conceal and carry legislation, Moeller and Kramer provided more information on the law’s biometric piece to which Kramer explained the gun needed to be concealed on the person carrying. 

“But again, we can only put into place additional trainings for our employees or volunteers in the school district,” Moeller said. 

Moeller further explained her big concern with the new law which goes into effect in July 2025.

“In my mind, the biggest obstacle, other than the obvious, is who’s going to enforce this? Who is going to go around and make sure they have a permit? And then what does that look like,” Moeller asked. 

“It seems to me the district kind of has two choices. It’s an all-or-nothing. You can set up a program where you mandate training or if you chose not to, everybody’s automatically clear to conceal and carry,” Matt Johnson, Torrington Chief of Police said. “It creates a little bit of a tricky situation. You’re either making a big investment in the training or you’re completely hands-off and let folks do whatever they want, maybe there’s not as much middle ground there.”

Moeller concurred.

“That’s kind of the impression that I got from our [legal] counsel. In my legal mind, I can’t get out of it, that's what I was trained to do – it makes me very nervous because if we aren’t strict, and something happens, the consequences are huge. It impacts my own kids and my own nephew and niece. There’s a lot to it.”

John Maier, a Rotarian and fellow lawyer, asked Moeller if there had been any public interest in concealing and carry laws.

“First, has there been an advocacy from the staff and faculty in Goshen County that they want to carry? Or is this kind of like the legislature and the university, we don’t care if you don’t want it, you’re going to have it?” Maier asked. 

Moeller simply replied, “Yes.” 

“Prior to this legislation in Goshen County, since I’ve been there six years, at no time did an employee or community member have a desire for us to look at Goshen County as a district to start [conceal and carry],” Kramer explained. “Now, I never went out and asked community members or employees and sought that out. But no, I haven’t been approached.”

Maier expressed those in the schools who obtain the conceal and carry permit should wear bright colored clothing or some identifiable sign they are “good people”. 

“Is it possible to say any staff who want to carry have to wear florescent orange so if there is something that happens, the cops come – they don’t shoot them? They see somebody with a gun, what are they going to do?” Maier asked.

“That’s the tricky part. What the legislature has done is they have given us a very small window of what we can add to what the requirements already are. The only thing that we can arguably add is the training piece. That’s it. It is very – it’s not ‘You may do this.’ It is ‘You shall’. It is very, very black and white,” Moeller said. “Because they changed the law, since 2017, which was a little bit looser. This one is ‘This is what you will do and how you’ll do it.’”

According to Johnson, the police department will support the district.

“Obviously, whatever the district decides to do, we’ll support, in terms of training,” Johnson said. 

“It just looks like setting up for failure,” Maier said.

Rotarian Todd Peterson then asked about federal funding and DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion.

“The board is aware of it and the board is in tune with a lot of what’s going on. Especially since the University of Wyoming came out so strongly against it. I think that the difficultly is how you define what a DEI program is,” Moeller said. “If you look at most mission statements of big companies, they include a DEI statement. Almost every company does. Walmart. Amazon. You use it. I promise you; there’s a mission statement that includes DEI. Part of the difficulty is how do you define what a DEI program is?”

“We, to my knowledge, haven’t been threatened with the federal funding being pulled but it’s always something that we’re paying attention to. We’re doing our best to try and navigate that,” Moeller said.

According to Moeller, the federal funding pull isn’t an issue for Goshen County right now but it will be addressed by the district. She further noted trainers have been lost in the district because the trainer’s website contained a DEI statement.

Evezich asked Moeller if the controversy surrounding free school meals had calmed down. 

“I don’t know if it’s settled down. We haven’t formally had it come before the board again, yet,” Moeller explained. “The board did approve free meals for every student in the district. I wish I had the numbers showing the number of meals that have been served with me because they are astronomical. How many additional kids have been fed, since we started doing this. It’s amazing.”

Moeller also expressed she would like to see historical data collected comparing test scores in relation to meals served, noting she feels there is a connection.

“I think that we can afford, as a district, to pay for these kids meals. I think it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what’s going on and what we spend money on,” Moeller stated. “But there are board members that have a different view of it and don’t think that it’s their responsibility to do this.”

After a bit more discussion, Evezich adjourned the meeting.