by Jess Oaks

joaks@torringtontelegram.com

TORRINGTON – The Goshen County School Board of Trustees met for their regular board meeting on Tuesday, August 13. The meeting was called to order by chairman Michael Sussex at 6:07 p.m. followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Present were Michael Sussex, Sarah Chaires, Chris Alexander, Carlos Saucedo, Lena Moeller, Dylan Hager, Justin Hurley and Wade Phipps. Matthew Cushman was absent. Prior to the regular board session, the trustees attended a work session for district strategic planning session. 

Adjustments were made to the agenda which included moving the Wyoming Food to School presentation to item bb1, prior to the executive session. 

Another adjustment was made by removing section g, where the board was to discuss contracting with LifeSpot for school safety software subscription for 423 district employees and substitutes in the amount of $11,522.52 for the 2024-2025 school year (funding to be determined) which will come before the board at a later date.

The board quickly approved the agenda with addendum and the new agenda was adopted.

Ramona Moody, Goshen County Food Service Director introduced Carla Bankes with the Wyoming Department of Education’s Wyoming Farm to School program.

“Farm to school is simply bringing local products into our schools for our school aged kids to have and local is undefined but we in Wyoming like to serve Wyoming and not Nebraska, Colorado, Utah,” Bankes explained. “The thing that I’m trying to promote here tonight is we have a big USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) grant right now for Farm to school.”

Bankes explained Bobby Lane, a Wyoming producer, was hired to work with producers who would like to participate with schools and there was no financial commitment required from the district to participate in the program.

“It’s simply the schools just buy local and serve it to the kids,” Bankes told the board.

Moving on to item c, the board entered an executive session regarding a legal matter at 7:21 p.m. and the board returned to the regular session at 7:41 p.m.

The board moved on to item d, informational proposals where no action was taken. 

The board heard from the new district administrator Alan VanTilburg and they heard reports on the 2024 summer school elementary summer school principal Tyler Floerchinger and secondary summer school principal Jake Martin. The board also recognized the annual developmental delay classification. 

Moving on to the public forum portion of the meeting there were no participants. 

Moving on to item f, recommended action, Moeller, made a motion to pull item a of the consent agenda, approval of the meeting minutes for the July 8 special meeting, July 9, 2024, regular meeting and July 17, 2024, special meeting and the board went on to approve the bills in section b, as well as the district fiscal statement and fund balance comparison report on item c.

“I am asking that the meeting minutes for July 17, 2024, be amended to notate immediately before it says, ‘Chairman Sussex adjourned the meeting at 7:51 p.m. to include that trustee Moeller requested permission to attend the meeting via Zoom given the recent scrutiny and public records requests that we have received, I would like that to be notated,” Moeller explained. 

A motion was made to approve section a of the consent agenda where the board approved meeting minutes for the July 8 special meeting, July 9, 2024, regular meeting and July 17, 2024, special meeting, with the addition made to the July 17 meeting minutes. 

The board moved on to section d under action items where Kevin Derby was authorized as the district federal programs director for the 2024-2025 school year.  

Under item e, the board approved 2024-2025 school year WDE Chapter 20 Transportation Safety exceptions as presented and item f, where they approved the purchase exceeding $5,000.00 for purchase of News 2 You subscription bundle for special education students from n2y LLC in the total amount of $6,299.93 (general fund special education reimbursable).

The board accepted WDE grants for the 2024-2025 FY as presented: Perkins V Secondary in the amount of $56,196.14; Title I Part A in the amount of $910,597.24; Title II Part A Teacher and Principal Training and Recruiting in the amount of $212,283.93; Title III English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement in the amount of $5,000.00; and Title IV ESEA Student Support and Academic Achievement (SSAE) in the amount of $146,406.18.

The board then approve purchase exceeding $5,000 for the purchase of STAR Autism online resources for the 2024-2025 school year in the amount of $5,850.00 (Title VI-B special education fund) under section h as well as item I where they approve purchase exceeding $5,000.00 for the purchase of HUDL AD package for Southeast Schools athletics in the amount of $8,000.00 (funded by SE Activity fund and building budget).

The board also approved the purchase exceeding $5,000.00 for the purchase of HUDL AD package for Torrington High School athletics in the amount of $8,000.00 (funded THS building budget) under section j. 

On to new business, the board moved on to section a where they accepted the late resignation submitted by half-time district MTSS coordinator, Randy Epler. 

Under new business, section b, the board considered the approval of offering contracts to Trent Weiss as a half-time physical education teacher and half-time academic interventionist at Torrington Middle School, and an employment agreement to Allison Werning as a district social worker. 

On section c of new business, the board approved contracting with BOCES 5 for psychologist services for special education for district school psychological services for the 2024-2025 school year not to exceed $24,000.00 (general fund special education reimbursable).

“We’re partly doing this because that position is remaining unfilled, correct?” Moeller asked Kramer who affirmed the question.

Moving on to section d, the board approved the special education contract with DHH Consulting for teacher of the deaf/hard of hearing student services for the 2024-2025 school year not to exceed $25,000.00 (general fund reimbursable special education).

The board moved on to section e of new business where they approved the proposed revision to the Goshen County School District #1 principal contact document as presented and the board approved the annual membership renewal with the Wyoming School Board’s Association where the purchase exceeding $5,000 for the annual renewal of district membership for the 2024-2025 in the total amount of $14,400.20, under section f.

The board also approved the new section g, under new business, where they approved contracting with JCK Foundation for student assembly presentations for three days of middle school and high school student assembly presentations in the total amount of $12,450.00 (funded by Project AWARE).

The board moved on the additional item h, where the board approved the Child Nutrition Cooperative (CNC) Agreement, where it was recommended the board approve the CNC agreement as revised. 

The board moved on to item I where they considered the approval of rehiring retirees for the 24-25 school year. Staff recommendations to the board were to approve hiring district retiree, Deb Dunbar as a bus driver and retiree Elsie Gray as a bus driver for the district for the 24-25 school year. A motion was made and seconded. The motion carried.

On item g, topics of discussion Moller spoke to the board and community in attendance about increased board presences in the schools and classrooms. 

“Some of the feedback we got from staff and teachers and so forth is that we don’t spend enough time in the buildings. We are not in the classrooms and we’re not seeing things,” Moeller explained. “Which is true. We all have jobs. We all have lives, you know, things we have to do. So my thought is, why not take the opportunity when we have these monthly meetings to go to the building and give the opportunity and the convenience for people to come to us and talk to us. Maybe we schedule a half hour or an hour before the meeting starts for kind of a Q and A or some type of feedback,” Moeller explained.

The discussion continued as the board and superintendent compared school and district calendars.

“I am hope we as a board can get out there and talk to more parents, students, staff, teachers, whoever just to try and bridge that gap just a little bit,” Moeller said. “Maybe we give it a try for six months and see how it goes. That’s assuming we are all hear in six months.”

“This is not necessarily a new topic. We have discussed this in the past,” Sussex explained. “We have never taken any action on it or traction on it but I’m fully in support of giving it a try and going to different schools and different communities to see how it worked. I guess the big question to everybody is that something we want to do? When do we start it and where do we want to start it?” Sussex asked.

“It probably inhibits us for anything on YouTube or Zoom capabilities. We can probably do Zoom but I know one of the biggest things that I get feedback on the YouTube is you can’t hear, and I know that will be something that will be much worse at the other buildings. I am not saying that’s a reason to not go with this because I am firmly in support of this, I just want to make sure everybody’s aware of these are things that will probably have to suffer based on that which is perfectly fine,” Kramer explained to the board.

“I trust that our IT people can figure it out. I really do. We are in the day and age where we do everything by Zoom,” Moeller said. 

The board decided to hold monthly meetings in the schools within the district with the first meeting being held at the Lingle-Fort Laramie High School on September 10 at 7 p.m.

During the superintendent’s report, Kramer spoke to the board on the district staffing hires and transfers. 

The meeting was adjourned at 8: 43 p.m. and the next meeting will be Tuesday, September 10 at 7 p.m. at Lingle-Ft. Laramie High School.