GOSHEN COUNTY – The Goshen County School District Board of Trustees held the regular board meeting on Tuesday, April 8. Originally, the meeting was scheduled to be held at Lincoln Elementary however, due to a conflict of scheduling, the meeting was held at the central administration office in Torrington. 

The meeting began at 5:15 p.m. with an executive session for personnel and a student discipline matter, which is confidential by law, the district noted on their agenda for the evening. 

Present at the meeting were student body representatives from Platte River High School (PRS), Aaron Dykes, Lingle-Ft. Laramie High School (LFL), Kaiten Schilreff and Southeast High School (SHS), Kaycee Kosmicki. District employees, Kevin Derby, Marcy Gates and Kim Snyder. Superintendent Ryan Kramer along with board members Val Sharp, Chris Alexander, Wade Phipps, Tony Goulart, Dylan Hager, Kelly Strampe, Sarah Chaires and Lena Moeller, chairwoman, were also present. Kate Steinbeck, board member, appeared via zoom. 

Moeller called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. and the Pledge of Allegiance followed thereafter. 

Chaires made a motion to accept the evenings agenda which was seconded by Hager. The motion carried by vote and the agenda was approved. 

Next, the board moved on to item four of the agenda, information and proposals where the student representatives provided their presentation to the board. Kramer presented the representatives with an assignment related to continuing education readiness.

“Hello, I am Kaiten Schilreff and I’m a junior at LFL. When I asked my peers if they felt prepared to graduate, the majority answer honestly shocked me a lot. Everyone said ‘No’. I asked for reasons to support their answer,” Schilreff said. “Here are some of the reasons that they had come up with. The first reason was taxes. They didn’t feel prepared for the outside world or any outside situations. They were not mentally ready. They didn’t want to leave friends and family behind. We don’t have enough help on understanding huge situations or decisions. They’re not ready for a higher level of education and the pressure on making important decisions.”

“Now, this last one is something that was hard to agree on but was also an issue that is visible within our school. We are not strict enough on – our school is giving us too much leeway and we’re not sticking to our rules and our deadlines,” Schilreff said. “For instance, our phones. A lot of teachers let us sit on our phones even though it’s something that was just talked about and they do not stick to our deadlines as much as they should. They’ll have a deadline and they’ll extend it and extend it and extend it because we’re not paying attention in class. They just feel like we need more time even though we don’t because we’re not paying attention in class or we’re just visibly sitting there on our phones not paying attention. So, with this, our schools truly are not preparing us enough 100% for real life or our futures after graduation,” Schilreff concluded. 

Kosmicki had another variation of the report for the board. 

“Hello, I’m Kaycee Kosmicki from SHS. When I asked my peers what they thought I got a little bit of ‘yes’ and ‘no’. My ‘yes’ reasons are students have work experience with what they want to do in college to help prepare. The college classes that EWC (Eastern Wyoming College) provides for us really helps with preparation what college classes are like and helps to get the early credits out of the way, so, college isn’t as overwhelming. Students are ready for the next level of education and have been prepared to have self-confidence or that they are ready for college. Teachers have taught students to be responsible with turning in their work on time,” Kosmicki explained. “Teachers also try to relay as much stuff as they can back to college to help prepare the students. Students are confident with doing the schoolwork but might need a little bit more preparation.”

“Some of my ‘no’ answers are that students feel they are not ready because college is way stricter and there are not as many retakes, if any. High school is way more flexible with their times than college will be and having more classes to help with life skills during high school before leaving for college could help the students when they’re on their own,” Kosmicki concluded. 

Next, Dykes spoke to the board. 

“I am Aaron Dykes. I asked my classmates, my peers, about some questions regarding the board’s question about if they’re ready to graduate. It was a pretty broad question so, I have three different areas I went off of and asked some questions about these areas,” Dykes explained. “First, is academic preparedness, second is social and emotional readiness and third is career and life skills. In terms of academic preparedness, my classmates felt that they were confident in their abilities to problem solve in the real world and plan to continue schooling or get a job after graduation. In terms of social and emotional readiness, my classmates felt that they were ready to manage their times and schedules themselves.”

“Due to PRS not having a bell schedule like a traditional high school, students are required to manage their own time and because they manage their own time and assignments based on deadlines set within the platform we use, they tend to get their  – if they don’t get it done they have to retake so they are very efficient with their time spent. In order for students to be successful at PRS, they have to be self-disciplined and self-motivated,” Dykes explained. “In terms of career and life skills, my classmates felt they had enough experience and understanding to set goals, work together with others, fulfill leadership roles, persevere and advocate for themselves.”

PRS provided a presentation to the board. 

During committee reports by board members, 4.3 on the agenda, Sharp from the district policy committee provided their report to the board. 

“Just like to report that we met last April Fool’s Day, April 1st and we reviewed three policies that have already been to the board for their first reading. They’re now being presented for their second reading. They’re on building and grounds non-discrimination and anti-harassment and artificial intelligence. So, they are all in our packets to look at today. We are continuing to review and revise policy number 2421. It’s online. It’s staff communications/organization we’re mainly looking at the organizational chart right at the moment,” Sharp explained. 

Alexander provided the district activity advisory council committee update for the board. 

“We’ve been going over girls wrestling. Again, we have so many things going on. We have so many groups of kids that are really getting interested in the wrestling and everything. It’s hard to find enough places for them to have their practices and the times where they’re overlapping each other. We just don’t have the room to try to get everybody in and get the kids to the practice that they need. We just getting into younger and younger that are getting more interested in actually getting into the sports,” Alexander explained.

Alexander noted new district sports programs will be presented to the board soon.

For the salary relations committee, both Moeller and Goulart reported to the board.

“Salary relations. That’s the big one I don’t even know you guys want to give a recap. Just so everyone knows we’ve spent a lot of time here recently with salary relations last Friday we spent all day literally from 8 a.m. until, I think, we got done at 5:15 p.m., going through everything that’s being presented tonight. Very, very good conversations,” Moeller said. “I really truly appreciate this committee. I enjoy being on this committee. Some days I struggle with it because it’s a lot and sometimes they’re pretty intense topics but we ended on a really good note. I’m very, very thankful for everyone that serves on that committee because it’s a lot it’s a big-time commitment and big decisions are made,” Moeller said opening the floor to Goulart.

“I would add is to say thank you to everybody that served on the committee. When I first agreed to serve on that committee, I guess, I kind of had a cringe moment where I wasn’t sure what I was getting into and actually I got to meet and work with some great people. We had some really honest and forthright discussions and I enjoyed it thoroughly, I really did and it helped that things came out good and I won’t steal the thunder on that one yet,” Goulart said.

Kramer noted the committee had spent 20 hours on salary relations.

Moving on to item five, public comment there were no participants. 

Under item six, the consent agenda, the board approved items 6.1, March 11, 2025, regular board meeting; item 6.2, the special board meeting minutes from March 24, 2025, and item 6.3, the March 31, 2025, special board meeting minutes and the board work session. On item 6.4, the board approved the monthly bills as presented; 6.5, the district monthly fiscal statement and fund balance and 6.6, additional 2024-2025 school year Wyoming Department of Education Chapter 20 transportation safety expectations as presented.

The board also approved 6.7, an exception to the field trip policy allowing Trail Elementary fifth grade students to travel to the University of Wyoming; 6.8, where they approved an exception to the field trip policy allowing Trail Elementary fifth grade students to travel to Glendo Reservoir; 6.9, allowing for Torrington Middle School sixth grade students to travel to the Denver Art Museum and item 6.10, another field trip exception allowing SHS Senior class to travel to Topp Golf. 

Also approve under the consent agenda were items 6.11, where the board approved a purchase for 10 football helmets and six shoulder pads for Torrington High School; item 6.12, a purchase of classroom tables, chairs and stools for Torrington High School Outfitters and item 6.13, a special education contract for student placement services with Wyoming Behavioral Institute. 

Under old business, item seven, the board moved on to consider approval of proposed revisions to district policy 3621, building and grounds maintenance, 7.1. It was recommended to approve the revisions on the second and final reading. Chaires made the motion, which was seconded and the motion carried by vote. 

The board also approved item 7.2 under new business, where they approved the proposed revisions to district policy 4300/5100, non-discrimination and anti-harassment procedure on the second and final reading. 

Under item 7.3 of new business, the board approved the proposed new district policy 4345/5129, artificial intelligence, as presented on the second and final reading. Moving on to new business, item eight, the board considered action resulting from the executive session for student disciplinary hearing, 8.1. Next, under new business item 8.2, the board considered approval of district employee salary and benefits compensation proposal for the 2025-2026 school year. Moving on to item 8.3 of new business, the board considered the approval of offering teaching contracts, renewal of initial contract teachers and annual employment agreements for the 2025-2026 school year. Under item 8.4 of new business, the board considered the approval of officering an employment agreement for the 2025-26 school year to Lori Rosson as a district speech language pathologist for the 2025-26. Next, the board approved considering the resignations received from Trail Special Education teacher, Chelsea Hibben and LFL High School Social Studies teacher, Neil Baker, both effective at the end of the 2024-25 school year under item 8.5 of new business. Moving on to new business item 8.6, the board approved rescinding a previous contract awarded to Pittman Electric in the amount of $15,300, which only quoted LFL High School gym lighting updates. Under item 8.7 of new business, the board considered the approval of contracting for gymnasium lighting update projects. The board approved contracting with High Pointe Electric for lighting upgrades in the LFL High School film and the middle school gym. Next, under 8.8 of new business, the board moved on to approving the purchase of a new shop truck for transportation from Melloy Auto Group. Item 8.9 under new business, the board approved the purchase of district copy paper where the district will purchase 840 cases of copy paper from Contract Paper Group. Under new business item 8.10, the board approved the purchase exceeding $5,000 for district custodial cleaning and disinfecting supplies. On item 8.11 under new business, the board approved contracting with Writing Revolution for additional professional development services for the district. The board also approved item 8.12, where they approved amending the 2024-25 contract with Crafted Consulting LLC for three additional days of professional development for principal planning. Items 8.13, approval of amending the current 2024-25 contract with Tiny Eye for student speech language services and 8.14, approval of the virtual education handbook also passed by vote. 

Moving on to board topics for discussion Moeller spoke on increasing the purchase value limit for the district. 

“Trustee Hager had brought up during our last meeting, to discuss the purchase value limits of items placed on agendas for board approval,” Moeller explained. “I understand that Ms. Cates has provided us with a couple of attachments for that and kind of explains the history and what the policy is currently.”

After a brief explanation from Cates, the board turned the issue over to the policy committee. 

“Just a couple of things that I wanted to throw out there for discussion with this particular board. I’ve been approached a couple of times about what involvement, if any, the school district has in LifeWise and the services that are being provided to a couple of students over at LFL. I just want to make it really clear, because have been so many questions, that that is not something that the school district has any participation in,” Moeller said. “The students can be taken out of school during the middle of the day per the request of their parent. It’s no different than an orthodontic appointment, a doctor appointment, whatever it might be. The school district cannot stop a parent from doing that. The school district is not providing busing. We are not providing staffing. We are not providing anything other than making sure that the child is making it to the bus safely and then comes back into the school after being returned. I just want to throw that out there because I’ve been asked a lot of questions within the last two or three weeks about this,” Moeller said.

Steinbock asked for clarification where the kids were going, making sure she understood transportation was privided by the program not the district.

“Yes, there is a vehicle that picks the kids up,” Moeller said.

“They changed their venue. It’s a block away so they’re walking,” Cory Gilcrest, LFL Principal added.

Gilcrest also confirmed the students had adult supervision while walking from the school to their venue. Moeller confirmed the adults were not district employees. The chairwoman also confirmed the LifeWise program is at the end of the school day so the children are not removed from core classes. 

According to Kramer, as a national organization, LifeWise has been “very good to work with”. 

“In their first inclination in their local interest, I was with three community members and a Zoom from one of their supervisors at the national level, which is out of Ohio. That was last May when we participated in that and just kind of coordinating with the local individuals here as they’ve work individually with Mr. Gilcrest to coordinate whether it would be through scheduling, to look at as trustee Moeller referenced the non-core academics. So, the times in which students, one day out of the week, are in these special – which would be PE, library or music that is rotated throughout the week. Also, because it is only one day out of the week, students are still having access to those courses the remainder of the week,” Kramer explained.

“The next subject I wanted to bring to the board’s attention and this is something we briefly have touched on is the gun legislation. That is something we are going to be asked to address here very quickly. Partly because there are some specific rules required for us as a board to address and adopt and discuss what that looks like,” Moeller said. “We’ve got to get to work on that before school starts in August so we only have a certain time period. With that we will be offering public forums to allow public input. We will be advertising that and discussing that more but did just want to put that out there that that is something that we will be working on. We have 45 days from the day that we start these public forums to when the board makes a decision. That 45 days, if we were to do it before August 1, to kind of give us a ballpark, would be June 20. So, we will be jumping on this fairly quickly. My understanding is we don’t have a lot of options. It’s primarily surrounding education and training with the open carry. That’s something that we will be addressing here very shortly,” Moeller continued.

After a short discussion on the budget, the board moved on to the superintendent’s report and followed by adjournment. 

District graduation has been scheduled for Wednesday, May 14 at 5 p.m. for PRS (EWC Auditorium) and on Sunday, May 18 at 1 p.m. for LFL; 2:30 p.m. for SHS and 4 p.m. for Torrington High School. 

The next regular board meeting will be on Tuesday, May 13 at 6 p.m. at Lincoln Elementary.