Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
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GILLETTE — A Campbell County state legislator has withdrawn a controversial bill he’d proposed on firearms reporting for national background checks. Rep. Bill Pownall, a Republican who serves on the Judiciary Committee, has withdrawn House Bill 59 from consideration in the state Legislature’s 24-day budget session that started Monday. The bill and its sponsor have been the target of much criticism on social media since it came up for introduction. It would have had to receive a two-thirds majority vote in the House just to be considered, which...
GILLETTE — If a proposal gets final approval, armed educators in the Campbell County School District will be trained to run toward danger, not away from it. That’s what Larry Reznicek, human resources manager in the school district, told those gathered Tuesday night as he answered what if and scenario-related questions from the public. The number of district employees at the hearing outnumbered those who showed up to make comments and asked questions during the 30-minute session. “This is intended for the very worst moment that could ever...
GILLETTE — School trustees have unanimously approved a policy and regulations that would allow educators to conceal carry handguns in six rural schools in Campbell County. The approval of the five trustees iat a Tuesday meeting came on first reading of the proposal that exceeds state requirements. After undergoing three public hearings on the proposal, the board will be asked to OK the measure in a final reading, said trustee chairwoman Anne Ochs. Administrators covered nearly all 30 pages of the proposal — something that took just shy of an...
GILLETTE — Less than a week before a hearing about the status and pressures on Wyoming teaching salaries, a national poll ranked the Cowboy State fourth best in the nation for those in the teaching profession. That’s a different message than what the Joint Education Committee heard from its own economic consultant last week. Instead, Christina Stoddard told the legislators what superintendents and school board members from throughout the state later testified to: Teaching salaries, although among the best in the region, have eroded and fal...
GILLETTE — Another federal law change is leading to some questions in Wyoming about youth and putting the future of group homes and crisis shelters at risk. At least that’s the assessment of two Gillette officials who asked the Joint Judiciary Interim Committee last week to delay work on a bill to establish creation of a Family First Prevention Services Act. YES House Executive Director Sheri England and Rep. Scott Clem, a Gillette Republican and former coordinator of the boys home at the YES House, spoke against producing a draft bill to mee...
GILLETTE — Much of the discussion about a controversial Campbell County Republican Party resolution was derailed Saturday when the party chairwoman agreed it was out of order and an appeal of that ruling failed. Bill Fortner had proposed a resolution that would allow the party to disqualify any candidate running as a Republican in Campbell County who didn’t uphold the beliefs of the party’s platform. He had even proposed an 80/20 rule, saying the party could not recognize a candidate as being Republican if they didn’t vote for the platfor...
GILLETTE — Jenny Carroll fought through nerves and tears Thursday night to tell how she opposes the Campbell County School District moving forward on a policy that would arm teachers and school employees. She was one of 11 people who spoke Thursday night in the first of three public listening sessions in Gillette about how they feel about the district looking into a new state policy adopted by the Wyoming Legislature in its 2017 session. Since the statute took effect, two school districts in Wyoming have adopted it. Several other districts a...
GILLETTE — Hours after ending a lockdown at Sage Valley Junior High School over a threat to shoot students and faculty, Kirby Eisenhauer found himself talking to the school board about a new safety system a committee is recommending to test in the Campbell County School District. Eisenhauer, the district’s deputy superintendent, said he has been meeting with a committee to examine ways to improve security, safety and crisis systems throughout the K-12 schools in Campbell County. His presentation was planned well before the incident just sev...
GILLETTE — It was pretty much par for the course for Campbell County School District trustees in approving the district’s 2019 fiscal year budgets. Except for one thing — $11.3 million of one thing. That’s the amount of recapture money the Campbell County School District will send to the state of Wyoming in 2019, about a 301 percent increase from a year ago. It’s something the school district has done since 1984 as one of the richest districts in the state. The money is put into the state’s School Foundation program to pay for schools and...