Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
TEN SLEEP – The Washakie County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees met for their regularly scheduled meeting in person and over Zoom on Monday, Oct. 12, to discuss two policies, discuss the Wyoming School Board Association (WSBA) Convention, approve a new mission and goals statement and receive updates on different subjects.
The board discussed policy 5.27 regarding the discipline of students which would add a sentence that would allow for the “administration in consultation with the Building Intervention Team (BIT)” to have the right to decide disciplinary levels and actions different than the discipline policy states.
This addition was presented in order to allow for the administration to administer a discipline should the policy not specifically cover a type of scenario or be an extreme scenario not covered in the original policy. The policy passed after a small discussion on first reading.
The second policy that was discussed was the district’s attendance policy. Principal Levi Collins had asked each level of the school to evaluate the current policy and determine if they felt they needed a change at their level.
Collins told the board that the primary and secondary levels both informed him that they believed the attendance policy should remain as is.
The board approved a mission statement for the school which read as “Ten Sleep Schools will empower all students with 21st century skills to be productive and adaptable in the modern world.”
In the goal statements the school will provide a safe, orderly and caring environment. This will include providing relevant and authentic learning opportunities, strengthening technological skills, monitoring the effectiveness of strategies and performance, as well as focusing on developing a student-centered learning community.
Technology Director Boyd Whitlock provided an update on the technology situation at the school, and said that the school was able to attain MacBooks for the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) lab which was all attained through grant money with the devices currently on order.
He also said there may be some issues attempting to replace 25% of the Chromebooks in the school over time, in order to ensure a new batch of devices each year which most schools do on a rotational basis, since they purchased most of the Chromebooks at the same time.
He discussed with the board why it is important to rotate the devices and replace them 25% at a time, and that they are beginning to look at ways to ensure they are able to maintain functioning technology for each student in coming years and he told the board that the board is beginning to work on a plan for technology over the coming years.
Whitlock also said that they are implementing a new typing program to help ensure that students are able to bring their typing skills to a higher level, along with more programs potentially being implemented in the future to help students.
The board and administration also discussed various aspects of technology and how they may handle them in the future including technological issues they have faced with attempting to stream fall sports this year to help everyone watch due to COVID-19 regulations.
The board decided that board member Megan Truman would be the district’s WSBA delegate for the state convention in November.
Beau Jackson was approved as the middle school boys’ basketball sports aide.
Lacee Greet, Belle Starbuck and Kevin Fuchs were named the students of the month at the elementary, middle school and high school levels, respectively.