District business manager set to retire after 25 years

WORLAND – Jack Stott has been the business manager of Washakie County School District (WCSD) No. 1 since 1995, and on Monday night the WCSD No. 1 Board of Trustees accepted his letter of resignation for retirement.

"With regret it is a celebration tonight of the most celebrated business manager in Wyomings, my friend Jack Stott," Superintendent David Nicholas said.

Stott said he does not plan to retire until the end of February but cited that he plans to retire in order to spend more time with his parents who are in their 90s, and to serve a mission for his church.

Administrators from around the district congratulated Stott during their briefings to the board, along with school board members who wished him well.

The trustees discussed and approved a potential project with Stott and Nicholas that would impact the way watering would be done at West Side Elementary. According to Nicholas, approximately $10,000 is spent every year just on watering the grass at West Side.

Nicholas said that they have been in discussion with Wyoming Sugar and the landowners near West Side about the idea of creating a settling pond that would be filled with irrigation water to be used for grass watering at the school.

Nicholas said that the project would top out at about $70,000 and the payback for the project would take around five years to recuperate.

Stott said that the Brian Burky on behalf of the City of Worland also approached the district as the city wants to convert the watering system at Newell-Sargent Park to a settling pond as well. Stott told the board that there is a possibility that both the district and the city would work together to fund and create the pond.

The project would need to go through a bidding process, and Stott explained that the funds for the project would not be able to come from major maintenance funding, as an expansion project is not seen as a repair and would not qualify for those funds.

The board approved on first reading a change to policy 1.15m regarding the reduction in force. The policy will add additional criteria to the policy that will include performance to the measurement when it comes to when staff will be retained. The current policy only states that the reduction shall be done on a "seniority and certification basis," and with this new policy performance standards will be included on top of those previous standards.

"My job is to keep the best teachers in front of our children and I think that this does this," Nicholas said.

The board must do two additional readings before the policy is officially changed.

More on the board meeting can be found on page A11.