'Boardsmanship' and personnel highlight Thermopolis school board meeting

School Board Chairman Sherman Skelton introduced the topic of boardsmanship during the March 16 meeting of the Hot Springs County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees to remind the board and the community on their responsibilities as a board.

Skelton began by stressing the importance of the board not acting as individuals, but as a group. He then emphasized that they need to maintain an environment of mutual respect between board members and all staff, students and parents in their district. Skelton then stated that the board recognized Superintendent Dustin Hunt as the Executive Officer of the school district.

Skelton then asked that parents who had concerns to follow the chain of command to address any issues they have within the district, beginning with teachers involved and ending with administrators if the problem is not resolved.

During the boardsmanship conversation, Board Trustee Bethany Webber decided that she wanted to apologize for past incidents she was involved in. In the past, the board had been addressing an uptick in vaping at Thermopolis schools, and a lack of action being taken spurred Webber to blame Superintendent Dustin Hunt for the issue. She apologized, and blamed Thermopolis law enforcement instead.

She then apologized for an incident in which she visited a student at their home. No other details were provided by Webber. She said although she was sorry, she wishes that someone “just told her not to.”

For both incidents, Webber said she “had great conversations” with other district staff to learn from past mistakes.

Webber then went on to tell the board that she feels as though she is not trusted, and that she does not trust them.

Board Trustee Clay Van Antwerp then thanked Webber for admitting fault, but then asked of her that if she knows something is a problem to tell the board. Antwerp said if Webber had reason to not trust someone on the board, that she should address it. He continued “I’m not gonna fire someone without evidence.”

Antwerp told Webber that she is obligated to talk to the community to hear their concerns, but that she is also obligated to bring those concerns to the board.

STUDENT AND STAFF RECOGNITIONS

Good sportsmanship awards were given to Kadance Bowman, Delmonico Dukes and Kanyon Gerber, presented by Athletic Director Brandon Deromedi.

Nurse Brenna Huckfeldt was recognized for being the Wyoming School Nurse of the Year.

Aimee Kay, a science educator at the Thermopolis Middle School, announced two finalist candidates for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science teaching from Thermopolis: Emmy Hergert and London Jenks.

Top 10 educators were recognized: Jacob Strenger, Elizabeth Mertz, Ryan Roybal, London Jenks, Shane Corpening and Keliayn Garza.

SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT

Superintendent Dustin Hunt started his segment of the meeting by reminding the board that there will be a workshop on April 6 and 7, where school board members from around the state will be coming for a Professional Learning Communities conference.

He then talked about staff retention, an issue that is being faced by school districts across the nation, including Hot Springs County School District No. 1. Hunt cited a recent survey from the Wyoming Education Association that revealed 65% of teachers in Wyoming would leave the profession if they could. He also noted that as of March 12, there were 291 open positions in education across Wyoming.

To focus back on Thermopolis, he said that his district had a 2.94% turnover rate in 2020, 16.18% in 2021, and 14.71% in 2022. This year, the district has a 7.35% turnover rate.

He also stated that the blame cannot be placed purely on administrators for staff turnover, because administrators are leaving too. A survey he cited said that 40% of administrators will leave their position within the next three years. There are also 900 openings for the position of superintendent available in the United States this year.

Hunt then wanted to reframe the issue, and used the phrase “measure your measures.” He reminded the audience that the success of the school district is not measured by teacher turnover rate but by student achievement. He said “Teacher turnover is a concern, but we don’t measure it in isolation. We have high expectations; we balance student achievement and staff recognition.” He then acknowledged that as the superintendent of the district, he does ask a lot of the teachers. Hunt summarized what he wants from teachers in his district by saying “work hard and be nice.” He outlined how teachers should strive to be better every day and learn from their colleagues.

Hunt went on to demonstrate how the district is trying to address this issue by offering the best possible environment for their staff. He used the teacherages currently being built as an example, as well as the district offering a daycare service for staff with young children.

STAFFING

RECOMMENDATIONS

The following staffing hires were approved during the meeting:

•Katherine Sand as special education teacher for the 2023-24 school year. 

•Aubrey Roybal as middle school assistant track coach for the 2022-23 school year.

•Darren Elder as high school assistant track coach for the 2022-23 school year.

•Desiree Egger as elementary physical education teacher for the 2023-24 school year. 

•Maddie Thompson as elementary teacher for the 2023-24 school year. 

Resignations accepted were as follows:

•Jacob Strenger as middle school assistant track coach.

•Kacey Cahill as Ralph Witters Elementary Teacher at the end of the 2022-23 school year.

•Jackson Chitwood as middle school/high school music teacher at the end of the 2022-23 school year.  

•David Villa as high school head girls basketball coach. 

POLICY

The board approved Policy GBEBB - Professional Expectations for Classified Employees on final reading. Notably, this policy contains a restriction on recording meetings, stating that all parties need to be made aware and agree to the recording. This is more restrictive than required by state law, which is within the rights of the school district to exercise.

The board approved revisions to Policy JBA-E – Equal Education Opportunities grievance form, and JBA – Discrimination – Student Complaint procedure and to Policy AD – Educational Philosophy, School District Mission, and ADC – Tobacco Free Schools.

NEW BUSINESS

It was approved to move forward with advertising for bus security camera bids. The existing security systems on the district’s buses have been deemed inadequate for their needs, and they don’t do a very good job of catching stop-arm violations when a vehicle passes a bus while dropping off a student. The bid is estimated to cost $175,000, and can be reimbursed as a student transportation expense.

The board also approved a plan to replace their older buses, beginning with acquiring two Class A buses, one with a special needs package. Should they receive a grant they are seeking from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, they will have to destroy the buses they are replacing to ensure that they are no longer producing emissions. Otherwise, they plan to sell or salvage the replaced buses.

Approval was given to go out to bid for roof repairs at Ralph Witters Elementary School. The motion was also amended to include doing the same for the vocational building.