New budget adopted for Ten Sleep School

The budget hearing of the Washakie County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees on July 19 was brief, but the general fund amount of $3,614,275 was announced and adopted by the board.

The school’s business administrator Rachel Casteel prefaced this number by saying that all numbers discussed in the meeting were still preliminary and subject to change. Superintendent Annie Griffin said, “We will have further conversations in August when more information is available.”

Recreational funds were announced to be $37,000, for the purpose of maintaining/improving the town’s park.

Capital construction funds come in at approximately $28,500,000 left to be spent on the construction of the new school.

NEW SCHOOL UPDATE

Griffin began the standard portion of the board meeting by providing an update on the progress being made towards the building of the new school.

She reported that cement pours had been completed to create the ground floor of the school, and that high walls had also been poured. The neighboring ditch has been undergoing construction to cover the portion that borders school grounds, and that has been completed as well. More concrete pours will be carried out to continue adding to the initial structure of the building in the coming weeks.

Griffin said that she has been working closely with contractors to look over items listed in the building contract that can be altered to reduce costs as they come up.

POLICY

The following policies were approved on second reading:

5.05 Graduation Requirements – altered to remove computer science as a graduation requirement, allowing more flexibility in elective courses.

5.08 System of Marks – Changes to how homeroom class affects grades.

5.09 System of Credits – Policy regarding obtaining/transferring of course credits.

5.12 Correspondence Courses – Policy regarding dual/concurrent enrollment courses.

5.18 School Cancellation and Early Releases – Changed wording for announcing school cancellation or early releases from ‘Facebook’ to ‘social media’.

5.38 Lunch – All students who eat at school are to eat their lunch in the school cafeteria, unless special permission has been given to eat elsewhere by school personnel.

5.47 Student Assessment System - Washakie County School District No. 2 will develop a comprehensive student assessment system to measure student proficiency on the required district and state performance standards.

The Work Based Learning Guide was approved, which provides guidelines for students to follow when enrolling and participating in school-to-work programs.

The Student Handbook will be rearranged so that the Concealed Carry Policy will no longer be at the very front of the handbook.

OTHER BUSINESS

Idea 611 Assurance was approved. This documentation acknowledges that the school district has policies in place in compliance with the Wyoming Department of Education regarding special education programs.

One of two SUVs planned to replace a school bus has been obtained by the school district. The bus in the trade was sold for $5,000.

The school will undergo an audit July 25-28.