School construction a majority of Ten Sleep's new budget

The Washakie County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees approved their 2024-2025 fiscal year budget at the July 17 meeting.

The district has approved $20,717,012 in appropriations, an increase of $57,637 from the prior year. This includes $15 million in capital construction amid the ongoing project of constructing a new school building.

The district’s business manager Rachel Casteel explained the increase, saying, “The increase is primarily due to our salary schedule increase of the base from $43,000 to $44,000. Our building support expenses increased as well due to the fact we are supporting two main buildings at this time. Our student enrollment is down from the previous year and did decrease our Small School Adjustment calculation from the state of Wyoming. The decrease was $61,622 in funding. We anticipate receiving an additional $144,000 in external cost adjustment (ECA) funding from the state to help offset inflation this fiscal year.”

Casteel also noted that the board approved covering the 6.7% increase in health insurance costs for its employees.

The budget is broken down as follows:

General fund: $3,671,912; special revenue: $350,000; major maintenance: $850,000; capital construction: $15,000,000; depreciation: $500,000; food service: $200,000; insurance: $20,100; teacherage: $50,000; activity: $75,000. Total: $20,717,012.

Not included in the total figure, the budget projects “Cash and investments” for their recreation district at $55,954, which was approved separately.

The district has approved $909,716, to be raised through general taxation, an amount determined by the district’s valuation. The assessed valuation of $34,989,078 is an 8.68% decrease from the prior year.

BUILDING REPORT

Superintendent Annie Griffin presented on the ongoing construction of the new school.

Inside the building, work on drywall, cabinet installation and painting is underway. Rock is being installed in the fireplace located in the school’s cafeteria, and tongue-and-groove is being used to finish the wall behind the stairs in the ‘heart’ area of the building.

Work on the exterior of the building is progressing, with the back parking lot, the bus loop, and pads for the school’s backup generator and propane tank all being constructed.

DESIGNATIONS

Annually, the board must approve entities for handling funds, legal representation and publishing their records. The following were approved:

Designation of official depositories: Pinnacle Bank and the Wyoming Government Fund; Designation of Legal Representative: Copenhaver, Kitchen & Kolpitcke LLC. Designation of newspaper of record: Northern Wyoming News and Ten Sleep

Tribute.

FOOD PRICES

School breakfast and lunch prices were approved to remain the same as the previous year, despite a 2.3% increase in costs.

POLICY FIRST

READING

After a lengthy discussion, Policy 2.24 – Superintendent Vacation Leave, Policy 3.37 – Vacation for Certified Staff, and Policy 4.21 – Vacation for Classified Staff were approved for amendment on first reading. The amendments made were an attempt to provide clarity to the procedure for using different categories of leave that staff accumulate annually.

Three categories of leave may be earned. Every employee earns annual leave; that which goes unused will be banked into sick leave at a value of half of the total annual leave that is unused. Sick days banked have a maximum of 70 days.

Staff who work 12 months of the year accumulate vacation leave, at a rate determined by their length of employment and category of employment — classified versus certified. The most “precious resource” of the three categories, vacation leave, “shall be used within 12 months of the end of the year earned with no more than one half of their eligible vacation leave carried over to the following year.”

All policies now include this statement: “If an employee uses all annual leave and accumulated sick leave and more sick time is needed, an employee must use vacation days before requesting from the sick bank or taking unpaid leave.”

The outcome of the conversation of these policies is that the board would like to simplify their vacation policies by combining the superintendent and certified staff leave policies, because they are largely the same. This change will be proposed at the second reading.

POLICY SECOND READING

The following policies were approved on second reading:

Policy 5.53 – Parental Rights: This policy brings the district in line with the Parental Rights Act that went into effect July 1, strengthening communication between the district and parents about changes in students’ mental, physical and emotional health.

Policy 3.63 – District Meal Per Diem: Policy regarding the disbursing of staff per diem payments.

Policy 5.44 – Grievance Procedure: Added an extension regarding Policy 5.53 – Parental Rights that outlines how parents are to approach compliance issues.

FFA AND SKILLSUSA SALARIES

The board approved an increase to the salaries earned by FFA sponsors and assistant sponsors and SkillsUSA coaches to bring them in line with district coaching staff. Griffin said, “The hours that these staff put into these activities, between working with the students, travelling and competing, is on par with any of our other coaching positions, and they should be compensated the same.”