TORRINGTON – The Goshen County School Board Meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 9 where the board immediately went into executive session to discuss a legal matter.

At 7:10 p.m. the regular meeting was called to order by the chairman and the board and public in attendance recited the Pledge of Allegiance. 

Present during the meeting were board members Michael Sussex, Sarah Chaires, Chris Alexander, Carlos Saucedo, Lena Moeller, Dylan Hager, Justin Hurley, and Wade Phipps. Superintendent Ryan Kramer and Kevin Derby, director of curriculum, instruction, and data management, Marcy Cates, business manager, and Loreen Fritzler, secretary. 

The board quickly reviewed adjustments to the agenda, noting the addition of offering teaching contracts for a math teacher at Torrington High School and a math teacher at Southeast Junior High School, pending certification, and a motion was made to accept the agenda with any addenda. 

The board moved on to letter c, the annual budget hearing for the amended FY24 Budget where the board moved into an open hearing where Cates spoke with the trustees about the funds available for the budget. 

 After no comment from the board and no comments from the public, Sussex closed the hearing.

There were no information and proposals for the board to review or participants for the public forum. 

The board quickly moved on to item f, recommended actions where Chaires motioned to accept the consent agenda which was seconded by Saucedo and the consent agenda was approved.

Moving on to old business, the board approved the recommendation to approve the revisions of the district policy 4140 as presented in the second and final reading, item a.

The board accepted the recommendations to approve the revisions of district policy 4150 as presented in the second and final reading, item b.

Moving on to item c, the board approved the revision to district policy 4230 as presented on the second and final reading, as recommended after a brief discussion.

“Can I ask just one quick question?” Moeller asked. “Mr. Kramer, can you explain how this is different or what’s being changed in this particular policy because this is where we talk a lot of numbers about PTO and benefits?”

Kramer turned the floor over to Holly Lara, human resources/public relations director for the district. 

Lara explained the changes reflect the items which were approved by the board from salary relations.  

“The other piece to that, if I may just kind go into a little bit more detail on those just to revisit that was before the PTO was able to be held over at 100 days that was reduced to 75,” Kramer explained. “But there was a big increase in the percentage of reimbursement for those which made a significant difference also the way the wording was, it was really only carrying over 89 days for staff because, well actually it was 88 days. Eighty-eight days for staff because when the time was counted was on July 1 after they had been given PTO for that next school year. So, now it’s at 75. When they get their 12, it actually gets up to 87 with an increase,” Kramer continued. 

Before moving on, Lara corrected a few of Kramer’s calculations.

“It’s 86. They start with 75 days. They are allowed 11,” Lara continued. 

The board moved on to item d, where they approved the revisions of district policy 4230 as presented on the second and final reading as recommended.

The board also approved the proposed revisions to district policy 4330, the medical leave bank, as recommended, on the second and final reading, item e.

Moving on to item f, the board approved the proposed new district policy 4301 to be renumbered as 4175, special education endorsement agreement.

The board moved on to item g, where the board approved a new district policy 4275, a special education specialist assistant certification agreement.

The board quickly moved on to approving item h, where the board approved the proposed revisions to policy 5131.22, student conduct, and activity rules for grades 6-12.

The board approved the proposed new district policy 1200, parental rights, as presented on the second and final reading as recommended in item i.

The board also approved item j, the proposed revisions to district police 9371, board hearing/appeal procedures, rules of practice governing hearings, and contested cases before the board of trustees, as recommended. 

“I would just note that the last two, this one and this one, are being changed pursuant to the state statute. Correct, Mr. Kramer?” Moeller asked to which Kramer confirmed. 

Moving on to new business under item a, the board approved the amended FY 2023-24 district budget as presented and recommended. 

The board moved on to item b, where they considered the approval of a special education contract for student placement services. 

After a brief discussion on the necessity of contracting with Lakemary Center Inc. for student residential placement, education services, and extended school year education services from July 9, 2024, through June 30, 2025, in the total amount of $432,255 paid from general funds reimbursable special education ensued. 

Kramer reassured the board services for the student would all be in Kansas and therefore there was no need to revise the contract to reflect Wyoming State law. 

“That’s where the student placement is,” Kramer explained. “Other than their home being here and it being paid for by Wyoming funds, all services will be rendered in Kansas.”

Hager questioned the dollar amount and Kramer provided some additional information for the board. 

“It really reflects on the needs of the individual and the types of services that will be received,” Kramer explained. “When we get into one of these situations where we have a very high need and very specific need and potential care of that student resulting in specialized employees that are having to work with that student and there is the potential for a lot of physical interaction that could take place. We do not have those services in the state of Wyoming. We don’t have those services in the district so unfortunately, we are tied to those entities that can take a student with high needs and therefore reflective of a very high cost because of the type of care required for that individual,” Kramer continued.  

“I would also add, with this type of placement, when it is a special ed nature, it is reimbursable,” Cates added. “It’s one of those expenditures that we occur in the fiscal year 2025, we are going to see the funds in the fiscal year 2026.”

The board moved on to item c under new business where the board approved maintaining the gate admission prices for the 2024-2025 school year at the rate of $5 per person excluding district students and employees, and a $25 per year for the annual admission pass per district policy 3651.1, gate receipts and admissions.

Cates noted funds were a substantial amount of money and are spent on drug testing, officials, and culminating travel. 

Moving on to item d, the board approved contracting for the 2024-2025 staff profession development services by following the recommendations to approve contracting with the Institute of Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE) for 38 days of in-district profession development coaching and support for special education teachers and intervention teachers for the 2024-2025 school year in the total amount of $106,500 in ESSER funds.

Next, the board approved the purchase of IMSE courses and digital curriculum materials where they approved the purchase of 50 IMSE Interactive OG software license renewals for k-5 and special education staff from IMSE in the amount of $5,312.50, item e.

Moving on to the addenda item, item f, the board approved teaching contracts with Eric Hanson (math) for Torrington High School and Southeast Junior High math teacher, Peter Drewniany for the 2024-2025 school year pending certifications.

Moving on to item g, topic discussion, the board revisited the meeting on Monday, July 8 where the board received feedback from school administrators regarding the district’s vision, mission, and goal statements.

“I just to actually I just want to extend my appreciation or our appreciation for those administrators that came to the meeting last night (Monday) and those that are here tonight,” Saucedo said. “We appreciate your time to come in and again, I enjoyed the discussion, so, thank you.”

Hager also spoke to the board about the progress of the work being made during the planning session, questioning fellow members if the board should impose a deadline before the November election.

“Some of it is time-consuming and we have spent a whole lot of work getting to this point,” Hager said. “I was curious how you guys thought that that’s a priority or we kind of get it started and wait to see if we have a new board. We have done so much work as it is. I don’t want to get to the start of the school year and then stuff comes up and we kick the can down the road and don’t finish what we started. If that’s what we want to do, set some specific dates, if it is a goal to get it done,” Hager continued. 

Sussex and Moeller concurred with Hager’s statements agreeing the board has spent a lot of time with strategic planning.

“Last night’s discussion was fantastic with administrators and so forth and I think that we’re getting really close, although it doesn’t feel like it at times especially lengthy meetings like last night,” Moeller said. “But I think we are getting really close. My personal hope is that many of the board members whose terms are up will run again and we will have some continuity.”

The board agreed to conduct Zoom meetings with those board members who cannot attend further planning sessions, hoping adding flexibility would be helpful with the progression. 

There will be a special board meeting for the annual 2024-2025 FY budget hearing and related budget items on Wednesday, July 17 at 7 p.m.

The annual back-to-school in-service for all district staff will be on Monday, August 12. 

The meeting was adjourned shortly before 8 p.m. and the next regular board meeting will be on Tuesday, August 13 at 7 p.m.