The board for Lincoln County School District No. 1 hosted its monthly meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 12. The board approved the district’s mission, vision and values that had been reworked at a  planning session earlier this year.  The district’s revised mission is, “Learn today, lead tomorrow and leave a legacy.” The vision is, “Creating determined leaders, innovative leaders and contributing citizens.”

The board then recessed into an executive session for a student discipline issue. When the meeting resumed, the board approved a motion to accept LCSD No. 1 superintendent Teresa Chaulk’s recommendation from the executive session.

Pool Renovations

Chaulk updated the board on the indoor pool renovations, which hit a roadblock in July after contractors found voids underneath the pool deck, which caused part of the deck to collapse when work was being done on two drains. The district was forced to move and recompact dirt around the pool to increase the compaction rate. 

Chaulk said that work is complete, and now the workers will move on to installing new drains and plumbing. The last items to be installed will be the bleachers and other pool accessories.

“The whole pool shell was exposed, but now the delicate work is over,” Chaulk said. “Clean-up is scheduled for mid-May.”

The district had been using money from a $3.5 million bond that passed in April 2017 to renovate the indoor pool.

The superintendent told the board and the meeting attendees that the pool will be ready for summer swim lessons and USA Swim practices.

Legislative Update

Board members discussed the current Wyoming State legislative session and bills that could directly or indirectly affect education. Funding for Wyoming schools has been a hot topic in the legislature for several years.

“Funding is at another stalemate,” Chaulk said. “These next two weeks are critical. But it’s been a relatively quiet legislative session. Last year was volatile.”

Board member Bob Peternal discussed several bills concerning Wyoming’s energy industry, which generates a large portion of the revenue for the school district. Peternal specifically referenced Senate File 159, the “New opportunities for Wyoming coal-fired generation” bill that addresses the potential closure of local coal-fired power plants. The bill, which passed the Senate and has been referred to the House Minerals Committee, would require utilities to try to sell the power plants rather than close them.

Peternal encouraged locals to contact legislators to support the bills.

“We need people to email legislators when these bills come up,” Peternal said. “We’re in danger of an impact to our revenue for schools.”

Rep. Tom Crank (R-House District 18), is on the Minerals committee that will hear SF159. Sen. Dan Dockstader (R-Senate District 16) sponsored the bill.

Elementary School Consolidation

Chaulk said that next year, the elementary schools will be transferring to one K–6 building in Canyon Elementary. The board has discussed this potential transition before. Chaulk has cited declining enrollment and the limitations of the Kemmerer Elementary School building as reasons for the move.

“One question we keep getting is, ‘What will we call the new school?’ We will keep it as Canyon Elementary for several reasons, but the main one is that we would lose some funding for two years if we went through the process of changing the name now,” Chaulk said.

The superintendent said it will be a big summer transitioning the schools. New Frontier High School will now use the Kemmerer Elementary School building. The district will go before the state school facilities committee in March to receive approval for the final Canyon Elementary School configuration.

Board member updates

At the conclusion of the meeting, Chaulk announced a change to the summary portion of board meetings. Usually, the school principals give a summary to the board members. Now, board members will have an opportunity to give a summary about school or community issues they are aware of or involved with.

Board member Brenda McGinnis said she attended PacifiCorp’s Integrated Resource Plan public input meeting in January. The IRP proposes closing the two remaining units at the Naughton plant, which would greatly affect the county’s revenue.

“Rocky Mountain Power did acknowledge that they had communicated poorly with the communities when they rolled out this IRP in December,” McGinnis said.

The next LCSD No. 1 school board meeting will be on Tuesday, March 12, at 7:00 p.m. at the administration building in Diamondville.