Your source for news in Hot Springs County
Your source for news in Hot Springs County
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Student numbers in Hot Springs County Schools are holding fairly steady this year with just two fewer students from the end of December to the start of January. December had 640 students enrolled and by the time kids headed back to class in January, there were 638. Third grade, seventh grade and tenth grade all added one student over the break, however, ninth grade, sixth grade, and fifth grade each lost one student and the fourth grade lost two, creating an overall loss of two students. Overall, the numbers are down from this time last year...
Hot Springs County School District Board of Trustees met last week for their January meeting and received the final presentation of the District’s financial audit from Koerwitz, Michel, Wright and Associates. The auditors didn’t find any glaring discrepancies with the annual audit that have not been present before, such as not enough separation between duties in the administrative side of things. This is typical with most businesses in the area since there simply aren’t enough employees to ke...
Named to the Hot Springs County High School Honor Rolls for the first semester are: Superintendent, 4.0: Caydence Becher, McKenna Bomengen, Kamry Bowman, Ashley Brawley, Autumn Brawley, Josiah Butler, James Christensen, Cole Christiansen, William Clark, Jasmine Collins, Kaylee DeVries, Eli Dickey, Bronwyn Dobbins, Kolby George, Sterling Gerber, Xander Getzfreid, Lee Grimm, Tyler Hoskins, Hannah Hu, Tahja Hunt, Courtney Jeunehomme, Hardy Johnson, Tyler Kay, Taydee Landrum, Dakota Leonhardt, Hallie Martinez, Eli McCumber, Wyatt McDermott, Ashley...
Thermopolis Middle School has released the lists of students who had straight A’s, perfect attendance and perfect 6 P’s for the first two quarters of the school year. Straight A’s Fifth Grade — Elizabeth Arcand, Dean Bihr, Lainie Boren, Sharon Burgess, Scott Coale, Nolan Collins, Caden Dodd, Jadeth Elder, Kamryn Farrell, Peyton Green, JolieAnne Herring, Cooper Holman, Taylor Ivie, Kamilla Johnson, Miya Mailloux, Mercede Martinez, Cruz Mascorro, Maile McCumber, Jayssiie Owsley, Charlee Slagle, Alix Sorensen, Cambria Stephensen, Kaycee Stothar...
One of the best things about living in Wyoming is the access parents have to quality schools to ensure their children are getting the best education possible. Its hard sometimes, to know exactly where to look if you’re curious about your own school’s “report card” on education, but the Wyoming Department of Education has created a website to make that job a little easier. At wyomingmeasuresup.com, parents, teachers and others can access information about different schools and school distric...
Hot Springs County School District #1 has announced two of the four Champions for Children this year, Nichole Ciz and Brandon Deromedi. Each year the district chooses four champions and one of those lucky four will be selected at the school district’s Teacher of the Year for 2019. Ciz comes to Thermopolis from Wheatland with her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education from Chadron State College along with a minor in vocal music. She began her career at Ralph Witters Elementary in 2010 and taught kindergarten for four years before moving on...
Students and teacher Britton Van Heule are using the former auto shop space in the Vocational Building to build a new kind of gardener, a "farm bot." Van Heule explained the bot uses a grid system for a vegetable garden, with the programming done by the student. The bot plants the seeds, waters them, and even pulls and kills weeds. Van Heule noted the bots can be ordered from a company in California, and even NASA is considering using them on some of their projects. As for the assembly, Van Heul...
The Hot Springs County School District’s Board of Trustees met on Tuesday and as their first order of business, elected new board officers and distributed the various committees amongst the board. The officers for the coming year actually remained the same as last year with Clay VanAntwerp continuing as board chair, Jennifer Axtell stays on as vice-chair, the clerk remains Joe Martinez and board treasurer is Nichole Weyer. In other business, the board approved a bus stop off of 393 Highway 1... Full story
The Thermopolis Head Start center has been busy this year, welcoming new staff members including teacher Jill Van Heule, teacher aide John Martinez and cook Laura Dockter. These three share a love for children and roots in the community. Dockter said she was becoming bored with retirement and the job was open. Van Heule said her husband has lived in this community for 16 years and supported the program, and the two want to raise their children in the county. Martinez started in February as the...
The Wyoming Coaches Association recently named Thermopolis cross country coach Stephanie Metz and golf coach Joey Johnson as Coaches of the Year for the 2018 fall sports season. This is Metz's sixth year with Hot Springs County School District No. 1, and she was an assistant swim coach before moving to Wyoming. She taught third grade her first year in the district, and during the past five years she has been teaching eigth grade math. One of the years she taught seventh and eighth grade math.... Full story
As students returned from their Thanksgiving break their parents were informed of a new system being used district-wide that added a new level to the security at each of the buildings. The Raptor Visitor Management System allows the schools to better screen visitors, contractors and volunteers at the various buildings. A form of identification, such as a driver’s license, is scanned or manually entered into the system and Raptor will check to ensure no registered sex offenders are entering t...
The Hot Springs County High School Drama Team took first place in 2A at the State Drama Festival this past weekend in Rock Springs. Twenty-four students traveled and competed against students from around the state of Wyoming. In addition to the first place award, they also had six students receive All-State Medals and 19 students receive Honorable Mention awards. The six students that received All-State Medals and a Superior rating are: Ben Manning (Stage Management), Breeze Petty (Stage... Full story
The Wyoming Department of Education recently released the Wyoming Test of Proficiency and Progress (WY-TOPP) results for all schools within Wyoming. Stat Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jillian Balow said, “We went from a paper and pencil, multiple-choice-only test that provided limited useful information to teachers, to an adaptable, interactive, online assessment that gives teachers data that can be used to inform instruction. “I’m so proud of the teachers, principals, tech direc...
Maintenance supervisor Jere Apland reported to the school board last week on the summer maintenance his crew completed. At Ralph Witters Elementary (RWE) they finished the last of the carpet and linoleum replacement on the south end of the building. Apland added next summer will see new flooring in the kitchen and some patching of various spots on the roof. They are systematically replacing carpeting and doing some painting at the middle school. The classrooms should all be finished with their...
The Lights On Afterschool program through the Hot Springs County School District just finished an excellent 2017-2018 year and are already in full swing for another successful year. According to program coordinator Elisa Daniels, 266 children were enrolled in the programs at the schools last year with 238 of those coming on a regular, sometimes daily, basis. There were 109 in the Ralph Witters Elementary (RWE) program, 97 at the middle school, 17 at the high school (robotics) and even 15 little ones in the Pre-K program. When it came to family...
Homecoming for the Thermopolis Bobcats will be next week and the school district is inviting everyone to be a participant as they proclaim “One Town, One Team, One Dream.” The concept is to get the community involved in all the Homecoming activities and see how the environment at the school is changing and evolving into a place students want to be rather than just something they have to finish to get on with their lives. Dean of Students, Curt Mayer, said the change in attitude will hop...
Social Studies teacher Steven Soderstrom comes to us from Colorado, although he is originally a Worland native. Soderstrom teaches tenth grade as well as eighth grade social studies. Previously, he taught in Spearfish, South Dakota and Rifle, Colo. He attended Black Hills State University where he majored in social studies with a history minor and played football for the Yellow Jackets from 2010 to 2014. He is helping with the high school football team here, too. “I’m excited to be back in Wyo...
Two years ago, Thermopolis claimed a victory for vehicular safety when Hot Springs County High School won over Worland High School in the Battle of Belts competition. The “battle,” which was used to make students, staff and parents more aware of their seatbelt habits and improve them if they could, was planned to be a two-year event with Thermopolis working to defend its title in 2018. However, it looks like the local high school will retain the sparkling award — which resembles a WWE champ...
Hot Springs County School District’s Board of Trustees discussed starting a program for three-year-olds at their meeting last week. Amy Ready, who coordinates the early childhood program for the district, said surveys had been sent out to the caregivers and child care providers in the community to get their feedback on the possible start of such a program. There are, of course, pros and cons to the move, and a big part of the discussion is not wanting to create competition or bad feelings with t...
The Wyoming Department of Education released the ACT data for students who took the test this spring. Those students who took the statewide test were juniors this spring, incoming seniors this fall. State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jillian Balow, said, “The ACT is a college readiness exam that opens doors for Wyoming students through the Hathaway Scholarship. “By 2020, 65 percent of all jobs will require training beyond high school according to the Georgetown Center on Education and...
With the new school year comes new staff members. Here are some of the teachers joining Hot Springs County School District #1. Amanda Bridges Amanda Bridges is joining the Ralph Witters Elementary team this year as a third grade teacher. From Denver, Bridges is a 2018 graduate of the University of Wyoming with a degree in Elementary Education and a minor in Literacy. Having spent some time in Wyoming, she knew she wanted to stay because she fell in love with the state and the people. As for her...
Though enrollment numbers in the school district are up compared to the end of the 2017-18 school year — 674 compared to 650 — there was a decrease of 26 students, compared to the 700 at the start of the 2017-18 year. The majority of grades showed lower numbers from year to year, with the only increases in Grades 1, 7, 9 and 12. Enrollment numbers from the start of the 2018-19 school year, as well as the beginning and end of last year, are as follows: Grade 0: Aug. 22, 2018 — 51; May 25, 2018 — 69; Aug. 24, 2017 — 68 Grade 1: Aug. 22, 2018...
Now that the kids are back in school, it might be a good idea to brush up on your knowledge about driving in school zones. Of course, just about everyone is aware of the 20 mph speed limits in school zones, and there are a few of them throughout town to help students get to school safely. However, if you happen to speed through one of those school zones, Wyoming Statute 31-5-301(b)(i) will mean a fine anywhere from $52 to $450 or more, depending on your speed. If you drive through one of the...
With the 2017-18 school year underway, there are plenty of new staff members joining the district. Curt Myer Hot Springs County School District has a new Dean of Students with the move to principal by Catie Deromedi. Curt Myer, a Ten Sleep native and University of Wyoming graduate will be taking on the Dean's duties, splitting his time between the high school and the middle school. Myer has previously taught P.E. and health at the University of Wyoming Prep School in Laramie and not only...
The old joke about the best three things about being a teacher – June, July and August – is pretty outdated these days. No longer do teachers take the summer off, only to return to their classrooms a week or two before classes start to decorate the bulletin boards and make seating charts. These days, teachers spend their time facilitating the summer Lights On programs, providing summer school instruction, working in their classrooms, collaborating with their grade level and content team mem...
