Your source for news in Hot Springs County
Your source for news in Hot Springs County
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The Hot Springs County School District is losing an educator this year who has spent 34 years with the district, teaching everything from first grade to online courses at the high school, Ronda Freel. Freel started out at the Hamilton Dome school teaching third and fourth grade from 1984 to 1991. She worked her way up to being lead teacher at the Dome until classes had shrunk so much they were down to a single classroom. “It was awesome out there,” Freel said. “We were our own little community. Everyone came to all the programs and thing...
Friday at Thermopolis Middle School, staff honored the seventh and eighth graders with various awards, along with presenting the eighth grade with certificates of completion. Those receiving certificates of completion are: Austin Barral, Kaitee Barton, Caydence Becher, Jason Bowman, Kamry Bowman, Autumn Brawley, Mariah Brooks, Tristin Brown, Michelle Burgess, Josiah Butler, James Christensen, Cole Christiansen, Johnnie Christman, William Clark, Ayden Cox, Adley Coyne, Rylen Davis, Shauna...
Editor's note: Among the lists presented to The Independent Record, some did not list the award or the full names of the students. Attempts were made to gather this information with no response. Ralph Witters Elementary celebrated the successes of its students last Thursday at the auditorium. Among those presented were awards for improvement in various subjects as well as classroom performance, attitude and personality. Most Improved Awards First Grade: Reading Colton Blakesley, Math Hunter...
Caps went up and confetti came down with the presentation of the Hot Springs County High School Class of 2018. During the ceremony, Salutatorian Shianne Yarrington and Valedictorians Haley McDermott, Mary Ryan and Stormy Cox gave advice to their classmates, entertained the audience and provided some humorous comments about the class. See their speeches on Page 12....
Hot Springs County High School seniors were awarded with $519,826 in scholarship monies on Tuesday night, including $82,610 from local scholarships. School scholarships included: Mary Ryan, University of Wyoming Trustees Emmie Coyne, Wyoming Scholar, Hathaway Merit Honors Haley McDermott, Wyoming Scholar, Hathaway Merit Honors Eric Range, UW Hathaway Merit Opportunity Wyatt Wright, UW Hathaway Merit Honors Cade Zupan, UW Hathaway Merit Performance Andrew Yarbrough, Horatio Alger and Lakeland...
At a special meeting of the Hot Springs County School District Board of Trustees Monday night, the resignation of Laurie Graves, Ralph Witters Elementary principal was accepted. “I have had truly mixed emotions,” Graves said. “It took a lot of time to make this decision.” Graves will be taking a principal’s position at Meadowlark Elementary in Buffalo. The move will put her in closer proximity to her husband who lives in Sheridan and to her elderly parents. “It will be a tough good-bye here,” she said. “I love the staff. We have created a...
Parents and members of the community were invited to a public informational meeting at the auditorium on Monday to hear about the safety measures that are in place and the next steps in the process. “We built these buildings so the students could learn,” Superintendent Dustin Hunt said. “We need to keep students and staff safe while they’re in here.” The purpose of the meeting was to primarily deal with active shooter situations and what the district has done to be prepared. The first line of d...
Hot Springs County High School students brought home 14 blue ribbons from the 50th Wyoming High School Art Symposium, as well as the school's first ever Congressional Award, won by Stormy Cox. Only 24 pieces from the 5,000 submitted are chosen for a Congressional Award. In addition, Cox's work will be transported to Cheyenne and displayed in the capitol building over the summer. Cox also received three blue ribbons. Other blue ribbon recipients were Chauncey Morris with three, Mya Holman with...
Thermopolis FFA was named the reserve champion in the Agriculture Issues Forum at the 91st annual State Convention in Cheyenne April 18-21. Team members include Mary Ryan, Jeffery VanAntwerp, Josi Thurgood, Lauren Reed, Tyne Vilapando, Kaitlyn Schmuck and Hannah Hurley. In a fun pre-session game, VanAntwerp was crowned Mr. FFA. Regarding the chapter's title in the Agriculture Issues Forum, VanAntwerp said the team worked hard to prepare for the event, going over the script and their talking...
Hot Springs County School District’s Board of Trustees met on Tuesday evening for their April meeting, addressing several items of interest. One of those items was staffing recommendations for the coming year. The board accepted a resignation notice from Jill Strenger as a special education teacher at the end of this year and the resignation of Holly Mickelson as an elementary teacher. Jerry Bowman has tendered his resignation as Transportation Director, effective June 30. Justin Smith and A...
Mass shootings, school shootings in particular, seem to have become an almost weekly occurrence in the United States. Parents and citizens are calling out for more security in our schools and the school districts are doing all they can, as quickly as they can, to provide that additional level of security. Hot Springs County School District is currently working on a single point of entry system in all three schools that includes a ‘buzz in-buzz out’ area at each main entrance. According to Sup...
Several coaching positions are coming open for the 2018-2019 school year at Hot Springs County High School. The district will be searching for a new head golf coach, head girls basketball coach, head boys basketball coach, head wrestling coach and head track and field coach. As these are personnel matters, the school district is not releasing much information on the openings, however, some are due to coaches moving to other districts and resignations from coaching positions although some will retain their teaching positions. Activities...
The change in leadership and structure at Hot Springs County High School has been a bit confusing and sometimes frustrating for students and parents, however, those changes have created some excellent outcomes. The most dramatic changes have come in the form of student grades. During the first semester of the 2016-2017 school year, 41% of the student body had D or F grades. That amounted to 211 D and F grades among students. During the first semester of this year, 2017-208, that number has dropp...
The Wyoming FFA Association has announced the recipients of the 2018 Wyoming State FFA Degree, the highest award the state can bestow on its members. A total of 194 members representing 45 Wyoming FFA chapters earned the degree. These members will receive their degrees on April 19, as part of the Wyoming FFA Convention, held in Cheyenne each year. Among those from Thermopolis earning their degrees are Strite Daniels, Kaitlyn Schmuck and Tyne Vialpando. “The State FFA Degree is awarded to FFA members who have demonstrated the highest level of c...
There will be a few changes at Hot Springs County High School next year with a move to six periods of 60 minutes each rather than the seven periods of 55 minutes they are experiencing now. At Tuesday night’s school board meeting, principal Breez Daniels said not only are they looking at a period change, but a change in the schedules for Fridays as well. “We want to keep everything,” she said, “just concentrate it down more.” Another issue that has arisen is possible damage taking online cl...
Thermopolis Middle School was recently selected as one of three finalists for the prestigious DuFour Award, presented by Solution Tree during the Summit on Professional Learning Community At Work™ in Phoenix Feb. 20-22. Though TMS was not selected as the recipient, 5-12 principal Breez Longwell Daniels noted the school’s representatives, which included herself, Eric Kay, Cassie Hetzel and Jacob Strenger, were able to meet with representatives of the other nominated schools and discuss what the...
For the past few years, students at Thermopolis Middle School have been kept up with the happenings at their building through the TMS Gazette. Hayden Mayne explained the origins of the publication, which began when he was in fifth grade with copies he drew up and wrote. “Mainly because I was bored,” he said, “I just wanted to have something to do on my own time.” In sixth and seventh grade, he started making print copies online, using his cell phone for pictures. It originally began as the Tea...
The Hot Springs County High School Board of Trustees received their annual audit report at their Feb. 20 meeting, courtesy of Michel, Wright and Associates. Michael Wright informed the board there were no problems with compliance with the exception of some minor issues. Compliance audits focus on federal grants. Wright indicated the district needs to work on keeping track of documentation. If there is no documentation on where grant funds were spent, the grantor assumes the money has not been...
This past weekend saw the two Thermopolis teams — Fistful of Axles and Aluminati — at the Wyoming State Championship in Casper, with Aluminati bringing home the Motivate Award. The team had previously won the Think Award at the Montana State Championships. The Motivate Award, teacher London Jenks explained, is presented to the team representing the essence of the FIRST Tech challenge competition through team building, team spirit, showing enthusiasm and connections with the school and com...
Emmy Hergert addresses students at Thermopolis Middle School, after being named the third Champion for Children for the school year....
Wednesday, May 7 was National Signing Day, and at Hot Springs County High School Noah Schwalbe and family members were on hand to witness Noah signing to play for the Eagles at Chadron State College (CSC) in Nebraska. As for his decision to go to CSC, Schwalbe said he went to the campus and it just felt right to him. Having not made any verbal commitment to a school at the time, he didn't say yes to CSC's offer right away but did so after a walk around the campus. Schwalbe will attend on a...
Hot on the heels of Thermopolis Middle School teacher Shannon Hill's receiving the prestigious Milken Educator Award, the middle school has been named one of three finalists for the Solution Tree third annual DuFour Award. The award honors one high-performing school that is recognized as a Professional Learning Community At Work™ model school. Established in 2015, the award is named in honor of the late Dr. Richard DuFour. An award-winning educator and best-selling author, Dr. DuFour was r...
Named to the Hot Springs County High School Honor Rolls for the first semester are: Superintendent, 4.0: McKenna Bomengen, Ashley Brawley, KyAnn Calhoun, Stormy Cox, Brianna DeVries, Kaylee DeVries, Kolby George, Hannah Hu, Tahja Hunt, Tyler Kay, Barbara Kissel, McKayla Layman, Dakota Leonhardt, Daniel Leonhardt, Haley McDermott, Ashley McPhie, Tyson Medina, Breeze Petty, Lane Randall, Lauren Reed, Hyrum Rich, Alexandra Russell, Mary Ryan, Reagan Severance, Madeline Stam, Jeffery VanAntwerp, Tyne Vialpando, Elisa Weber, Olivia Weyer and...
Thermopolis Middle School recently released the lists of students achieving straight A’s and having perfect attendance for the first two quarters of the school year. Straight A’s Quarter 1 Fifth Grade — Maddison Andreen, Christian Arends, Kaylee Bazzle, Gage Bowman, Aspen Brooks, Brendan Butler, Sophia Conrad, Brailee DeVries, Timber Eckley, Hannah Hill, Tera Kraushaar, Zoey Larson, Rylee McConkie, Hayden Overfield, Sydney Peterson, Brody Potter, Brooke Richter, Austin Slagle, Brody Sorenson, Zane Stam, Ben Weaver and Rosalie Willson Sixth Grad...
The 2018 HSCHS Athletics Hall of Fame is taking nominations through May 1 for this year’s class of inductees. The categories for hall of fame members are Male Athlete, Female Athlete, Coach/Administrator, and Special Contributor Nomination. Forms are available at Owl Creek Graphics at 527 Broadway Street or can be requested via email at markw@rtconnect.net. Completed forms can be returned via email or mailed to: Hall of Fame, P.O. Box 1326, Thermopolis, WY 82443. The awards ceremony date this year is Friday, July 13, to tie in with reunion w...
