School board elects officers, approves additional bus stop

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 120 West.

Although this particular bus stop is not on a city, county or state maintained road, the Wyoming Department of Education allows boards to approve bus stops off the main thoroughfare based on safety concerns and cost effectiveness.

The stop in question has been inspected and meets all the safety and cost effectiveness concerns and will be used as a stop starting in January.

Along with creating the new bus stop, the board was informed about the consolidation of two in-town routes. The stops themselves have not changed, but rather than using two different busses in the area, a single bus will make both stops.

One item that will affect some parents, however, is the discontinuation of all pre-k transportation beginning January 14.

This change came about because the state will no longer be reimbursing for this type of transportation costs.

The annual approval of the financial audit for the district was also on the agenda for the evening.

A meeting was held previously with Trustee Nichole Weyer, Superintendent Dustin Hunt, Business Manager Chauncy Johnson, the business office staff and Lights On Coordinator Elisa Daniels to review the audit in depth with Michael Wright of Koerwitz, Michel, Wright and Associates.

Due to scheduling conflicts, Wright could not attend Tuesday’s meeting, prompting the in depth meeting ahead of time.

The board approved the audit at the meeting per the Wyoming Department of Education’s requirements for approval before the end of December.