College credit program to continue at HSCHS

The Hot Springs County School District Board of Trustees voted May 20 to approve the proposed fiscal year 2021-22 budget for the Central Wyoming College Board of Cooperative Higher Educational Services (CWC BOCHES), that enables prepared high school students to earn college credits through dual and concurrent enrollment programs.

Mathew Johnson, the concurrent and dual enrollment program director for CWC BOCHES, sent a letter on May 10 to the school district, explaining that Hot Springs County Assessor Dan Webber had estimated a decrease in county valuation of nearly 30%, or roughly $14,000.

As a result, Johnson requested that the district increase its mil levy amount from 3/10 to 4/10, to generate a difference of approximately $11,000, in order to offset most of the decrease in valuation.

“This will allow the partnership between CWC and (the Hot Springs County School District) to continue offering dual credit opportunities for HSCSD students without any limitations on participation,” Johnson wrote in the letter, while also noting that ratification of the budget requires seven of the nine participating represented school boards to approve.

“I know we’ve fluctuated up and down these past couple of years, based on valuation, but I feel comfortable with (Johnson’s) recommendation,” Hot Springs County School District Superintendent Dustin Hunt said.

School Board Treasurer Joe Martinez recalled that Johnson had been checking the valuation funding cut projections as early as March.

“I think, at that time, the projection was a little higher, then it came back down,” Martinez said. “Now it’s back up just slightly again, from 29 to 30%.”According to Martinez, Johnson “feels comfortable” that the current reserves, even when coupled with “this slight increase,” should be able to be maintained at the same level going into the next year.“Between us and the Fremont County School Districts, we’re the only ones who are going to have a reserve,” Martinez said. “They’re not going to have a reserve at all.”Martinez alluded to differences in funding sources and channels, between the Hot Springs and Fremont County school districts, that account for the latter’s difficulties in sustaining reserves, before he shared Johnson’s concerns over dual enrollment in CWC BOCHES.“With dual enrollment, the student becomes a CWC student,” Martinez said. “They’re taking all the coursework through CWC, so it’s a higher cost for dual rather than concurrent enrollment.”By contrast, Martinez elaborated that, under concurrent enrollment, “the teacher in the school district is the teacher for that course, so it actually saves the BOCHES some money.”Martinez added that CWC has offered to incentivize the retention of experienced teachers by paying for them to work toward their master’s degrees, before he lauded Johnson for not only managing and maintaining the concurrent and dual enrollment programs, but also respecting the needs of the reserve from year to year.Board Vice-Chairman Sherman Skelton moved to approve the CWC BOCHES budget as proposed, while Board Trustee Clay Van Antwerp moved that the mil levy amount for CWC BOCHES be increased from 3/10 to 4/10, with Board Clerk Nichole Weyer seconding both motions before their unanimous approval.