Hot Springs County schools open option for more training in all three schools

The Hot Springs County School Board voted unanimously to apply for an alternative calendar for the 2022-23 school year, not only for Ralph Witters Elementary, but also for Thermopolis Middle School and Hot Springs County High School, to provide additional teacher training.

According to Superintendent Dustin Hunt, there’s room enough in each building’s schedule to provide nine Fridays of training, which was initially set aside for elementary literacy, but which he acknowledged could also be devoted to math instruction training and other professional development.

The deadline to submit a final calendar to the Wyoming Department of Education is May 1, so not all three schools necessarily need to modify their calendars accordingly, but this gives the district the opportunity to do so for all three, if it chooses.

Hunt warned that recent legislation (see separate story on this page) has created even higher reading standards, and expressed skepticism that such training would be as effective during the summer months, when a number of teachers are more likely to be unavailable.

Neither Hunt nor school board treasurer Nicole Weyer are opposed to further community meetings, although Weyer’s expressed preference was to send correspondence out to the district’s parents, reiterating that no final set decisions have been made yet, but that the district simply wanted the option to include its two other buildings.

Board vice-chair Will Farrell called for another community meeting to discuss the other two buildings, since previous public discussions had only addressed the elementary school.

However the community’s input is solicited, Hunt and board trustee Jennifer Axtell agreed with Farrell that it needs to be solicited before the board’s April meeting, in order to be incorporated into the final calendars submitted by May 1.

Board trustee Clay Van Antwerp prioritized speaking to those buildings before meeting with the public, to see if the principals and staff had any concerns about how altering their calendars might hinder their lessons or programs, and “if they’re on board, then we go to the community.” Concerns were expressed about how this would affect coaching, as well as whether it would limit access to daycare, or create more options for it, but even board chair Sherman Skelton, who relies upon daycare himself, adopted the stance that literacy is a necessity, and therefore takes precedence.

Hot Springs County High School Principal Breez Daniels reported receiving feedback from her teachers that an alternative calendar would be especially beneficial to help them reclaim preparation time, since their collaborative schedules require each teacher to cover multiple subjects per day, a view that Weyer and board clerk Joe Martinez echoed.

Although Martinez briefly expressed concerns that the pace of decision-making might be moving too swiftly to capture sufficient input, Van Antwerp cited the district’s opinion survey in addition to its community meetings, which he and Axtell agreed were not only well-attended, but also drew questions and fostered discussions that they considered “well-thought-out.”Van Antwerp and Skelton even shared the perception that there was an interest in including the other two buildings during those meetings, which Skelton described as “kind of a general mood.”

As far as Hunt is aware, it’s only been relatively recently that all three schools could be included in such a move, although he prefaced his assessment by saying, “This is our first time going through this, (and) it’s been difficult to get a hold of somebody,” to the point that the district had to hunt down the May 1 deadline on the Wyoming Department of Education’s website.

Two community meetings were held, prior to the school board meeting, regarding a proposed calendar change beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, specifically for Ralph Witters Elementary. At the meetings and in a letter sent out by the district, the change was described as an elimination of half a day of school on the second Friday of every month from September-May for kindergarten through fourth grade students.

During this time, RWE teachers would receive training to meet the needs of students in the areas of reading and early literacy. There is increasing pressure from the Wyoming Legislature to improve reading across Wyoming and the Current Required Professional Development Requirements do not allow for additional training for teachers.

The proposed alternative calendar would alter the number of days students would attend school and requires approval from the Wyoming Department of Education. At the time of the meetings, RWE was the main focus of the calendar change so it was used for reference.

RWE currently has 100 contact hours over what is required, leaving room for a schedule adjustment while still meeting the sate criteria. In a letter sent out by Hot Springs County School District on March 9, 2022, it states that this calendar change would affect Ralph Witter Elementary only.

However at the school board meeting the decision was made to include Thermopolis Middle School and Hot Springs County High School in the request to the Department of Education. Making the request for approval does not necessarily mean it will be implemented at all schools.

Multiple options up for consideration were presented to those in attendance at the public meetings, each with their own pros and cons.

Option one is that no student at RWE would attend on the second Friday of each month. Superintendent Dustin Hunt recognized that this could result in challenges such as increased childcare needs for families, students who may be without lunch on Friday and lost hours for some staff members.

Option two would make the second Friday optional for RWE students. Parents would have the choice about attendance and lunch would be possible if numbers were submitted in advance. However due to the unpredictably of the number of students that would attend, there is the potential for wasted resources and funds.

The third option is that students would be required to attend on the second Friday of each month leaving minimal change for families but more required planning for staff. If either option two or option three were to occur, classified staff would supervise students in academic activities and be required to become certified substitutes.

During last Monday’s meeting during the public comment and question period, it was clarified that this schedule, if approved, would be cyclical and occur every year.

One parent spoke about her support of investing time into teachers as reading and writing is important from the start.

Regarding the current reading intervention, the question was raised if that would continue or if the training would be a replacement. Hunt responded that the training would give every teacher the knowledge. There would still be reading intervention although it may look a little different.

The question about consideration of a different day along with time off restriction on the second Friday was also addressed. Teachers are already discouraged from taking time off during the current 18 Fridays that are used for training and that would also apply to the proposed second Friday trainings. Hunt added that no other day has been considered by the district because they would like to keep Monday–Thursday as instructional days. When asked if the buses would be available for students if the second Friday was optional, Hunt replied they would be as the busses would be running anyway.

Hunt also addressed the possibility of pursuing a four-day week, every week, district wide. He explained that doing so would create extremely long days, especially for elementary students, as instructional minutes each day would increase. Practices would also extend later in the evening with the limited gym space and conflict with family and church activities. He added, four-day weeks do support student collaboration schedules and would require a long and costly process to change teacher contracts.