Justin Budd elected school board chairman

At the December 19 Hot Springs County School District board of trustees meeting, an election of officers was held. Newly elected trustees were present, including Marshall Keller, Justin Budd, Jean Skelton and Nichole Weyer. They were joined by Sherman Skelton, Jennifer Axtell and Bethany Webber.

For the election of officers, Marshall Keller nominated Justin Budd for chairman, and Nichole Weyer nominated Jennifer Axtell. Justin Budd, Bethany Webber, Jean Skelton and Marshall Keller voted for Budd for chair. Sherman Skelton, Nichole Weyer and Jennifer Axtell voted for Axtell for chair. Budd was elected as the new chairman.

Bethany Webber nominated Marshall Keller for vice chair and Nichole Weyer nominated Sherman Skelton. Justin Budd, Bethany Webber, Jean Skelton, and Marshall Keller voted for Keller for vice chair. Sherman Skelton, Nichole Weyer and Jennifer Axtell voted for Sherman Skelton for vice chair. Keller was elected as vice chair.

Sherman Skelton nominated Jennifer Axtell for clerk and Jean Skelton nominated Bethany Webber. Sherman Skelton, Nichole Weyer, Marshall Keller and Jeniffer Axtell voted for Axtell to be clerk. Justin Budd, Bethany Webber and Jean Skelton voted for Webber for clerk. Axtell was elected as clerk.

Sherman Skelton nominated Nichole Weyer for treasurer and Bethany Webber nominated Jean Skelton. Sherman Skelton, Nichole Weyer and Jennifer Axtell voted for Weyer for treasurer. Justin Budd, Bethany Webber, Jean Skelton and Marshall Keller voted for Jean Skelton as treasurer. Jean Skelton was elected as treasurer.

After the election of officers, all members listed their potential conflicts of interests. They also addressed their assigned committee assignments.

The board voted and passed the approval to have their board meetings on the third Thursday of the month and to have further discussion in a work session in January on the possibility of having two meetings a month. Keller brought up concerns about meeting length and transparency matters regarding budgets and grants. 

During celebrations, coach Stephanie Metz for high school cross country recognized Jadeth Elder for the boy’s state champion, while the team took third.

Also, Jennifer Axtell was one of five award winners for the WSBA. 

The school board received an award for standards of excellence. To qualify, the board members had to do a certain number of hours of training.

HSCHS Principal Catelyn Deromedi gave the student trustee report. Students and staff had their dress up days and they had their post high school planning fair. Student council members attended a leadership conference. They are planning another blood drive and donkey basketball. Regarding sports and activities, the Wyoming Academic Challenge (WAC), a quiz bowl group, hosted a home tournament in the first weekend of December and placed third in small school and fifth overall. Robotics attended a scrimmage in December in Casper and finished fifth place. For football, Zane Stam and Dell Dukes got All State, six boys got All Conference. Girl’s and Boy’s basketball is underway. Speech and Debate are off to a “hot start” and are looking for volunteer judges for their event in January. The National Honor Society recently held their induction ceremony and are planning their next projects. The Yearbook team is working on their issue called “Watch Us Grow.” FFA had their last meeting for 2024.

In the Superintendent’s Report, Dustin Hunt said that January 4 will be a new board member orientation and training. February 2-3 will be the Legislative Forum. In the future, there will be the possibility of students having an entrepreneurial activity of welding students modifying a school bus so that the students can operate a food truck. No action was taken at this time, but a heads up was given.

Regarding their strategic plan for discussion, the school district might move to a four-day week if approved. March 1 is the deadline for a change to their calendar. This potential change could be seen as an incentive for recruitment of new hires. Also, Hunt said that they would involve the public in the discussion if things truly go in this direction. Additionally, if the schools go to a four-day week, the number of total minutes of teaching will remain the same, making the school days Monday through Thursday longer. Hunt added that the discussion will look at the community’s child care needs as well and he acknowledges that the possible changes will not work with all families.

During District Share, Superintendent Hunt gave a presentation about some talk and history about multi-year contracts for administrators and to open up the matter for discussion. Trustee Weyer “One of my concerns about not doing so is that we are currently in a huge teacher shortage… and we have a huge principal and superintendent shortage in our country as well. It’s such a different job now to be a principal or a superintendent, especially with social media and the discussions nationally in education. It’s a really hard job right now. I don’t know if you could hire superintendents or principals right now without offering multi-year contracts. To me, we offer our teachers lifetime contracts. They work here for three years, we give them a lifetime contract. We can never let you go unless we can really prove over a long period of time evaluations…tenure. In the state of Wyoming, we offer a lifetime contract.” Weyer added that the same is in hiring principals and having long-term contracts and that it is a trend in hiring. 

Trustee Keller brought up his concerns about making perceived arbitrary decisions in the public without having knowledge of institutional data and industry standards of the matter. 

Trustee Sherman Skelton added that in their board training it was explained that hiring new superintendents usually has a minimum of a three-year contract as the learning curve is steep. Sherman Skelton said that this is a “best practice approach.”

Trustee Keller added that in the future, when voting, the board should present information on how to inform their decision making, “this is why we’re doing it.”

Chairman Justin Budd said, “Along those lines… it matters where you get the information.” From speaking with other superintendents, Budd said, “Their outlook was very different. There were a number of multiple year contracts for superintendents around the state. But as far as other administrators, what I heard was it was almost unprecedented that there would be a multi-year contract for other administrators. Trying to sort through that information is a challenge as well. I think we need to do our homework. I see pros and cons to multi-year contracts for superintendents and administrators. On the one hand, if someone is doing a good job, then a year-to-year contract is not a concern. I was on a year-to-year contract for quite a few years in the school district.

Trustee Jean Skelton said, “I also want to emphasize the importance of, if the administrator is accomplishing the tasks set before them, they shouldn’t have to worry about if they’re on a year-to-year contract. If we do have someone who is not accomplishing the tasks that have been set before, that becomes an issue with multi-year contracts.”

Trustee Bethany Webber said, “My concern is knowing that same as it is nice to hold a multi-year contract as a teacher or administrator or anyone and we don’t want to move here and not know we’re going to work longer than a hot second, at buyout, it’s hard for me, we’re going to give you a contract starting because you look great, we like you, personality is awesome, but then they don’t fit in our community or in our lifestyles, that maybe isn’t theirs, then to have to pay them out of that contract. That’s always a concern of mine.”

Trustee Sherman Skelton also said that his concern is “knowing there is a shortage. And we know we have Blue Ribbon schools, have schools in every building meeting or exceeding expectations…the concern is to replace those individuals that are in high performing buildings in a very high performing district. That is my greatest concern.”

The board discussed further about tenure, new hires, and reasons why to have multi-year contracts. Some expressed fears over new boards firing entire administrative staff.

Superintendent Hunt continued the discussion and gave some history of how long admins and principles averaged in their positions. Hunt explained in 2007 they had a board goal to deal with the turn over in their district and said, “We’ve got to do something to create some longevity because as much as we try to recruit and retain…if we are actually changing our leadership that often we are also changing the direction for our staff that often. I think it’s really important to be thinking about consistency in leadership.”

Regarding the timing of the voting for extending contacts in November, Hunt explained that in the past they used to vote in January and February for the superintendent and principals, but when they did that new board members said “We don’t have enough information” to make a decision,” therefore, they moved the vote to November. 

Continuing in the presentation, Hunt explained tenure and contacts. He also reviewed top performing school districts in Wyoming and highlighted their staff and how long they have worked there. Hunt added, “Longevity leads to success.” 

Chairman Budd responded with his objection to the voting of extending contracts to the previous meeting, but added, “my understanding has changed a little bit.” Budd and Hunt discussed how, following 2018, the timing of the contract’s renewals was adjusted. Budd also said “it didn’t sit well” that the outgoing board members voted on extension of contracts in the last meeting, “but I understand the schedule now.” 

During public comments, Jamie Stothart spoke about having the public be informed prior to the meeting of any slide show information to be presented so that they have the opportunity to comment on it. 

High school principal Catelyn Deromedi addressed the board and said in regard to setting meeting dates in the future and discussion of it in their coming board training, “we know these are very, very long board meetings and we can commit to that once a month. But twice a month is very, very difficult.” She added about her family’s responsibilities and many activities and asked, “those things to be taken into consideration.”

There were no other public comments.

In the financial report, Business Manager Jessica Benefiel discussed the finances of the food service funds about the increase of food costs. Additionally, Benefiel read a leader from the Holy Trinity Espicopal Church that they have donated money to eliminate student lunch debts. She also discussed their food app and how finances are still tied to the student. Chairman Budd asked that communication would be made to the church and express his and the board’s thanks.

Trustee Jean Skelton asked Benefiel about a contract that is for psychological service for $19,000 per month, “what do we receive for that  $19,000?” Benefiel replied, “That is part of our special education program.” It was explained the money and service is used for evaluations and for a licensed psychologist to be at meetings. Another service provides counseling for students. There are about 108 special education students in the district. The contract was originally for one full-time school psych and for up to 30 students for speech pathology. The original psych “wasn’t a great fit” so that program provided a second psych for the price of one. These psychologists are all virtual. The funding for this comes out of the general fund and is reimbursed.

The board voted and passed the approval to accept the financial report.