LUSK – The Niobrara County School District Board met for its only meeting of December on Monday. 

Trustee Candy Dooper was absent from the meeting. 

The first order of business was the organization of the board which they decided to keep the same. The board later added to the motion to keep the bank of record and newspaper of record the same as well. 

During information items, students of the month were recognized by their respective schools. 

Fifth graders also met with the board to show them their Willy Wonka-themed projects they have been working. 

One group recreated a scene from the movie which they planned all by themselves. Four other students chose different projects such as a recreation of the chocolate factory out of a gingerbread house, a version of Candyland based of the movie, and a bingo game with M&Ms as the markers. 

Freshman representatives of the student council gave an update on some of the activities going on at the high school. Nathan Fish said they hosted 14 days of Christmas dress-ups in the month of December. 

Fish also said FCCLA, FFA, FBLA, choir and student council all participated in the parade and Christmas caroling. 

Jayla Cummins talked about some of the current things going on at the school including making baskets for those who are battling cancer. Cummins also said Winterfest will be in February. 

“It will include activities and dances, since we all like dances,” Cummins said. 

Leonard Garcia addressed the board about the annual audit report. Garcia highlighted the district spent more than $750,000 which was due in large part to the CARES money. 

Garcia summarized the main areas of the report and some of the sensitive areas of estimates which could have a major impact on financials including changes to pensions and depreciation. 

Garcia said there were no material corrections in the report. Garcia also said when doing the report, he could only look at a sample of transactions since he does not have the time or resources since he cannot look at the 1000-plus transactions made throughout the year. 

Substitute teacher Debbie Rose addressed the board about bonuses for the long-term substitutes and the status of her employment. According to Rose, who was brought on as a substitute music teacher, three of the other long-term subs received a bonus this fall but she did not. 

“I met with [Superintendent George] Mirich and he said I did not qualify for a bonus because he never hired me,” Rose said. 

Rose also said she was told by Mirich he only agreed to pay her at the request of Trustee Randy Rose who told him there needed to be a second teacher to help teach multiple instruments to the students. 

“[Mirich] did suggest that my husband could share half of his bonus with me which would leave us both short of what the other music substitutes were getting for a bonus,” Rose said. 

The board decided to take some time to process the information before discussing the situation further. 

During the administrators report, Niobrara County High School (NCHS) Principal Robyn Heth said all of the winter sports ae in full swing with about 15-20 students on the wrestling teams and 10-15 students on each basketball team. 

Heth also said they will begin FastBridge Testing which gives three pieces of information about the students learning: math, language and social/emotional. 

Special Education Director Hunter Kunnerth handed out booklets to the board with common acronyms used when talking about special education and gave an update on Medicaid billing. Kunnerth reminded the board they will only be reporting Medicaid eligible students moving forward and they plan to start the billing process in August.  

Joe Heywood, the Head of School for the Wyoming Virtual Academy (WYVA) said they will be wrapping up the semester next Friday and he will have a comprehensive data set of the first half of the school year at the January board meeting. 

Heywood also said they were able to do several face-to-face meetings to meet the students outside of just on the screen. 

Superintendent Mirich informed the board the light replacement project in the wielding shop and bus garage will begin during the break. The chair assist in the high school will also be available after the break starting on Jan. 4. 

During action items, the board discussed the school calendar for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years which include four-day school weeks. 

Trustee Rose brought up the 2 1/2-day school week before the break in December and said it is normally unproductive for students. Rose suggested taking the whole week off which would mean 11 school days off and 19 counting the weekends. 

The board discussed the issue further along with Chairwoman Lexi Ashurst’s question of the issue consisting no matter when the last days are before the break. The board decided to approve the calendars as presented by the committee.  

The board then moved to executive session to discuss a FERPA matter and a personnel matter. 

After executive session the board acknowledged the receipt of petition for home school by Charles and Eva Tackett, and approved Kiara Smith as a music teacher beginning Jan. 3. 

The board also approved the increase to WYVA’s credit card limits at Bank of the West from $5,000 to $10,000. Business Manager Stuart Larson said every once in a while, the limit is reached, but $10,000 shouldn’t be an issue. 

The board concluded the meeting with old business such as agreeing to retain the school district lawyer’s contract for another year.  

The board also discussed the climate survey for staff members. Trustee Rose proposed a survey with 37 questions to gauge how the staff feels about the current climate of the school district. Rose said he believes some staff members may not feel comfortable talking about issues and an anonymous survey would help to understand their concerns. The board debated on possibly reducing the questions since the staff may not want to take the time to fill the whole thing out.

Trustee Jeff Miller agreed with implementing the survey and said they can narrow down the questions once they get an idea of what the specific concerns are in the district. 

The board decided to keep the survey as it was but implement it after the break to figure out more of the logistics such as making sure it is anonymous and limiting entries to one per person. 

After going through board evaluations, the board moved to executive session fir the superintendent evaluation. 

The next meeting will be Jan. 12 at 6 p.m.