LUSK - Among the actions taken Monday night, the Niobrara county school district board approved external cost adjustment (ECA) base salary raises for all positions. The legislative ECA was a 4.2% increase for certified staff and a 5.7% increase for classified staff. To keep these numbers in line with costs this equated to a 3% increase on certified with the additional 1.2% for benefits cost increase and a 4% for classified with the 1.7% going to benefits increase. The board inquired as to whether this increase was sustainable for the district long term. Superintendent Mirich stated that the ECA should be a permanent addition to the funding model. Between state funding and the anticipated reserves the district should be able to support this increase for a minimum of three years. Although the legislature may make budget cuts necessary in the future that is a different conversation altogether. The outcome of the WEA lawsuit, which the district has joined, will also impact the future of the ECA.

Board member Loren Heth would like to see the salary schedule and how this increase will play out across all of the steps and the benefit increases. This has been done and is available for review. Mirich also reminded the board that there will be an increase in medical insurance cost for both the district and the employees. Last year the district absorbed all the cost of the increase but this year the 7.2% increase will be split between the district and employees.

Visitor Shannon Hart was present to bring up her issues with the way that the school district communicates with parents. Hart has a student that attends both the Lance Creek and Lusk schools. She doesn’t feel that the communication process is clear or adequate from either school particularly for parents that have students in both schools. While she felt like she had a good relationship with Ms. Miller she didn’t feel the same about her student’s teacher in Lusk. She said she has expressed her frustration with the teacher and the principal but still didn’t feel her concerns were being addressed. Hart complained that she hasn’t known about early release days, lockdown drills or other events. She expressed irritation that a re-enrollment packet hadn’t yet been sent home with students. She feels that it is punishing families that don’t have facebook or can’t afford the internet when all information is on facebook and the website. She would like to see papers sent home. When asked if she had spoken with Superintendent Mirich Hart stated, “I work in Wheatland and drive truck every day. I don’t have time to track down a phone number to contact him and I can’t be making phone calls while I am in my truck so I wanted to bring these issues up with everyone in the room.”

Administrative updates started with Principal Tiffany Assman. She reported that WYTOPP testing has concluded and while the official scores won’t be available until June the preliminary scores are very encouraging. The committee that has been working on the student/family handbook comprised of five teachers and five parent volunteers has met three times. The changes that have been recommended will be made and taken back to the group. Curriculum work for Math ELA and CTE are in the final states of a two year process. The science and social studies changes are being drafted. Kindergarten and preschool round up were held and currently have 24 enrolled for kindergarten and ten for preschool though more are anticipated for the preschool. Assman also gave Principal Robyn Heth’s report since Heth was at Senior Awards night. Regional track is in Torrington this week and state track next week. Freshmen attend the 307 Challenge on Tuesday May 9 and the Wyoming Women’s center wil be presenting to the social studies classes next week about making good choices.

WYVA Head of Schools Joe Heywood handed out graduation invitations to all the board members. Graduation is Friday, May 19 at 2:00 p.m. in the high school auditorium. There will be a dinner reception following. Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfielder will be this year’s keynote speaker.

Business Manager Katie Caffee did not feel there would need to be a budget amendment at this time but the board will know before the budget hearing in July.

Superintendent George Mirich had several items to report to the board. The generator project is in the process of being designed, the firm has made an additional site visit. The biggest obstacle for this project will be that once the generators are ordered it will still be twelve to eighteen months before they are received, and this cannot happen until after the construction bid is awarded. The project design will determine how much generator is needed.

There has been a lot of interest in the PA/intercom system design bid. Administration will be sorting through those and hopefully selecting one by the end of the month. The schools are racing towards the end of the year with many positive things going on.

Rachel Manning requested an executive session for a staff member concern.

The board will have a WSBA training on May 31 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

In other action items the board accepted the resignations of LarreeAnn Kraft, Kelsey Greenfield, Lila McCann and a WYVA staff member.

The board also approved $1,000 per student attending FBLA nationals. They relayed that the goal is to equitable to all clubs.

Under old business committee assignments were discussed. This item was tabled until the next meeting.

Extensive discussion was held regarding the protocol for make-up events for sports and how those are worked into the schedule. When the district transitioned to a four day week, part of the reason was that students were missing so many class hours that it was affecting their academic achievement. It was agreed that for any activities the district had control over scheduling they would be on a Friday or Saturday. All sports get one “free pass” miss day for make-up games/meets where students can miss a school day but only one per season. This ensures that the students in Niobrara county still have the same number of competitions as other athletes even if it has to be rescheduled. This protocol impacted basketball, golf and track this year however it applies to any sport. Schedule changes are inevitable and it isn’t always possible to schedule the make-up games or meets at convenient times for parents. Mirich emphasized that it is more important that all students get the opportunity to attend games and meets than it is for the district to be worried about whether or not a parent can get off work at the last minute. The district is committed to keeping academics as the priority and then getting students to the maximum number of competitions possible. They already have to miss school for regionals, state and for club conventions. However, the academic achievement of students and the number of hours they are in attendance have come up drastically since switching to the four day weeks, it seems to be achieving the objective.

The board requested that communication issues that have been brought up be on the agenda for the next meeting including revising the communication plan for the district.

The board then moved into executive session and adjourned following the executive session.