Bridges selected as new board member for BHC SD1

By: 
Sherie Monk

The board meeting for Big Horn County School District No. 1 began on Thursday, Oct. 10, with an early executive session for interviews with the eight candidates who had submitted letters of interest to fill the Cowley board seat vacated by Dave Banks last month.

The candidates were Jamie Archuleta, Wendy Fuller, Dustin Miller, Casey Crosby, Valerie Crosby, Thomas Bridges, Jacob Haslem and Rose Ames. Each interview was scheduled for 15 minutes, and according to board chair Joseph Bassett consisted of an explanation of the time commitment required, a statement by the candidate of their qualifications, skills, background and reasons for their interest, a set of four questions from the board and any questions the candidate had.

After all the interviews, the board met for a time to make a decision. Bassett explained that it was a very difficult choice with so many highly qualified candidates. He stated their goal in choosing a new member was to find someone who would contribute strengths where the board felt they had weaknesses, thereby making the board stronger. After opening the general meeting, Bassett thanked all the candidates and said, “You all made it difficult. I’m proud to be part of the Big Horn Basin, the people who participate and the quality of the people.”

He then announced Thomas Bridges (see related article) as the newest member of the board. A motion was made, and the vote was unanimous. Bridges was then sworn in, took his seat at the table and was welcomed by all.

Two new employees were approved for hire: Jill McNiven, Burlington MS/HS Success Coordinator, and Daye Farricy, Wyoming Connections Academy elementary teacher (due to increased enrollment).

Student recognitions revolved around good sportsmanship. The following were recognized: RMHS JV Football – Good Sportsmanship Award, September 14; Keylee Christiansen, RMHS, Good Sportsmanship Award, September 17; Matt Tempany, BHS, Good Sportsmanship Award, September 30. 

The board recognized the following as Employees of the Month:

Chris Banks, RMES, mentors new teachers, has been a part of the hiring process, shares her love of reading with students and staff and participates on the leadership team; Rancy Grohman, RMMS/HS, takes care of putting all the schedules together for students with IEP’s before school starts, provides emergency care for a student, runs the clock at the home football games and maintains a very calm atmosphere wherever he is; Dana Romriell, Burlington Schools, goes above and beyond to ensure students are building a good self-esteem and is always looking beyond the classroom for training and gathering strategies that can be used; Kathryn Pawloski, WYCA, has been an outstanding employee since she started. As a K-5 counselor, she steps in to get things done, uses a Character Strong curriculum and continues to create videos and lessons that inspire students.

Presentations were given by Wes Townsend, district Special Services director, and Ryan Boettcher, district curriculum director. Townsend explained the Special Education Accountability Report that is submitted to the state annually. District personnel give the required data to the State Dept. of Education, and it is then analyzed by the Special Education Division, which generates a report about the areas where the district is meeting expectations and where improvement is needed.

The report for the 2022-23 school year (received in the spring of 2024) was presented to the board. The district received excellent marks in all 17 indicators with the exception of four subsections: eighth grade academic benchmarks, dropout rate, parent involvement (lack of parents filling out an on-line survey) and transition to higher education. Townsend said they use this information to help them focus time, attention and resources on those areas in need.

Boettcher introduced the new data system, School Data Net, the district has subscribed to. Boettcher gave board members a glimpse of the data that can be processed and the reports that can be generated for district, school and individual teacher use. The amount of data a teacher uses, and often must dig to find, can be staggering and time consuming, Boettcher said. This new system will be able to reduce the number of hours teachers spend finding the individual and class data they need, and want, for good instruction and remediation. Boettcher said he will be meeting with administrators to help them become comfortable users before the system is rolled out to the teachers.

The Board had a lively discussion about the way future school calendars might look and the survey that was sent to parents and staff. Superintendent Matt Davidson stated there was good participation in the survey, and a lot of comments were given. At the conclusion of the discussion, it was decided that everyone needed to read and give more thought to the survey comments, and that the focus, for now, should be the better utilization of Fridays, especially at the secondary level.

Several policies received first reading, including policies concerning professional and support staff resignations due to retirement and eligibility for extracurricular activities for home-based students. The resignation policies had pronouns revised (he/she to they and their) and the support staff policy was changed to be congruent with the professional staff policy, in which “An employee with five or more years of service in the district who gives notice of retirement by March 1 will be eligible to receive a stipend of appreciation in the amount of $200 per year of service. Part-time employees will receive a prorated stipend. This stipend will be paid one month after the employee’s retirement date.”

The eligibility requirements under the Extracurricular Activities policy for home-based school students “shall be based on the same criteria (WHSAA Participant Eligibility Rules and Regulations Rule 6.0.0). Schools can require documentation of grades on a regular basis for these students.”

The next District One school board meeting will be held on Thursday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. at the Burlington High School library.

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