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1 State of Wyoming ) County of Sweetwater ) August 11, 2015 School District No. Two ) The Board of Trustees of School District No. Two, in the County of Sweetwater and the State of Wyoming, met in regular session on August 11, 2015 at the Central Administration Building, Green River, Wyoming pursuant to notice and due call given each member of the Board of Trustees of said District. Steve Core, Chairman of the Board and a member thereof called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The following members of the Board were present: Steve Core Robin Steiss Brenda Roosa Ann Rudoff Brad Cutler John Malone Sherie Smith Others present were: Donna Little-Kaumo, Jamie Christensen, Matt Mikkelsen, Darren Heslep, Doug Hamel, Joe Hamel, Darren Howard, Paul Murray, McKenna Wallentine, Bonnie Orr, Tracy Clement, Steve Schwartz, Kendra Coy, Alan Demaret, Sydney Hooten, Steven Lake, Sarah Malicoat, Leah Hoblit, Sonja Higgins, Anne Marie Covey, Gregory Figenser, Stacey Court, Oscar Barton, Alanna Brennenman, Stephanie Olivas, Savannah Hook, Patrick Harvey, Gina Harvey, Sheryl Wilson, Chris Hansen, Dan LaRose, Linda Martin, Melanee Hightower, Dan LaRose, Stacie Kettner, Shana Mondragon, JD Richardson, Alexander Marchal, Krisena and Andre Marchal, Carina Stulken, Maggie Fischer, Mary Fischer, Bob Fischer, Irene Richardson, Gary M., Michael S., Dennis Freeman, Alan Halverson, Gilbert Lowrey, Sandra Bowling, Kaitlyn Tyler, Pete Brandjord, Jason Fuss, Greg Farnsworth and Mary Flom. 1. OPENING ITEMS 1.01 Call to Order The meeting was called to order by Chairman Steve Core at 7:00 p.m. 1.02 Roll Call/Pledge of Allegiance 2. VISITORS, DELEGATIONS, CORRESPONDENCE 2.01 Public Comment None were taken.

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Page 1: State of Wyoming -   · PDF fileState of Wyoming ) ... Green River, Wyoming pursuant to ... Alan Halverson and Patrick Harvey - Cross Examination Debate Kaitlyn Tyler

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State of Wyoming )

County of Sweetwater ) August 11, 2015

School District No. Two )

The Board of Trustees of School District No. Two, in the County of Sweetwater and the State of

Wyoming, met in regular session on August 11, 2015 at the Central Administration Building,

Green River, Wyoming pursuant to notice and due call given each member of the Board of Trustees

of said District. Steve Core, Chairman of the Board and a member thereof called the meeting to

order at 7:00 p.m. The following members of the Board were present:

Steve Core

Robin Steiss

Brenda Roosa

Ann Rudoff

Brad Cutler

John Malone

Sherie Smith

Others present were: Donna Little-Kaumo, Jamie Christensen, Matt Mikkelsen, Darren Heslep,

Doug Hamel, Joe Hamel, Darren Howard, Paul Murray, McKenna Wallentine, Bonnie Orr, Tracy

Clement, Steve Schwartz, Kendra Coy, Alan Demaret, Sydney Hooten, Steven Lake, Sarah

Malicoat, Leah Hoblit, Sonja Higgins, Anne Marie Covey, Gregory Figenser, Stacey Court, Oscar

Barton, Alanna Brennenman, Stephanie Olivas, Savannah Hook, Patrick Harvey, Gina Harvey,

Sheryl Wilson, Chris Hansen, Dan LaRose, Linda Martin, Melanee Hightower, Dan LaRose,

Stacie Kettner, Shana Mondragon, JD Richardson, Alexander Marchal, Krisena and Andre

Marchal, Carina Stulken, Maggie Fischer, Mary Fischer, Bob Fischer, Irene Richardson, Gary M.,

Michael S., Dennis Freeman, Alan Halverson, Gilbert Lowrey, Sandra Bowling, Kaitlyn Tyler,

Pete Brandjord, Jason Fuss, Greg Farnsworth and Mary Flom.

1. OPENING ITEMS

1.01 Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Steve Core at 7:00 p.m.

1.02 Roll Call/Pledge of Allegiance

2. VISITORS, DELEGATIONS, CORRESPONDENCE

2.01 Public Comment

None were taken.

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2.02 Recognition of Speech and Debate Team (Stulken)

Carina Stulken, Green River High School Speech and Debate Coach, recognized the following

students who competed at the National High School Speech and Debate Competition.

Dallin Hoyt - Humor

Abigail Grubb – Lincoln Douglas Debate

Victoria Gilliam – Lincoln Douglas Debate

JD Richardson and Maggie Fischer - Public Forum Debate 24th in nation

Alexander Marchal - Extemporaneous Speaking and Extemporaneous Debate 7th in nation

Gregory Marchal - Extemporaneous Speaking

Alan Halverson and Patrick Harvey - Cross Examination Debate

Kaitlyn Tyler - Extemporaneous Speaking

Savannah Hook and Hayley Lauze - World School Debate

Kirstie Patterson – Congress

Stulken commented that she plans on asking JD Richardson and Alexander Marchal to come back

and show the students how it needs to be done and possibly help coach the students in their events.

Maggie Fisher and JD Richardson competed in Public Forum Debate and they had a winning

record of 8 and 4 going into the out rounds and it took 7 ballots to break, so they broke to the

elimination rounds and they wound up placing in the top 24 in the nation out of 550 debaters.

Alexander Marchal was competing in Extemporaneous Debate and last year Marchal placed 5th

out of 550 competitors and so this year Marchal wanted to complete that goal again this year.

Marchal went in and was the very last undefeated competitor for the entire tournament and out of

600 debates Marchal just kept winning; and it was amazing because Marchal would go and get the

new topic and then “we’d” go and prep it out in these little groups that “they” had created and

Marchal would come back and wait for the posting to come up and just kept eliminating people

and wound up as the very last undefeated competitor. It takes 2 eliminations to get eliminated and

Marchal wound up being 7th in the country overall, so 5th and 7th in back to back competitions is a

great representation of our team.

The students did really well and Stulken is very proud of them and would like to thank the Board

for giving “her” an opportunity to bring the students tonight and have them recognized.

2.03 Introduction of New Administrators and Teachers (Fuss and Administrators)

Jason Fuss, Human Resources Director, stated that on Monday he had the pleasure to work with

these folks at a new teacher orientation that was put together and this is a really impressive group.

The diversity in this group from young to old, teaching experience and knowledge and Fuss says

this every year, but his year Fuss means it, this might be the best group of folks that “we’re”

bringing into the District that Fuss has seen in a while; the couple of years have been really

awesome too. Fuss really had a nice team with these folks. Again, welcome to all of the folks that

are here this evening and Fuss really enjoyed spending some time with them on Monday

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The administrators recognized the new certified staff in each building as well as in the special

services department.

3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

3.01 Approval of Agenda

Sherie Smith moved, seconded by Robin Steiss to approve the agenda. Motion carried

unanimously.

4. CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS

4.01 Approval of Consent Agenda Items 4.01 through 4.09

Chairman Core stated that he had one question for Alan Demaret, Special Services Director, on

the CDC Contract for Child Screen Evaluations. Is this contract the same with no changes that has

been passed in previous years, which Demaret responded in the affirmative.

Ann Rudoff moved, seconded by Brenda Roosa to approve the consent agenda items 4.01 through

4.09. Motion carried unanimously.

5. DISTRICT GOALS AND LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES

5.01 Goal Setting Workshop on August 24, 2015 at 5:30PM at the Central

Administration Building

5.02 Board Docs Training on September 23, 2015 from 5:00PM to 6:00PM in the

Central Administration Board Room

5.03 Reminder of Wyoming School Board Association Fall Roundup on September

15, 2015 in Rock Springs, Wyoming at 6:30PM

6. PERSONNEL

6.01 Consider Approval of Certified Resignation (Fuss)

Jason Fuss, Human Resources Director, brings forward 1 resignation for the Board’s approval

tonight.

Teacher Position Location Heidi Biggs Counselor Washington Elementary

Sherie Smith moved, seconded by Brenda Roosa to approve the certified resignation of Heidi

Biggs. Motion carried unanimously.

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6.02 Consider Approval of Certified Teacher Contracts for 2015-2016 (Fuss)

Jason Fuss, Human Resources Director, stating that he is requesting the Board approval on 2

certified teacher contracts:

Teacher Position Location Thomas Wilson Industrial Arts (Welding) Green River High School

Alicia Curtis 2nd Grade (ONE YEAR ONLY) Washington Elementary

Brad Cutler moved, seconded by Robin Steiss to approve the certified teacher contracts for 2015-

2016 for Thomas Wilson and Alicia Curtis. Motion carried unanimously.

7. CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION AND ASSESSMENT

7.01 Hear Update on PAWS Information and Action Plans (Little-

Kaumo/Christensen)

Superintendent Little-Kaumo stated that she wanted to share with the Board the District’s recent

PAWS results as the tests were taken last spring and the results are received typically in July and

Superintendent Little-Kaumo wanted to share the results with the community and talk about the

District’s next steps.

Below are the results for 3rd grade math and as you can see listed there are Harrison Elementary,

Jackson Elementary, Truman Elementary and Washington Elementary scores and the State

average was at 49%. There is some volatility in 3rd grade and it has happened all over the State.

The one thing that the District wants to look at is to examine the released items again and they are

still adjusting at the State level once the Common Core Standards were put in place. Third grade

has always been a little bit tricky because it is the first year that the kids take this type of a test

where they have to sit down and take a long demanding test, but with that said, clearly the District

has some work to do and Superintendent Little-Kaumo believes that Green River can be above the

State average and the District is hovering near there but “we” have some work to do there. The

other thing that Superintendent Little-Kaumo wants to note is that here on math scores and for all

of our performance areas in every grade level in terms of math, is to remember that the District is

just now putting in new math curriculum that is aligned to Common Core this year in place as last

year the District put the reading in place and many District are still trying to get this done. The

District have had to wait on an External Cost Adjustment (ECA) in many cases and all of these

other things were happening, but, clearly the aligned material are new here and “we” will be

working closely with “our” teachers to get them up to speed on that. The Board might remember

last year that the District had released items in 3rd grade on ratio’s and proportions and it is a pretty

complicated test and the reason that Superintendent Little-Kaumo brings that up is that last week

at the recalibration meeting the new TIMS and NAEP scores came out and Wyoming in science is

2nd in the World, right behind Finland and in math Wyoming was 5th in the World, so Wyoming

students are performing well but what “we” have here is a new set of rigorous standards and the

districts are all trying to adjust to that and our District has some adjustments to do. “We” have

some work to do and “we” will be working closely with our teachers as they engage with the new

math curriculum. Superintendent Little-Kaumo will be sitting in with the new math trainings that

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are happening later this week because one of the things that “we” have talked about, and Assistant

Superintendent Christensen will talk a little bit more about this in his presentation, but “we” are

going to offer more support at the classroom level with our principals to provide time for them to

offer feedback and get into some specifics. This is Superintendent Little-Kaumo’s favorite content

area and so she is pretty excited to be getting involved with this.

Below is the 3rd grade Reading and it does look a little bit better and again the new reading

curriculum was put into place last year, so Superintendent Little-Kaumo thinks that the District is

seeing some good results starting to happen and there is some more work to do, but “we” are closer

to the State average. Again 3rd grade is always interesting and a lot of the Superintendents are

conversing about what are “we” doing about 3rd grade because it is such a hard age to test in, but

Superintendent Little-Kaumo thinks that again the District can be above the State average, so “we”

are going to work hard on that.

Fourth grade math is better and Superintendent Little-Kaumo commented that again it shows

another year of children in school and they’ve had an opportunity to take the test and “we” see that

over time with standardized tests that kids to get better over time. But here in most areas, or 3 out

of the 4, are above the State average with Truman Elementary being significantly above, so there

is some good things going on, but the District will be amping up the math again as the staff and

student engage in the new curriculum.

45%55%

45%

28%

49%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

HarrisonElementary

JacksonElementary

TrumanElementary

WashingtonElementary

State

2015 3rd Grade Math

62% 58% 56%44%

61%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

HarrisonElementary

JacksonElementary

TrumanElementary

WashingtonElementary

State

2015 3rd Grade Reading

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Fourth grade reading looks better and the District has some work to do, but Superintendent Little-

Kaumo knows that she spoke with the press last week and when you post a 72% and the State

average is 60% and it is 12 percentage points above the State average is significant and that is

something that the District needs to look at as a source of pride there. So the District is doing some

good work there and “we’ll” just keep that good work up.

Science is tested in 4th grade at the elementary level and the science scores are a little bit of a mixed

bag. One remark that Superintendent Little-Kaumo will make is that Washington Elementary has

done well the last 2 years in Science and posting a 65% and a 67 % last year, so one of the things

that is occurring to Superintendent Little-Kaumo is that “we” want to provide more of an

opportunities for “our” schools to share with each other some of the strategies that are being used

so that “we” can replicate this at the other buildings so “we” will be doing that in science as well.

60%51%

65%57%

51%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

HarrisonElementary

JacksonElementary

TrumanElementary

WashingtonElementary

State

2015 4th Grade Math

68%55%

72% 68%60%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

HarrisonElementary

JacksonElementary

TrumanElementary

WashingtonElementary

State

2015 4th Grade Reading

62%

45% 49%

65%51%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

HarrisonElementary

JacksonElementary

TrumanElementary

WashingtonElementary

State

2015 4th Grade Science

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Here is 5th and 6th grade math and if “you” remember last year that there was a 30% posted in 6th

grade and so the 50% that is shown is quite an increase. Superintendent Little-Kaumo knows that

there was a lot of work happening at that building to help teachers with supplementing because the

District didn’t have the aligned curriculum, but the District does have that curriculum this year.

Superintendent Little-Kaumo is pretty proud of Monroe’s performance because being split

between 2 buildings, living through construction and trying to stay on top of all of this is a tough

thing to do and it is going to be good in the long run but Superintendent Little-Kaumo thinks that

there were some significant gains made here and “we’ve” just got to keep up the good work and

keep improving.

Here is 5th and 6th grade reading and it shows that they are close to the State average and will

continue those efforts in the 5th and 6th grade.

This is 7th and 8th grade math and in 8th grade they are closer to the State average and they have

some work to do in 7th grade, but again Superintendent Little-Kaumo can’t emphasize enough that

the new math curriculum is absolutely necessary. When you change standards dramatically, as the

State did, and with the Common Core when it was compared to the Wyoming Standards, and

Superintendent Little-Kaumo thinks that she made mention of this last year, some things change

47% 50%53% 49%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2015 5th Grade Math 2015 6th Grade Math

2015 5th & 6th Grade Math

Monroe Intermediate School State

51% 52%59% 57%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2015 5th Grade Reading 2015 6th Grade Reading

2015 5th & 6th Grade Reading

Monroe Intermediate School State

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by 2 grade levels, so things that used to be in 5th grade are now in 3rd grade and those are dramatic

changes and the materials have to be aligned, it is not just small tweaks in the classroom it is major

different content strands within the areas of mathematics that the District has to adjust for so “we”

will be doing some work there.

Eighth grade reading is closer to the State average as it is a little bit above there, so “we” are glad

about that and will keep on working.

The Science test is taken in both 4th and 8th grade and Science has been a struggle in the State of

Wyoming for a while and even though as a State “we” perform pretty well worldwide, but

Superintendent Little-Kaumo thinks that “we’ve” got some stuff to do there. The science standards

right now are being discussed at the State and if “you” remember there was a Statute wherein “we”

weren’t allowed to discuss science and that was removed during this last legislative session. The

discussion has come back to review science standards and there is a little bit of a controversy about

global warming and evolution and some things like that that are still being discussed but

Superintendent Little-Kaumo would predict that the District will be seeing some science standards

settled later this year and then “we” can get busy. Superintendent Little-Kaumo doesn’t want to

buy new curriculum materials until she can understand what the standards are so that the District

can be aligned.

36%45%43% 47%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2015 7th Grade Math 2015 8th Grade Math

2015 7th & 8th Grade Math

Lincoln Middle School State

53% 55%57% 52%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2015 7th Grade Reading 2015 8th Grade Reading

2015 7th & 8th Grade Reading

Lincoln Middle School State

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The action steps that will be taken are:

Establish target goals for the next four years – The District has done that and it has been

discussed with the administrators on what the target numbers will be that “we” are striving

to achieve this year. With 4 years down the road “we’re” looking at being in the 80’s and

“we” think that that is a reasonable score with a 4% increase each year; so this year it will

be 68% and next year it will be 72%, then 76% and then 80%. The principals will be

sharing those numbers with their staff members.

Study results, released items and review with staff – the District will study the results

carefully, and what Superintendent Little-Kaumo means by that is to look at the student’s

profile report, look at the scale scores in the different areas, so within the math tests, “you”

don’t want to look at the overall math performance but how did they do in measurement,

do “we” see any trends in geometry and so forth so that “we” can target some support for

kids as they prepare for taking this test next spring. They release new items each year and

the District will be looking at these as they are very informative in trying to help us

understand the level of rigor and cognitive demand that is required on the test. One of the

things that is tricky about the PAWS test is; and you might recall is that a few years back

there was legislation that was passed that the test can only be multiple choice. When you

have a multiple choice test, you are trying to access analysis and those deeper level thinking

skills wherein you pick a distractor is difficult, so what “they” do is that “they” end up by

wrapping 2 or 3 questions together and for the little ones it is complicated because “they”

have to go back to the text passage that was 2 or 3 pages prior and try and ferret through

all of that. One of the things that “we” have talked about at Central Office is how do “we”

prepare more similar experiences in the classroom where children do have to that, where

they do have to take a test on demand and go back in the text and ferret out that information.

That will help the students be prepared so that when they take the test they will not feel

like gosh I’ve never seen or experiences anything like this before. So “we” will be doing

some of this. The principals will be reviewing all of this with their staff and looking at

their pacing guides with the curriculum and so forth to be prepared.

Curriculum implementation/standards reflected – the District will continue with the

curriculum implementation support and one of the things that “we” have talked about is

being sure that as “we” look at the curriculum and the implementation, that “we” are also

having the standards reflected in those discussions with teachers, they are not separate

40% 42%

0%

50%

100%

Lincoln Middle School State

2015 8th Grade Science

Lincoln Middle School State

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things and “we” need to understand the standards and then use the curriculum well to

service in the teacher of that. Teachers are still trying to get used to these standards and

are still trying to get their heads around a bit that the work that the children reflect is

different from what they used to see that “they” thought were proficient a few years back.

Now the level of analysis is deeper and now what “they” demonstrate on the test has be

amped up; so “we’ need to do that.

Recalibrate Map scores to provide better alignment to predict PAWS - One of the things

that the State actually responded to last year in January was alerting “us” that the MAP

scores, and you might remember that when “we” were sharing MAP results, there was a

high correlation before the standards changed of what we were seeing on MAP and what

the children did on PAWS within 2 percentage points. So when “we” saw that the 3rd grade

at Jackson Elementary was at 75%, “we” knew that when they took the PAWS that they

were probably going to be approximately 75% proficient. But that is way off now because

the standards are changing so what “we” need to do is amp up what is required from MAP

to be an accurate predictor on PAWs and “we’ve” done that so this will be tough and

“we’ve” even had people commenting already; Wow in order to perform on PAWS as a

3rd grader, a student is going to have to be scoring at the 4th grade level on the MAP, you

really do and “we” can’t change that and that is just what the standards required.

Superintendent Little-Kaumo thinks that in order to really help our teachers, “we” need to

say look this is the number that you need to get, because what “we” don’t want to do is

have them feel a sense of relief or accomplishment or accuracy on a MAP score that is not

going to be reflective of PAWS. There was a lot of discussion on what to do with that, but

Superintendent Little-Kaumo thinks that in order to be fair and providing clear focus to

teachers, “we” just need to change that score and “we” are doing that.

Focus on Feedback – There is a big push in the District this year for a focus on feedback

and Assistant Superintendent Christensen and Sheryl Wilson, Curriculum Director, will

talk about this in a little bit. But what Superintendent Little-Kaumo means by that is that

the District has an obligation to be sure that “we” are giving clear, consistent and frequent

feedback to teachers and principals.

Increase support for principals - One of the ways that that the District is going to do that;

and you will remember that last year Superintendent Little-Kaumo stepped out of the

supervision role a little bit to deal with some construction needs and certainly that was busy

but “we” know that “we” have a lot of obligations to help our schools and Superintendent

Little-Kaumo is excited that our principals are going to have 2 of us to help them as they

go down this journey. So there will be more support provided for principals and really

help with this feedback cycle. One of the things that “we” know about children that are

performing well is that the #1 factor in children performing well is that they need feedback

on their work and teacher’s improvement is really based highly on accurate, consistent and

frequent feedback of their practice. That is really the big “aha” in this action step or the big

takeaway for you all is that that will look a bit different and “we’ve” got our calendars

planned around that so Superintendent Little-Kaumo won’t be in Central Office as much

as she used to be but it will be fun and is excited about the math in particular.

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Assistant Superintendent Jamie Christensen stated that he wanted to go over a few items with the

Board that will help out, and one of the most enjoyable moments of his job is working with the

leadership in this District as they are outstanding and work very, very hard at what they do and it

is obvious when you listen to the things that “they” go through when these scores come out; as the

administrators start examining and looking and searching for answers on some of this stuff.

Assistant Superintendent Christensen doesn’t think that the instructional focus is really going to

change because a year and a half ago the instructional focus was declared to be on student

engagement and that is going to stay the same. One of the mistakes that “we” can make sometimes

is to jump ship and say let’s go a different direction, “we” are going to try and focus our efforts on

this with some discoveries that the administrators have made in the last year as “they” worked in

classrooms with principals in our instructional rounds.

The Kagan structures are on-going as far as the District initiative and with Sheryl Wilson’s support

out of the curriculum office has really trained a lot of folks and but also the building Kagan

leadership teams that instruct the staff on different structures to use in the classroom and those are

implemented and that is ongoing.

One of the discoveries that was made last year during our instructional rounds with the principals

one on one in classrooms was that dog gone it sometimes we were misaligned with our learning

targets in what students were supposed to learn as far as what standards had and then what the

instruction looked like in the classroom. So “our” targets didn’t always match up all of the time,

but you know what many times they did, but it was a little bit of an aha moment for “us” and when

“we” are looking at learning targets this year, “we” are going to want to know at what level are

students being engaged and not just are they engaged, but in what and that is where the alignment

comes back into the standards in the curriculum maps. In all of the interventions and core

instruction, that is true and that is how the “we” are going to be working on that. In “our” collective

capacity will build with some of the structures that are in place with our professional as far as

professional development and professional growth.

Assessment for learning and success criteria is also a part of this and what “we” know on what

level “we” want students to learn and what they are supposed to be learning, as far as the learning

targets and the alignment, “we” have to know if they can get there based on what it would look

like if a student could do this target well. This will be part of the work that will be accomplished

this year as “we” move forward.

With principal support, as far as Central Office Directors, one of the things that “we” have done is

to set down this summer and say hey “we” need to examine our calendars and little bit and doggone

it “we” take principals out of the building too much sometimes and “we” need to leave them to

stay put. What “we” are going to do in Central Office is to travel out a bit more and get with

principals as they get into their classrooms as opposed to calling them over here. “We” are

committed to doing that and really examining those calendars and try not to step on each other’s

toes in the process. In trying to adjust the Central Office Directors calendars, sometimes that might

all of sudden look like that Superintendent Little-Kaumo, Assistant Superintendent Christensen,

Jason Fuss and Alan Demaret might show up in the same building during the same week and

suddenly the principals have 4 meetings instead of the 1, but “we” are really committed to trying

to do that, as our building leaders work very hard and “we” will remove from that; as it is a little

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bit of a contradiction if “we” say get in your classrooms and “we” are the ones that are pulling

them out to come over to Central Office.

At the same time, one of the things that the principals are going to be doing is to calendar as well

and to work with their front office as far as putting processes and communication in place with

parents as far as scheduling the principals time in the classroom instead of by chance when I can

get out there because “we” can get consumed by a lot of things in these leadership roles with phone

calls and other things. The way that that might look is Greg Figenser at Truman Elementary might

tell his front office staff; here is what I’d like you to respond to a parent that calls me; I’m in the

classroom, please take a message and that is one of the things that I am going to do is to be in a

classroom and the parent needs to give me 24 hours to get back to them, but typically I will get

back to them by the end of the day. Those kinds of things that when Assistant Superintendent

Christensen says processes it is just a simple thing of communication. There was a good

conversation with the principals about this and boy there are certain things that you can’t schedule

and absolutely there are certain things that come up that you just can’t schedule but those are 2

areas that “we” are all committing to do.

The principal support structure which is our cabinet structure that has really turned into

professional development and that is where we do our professional learning around learning targets

and success criteria etc.. This meeting is typically held on the Thursday following the Board

meeting.

The instructional rounds, which is really a professional learning structure with our principals in

trying to develop again that collective capacity as far as instructional leadership and it has been

invaluable. One of the things that is the most enjoyable for Assistant Superintendent Christensen

in working with the principals is this particular session because it is motivating to him and it is

motivating to listening to “our” folks have so much knowledge and to learn from each other and

“they” come out of there just energized about ok now I have some confidence in going and giving

some feedback around this particular idea. So, that is going to be ongoing and the 1st round will

be September 21st at Green River High School in which the principals will show up for this.

The principal 1 on 1 sessions, which again is going to classrooms, and you know the elementary

principals are out there a lot by themselves sometimes, and it is enjoyable to go into the classrooms

with them and come back and debrief about what was seen and talk about the feedback that might

give back to that particular teacher on how to improve and better align. This is with the idea of

the student engagement focus in mind. That is what the work will be with the principals in support

of their efforts with instruction.

Ann Rudoff asked that when the principals go in to the classroom are they going in with one of

the visits being a schedule observation time that is scheduled with the teachers and are there also

unannounced drop in; which Superintendent Little-Kaumo responded that “yes” this is correct.

The principals are doing a lot of good work with their visits but “we” just want to amp that up

more and that is why “we” made a commitment here at Central Office among the Directors on how

“we” could help, as this District has the best leaders in the State of Wyoming running these schools,

but “we” know that their time just gets stretched. Managing a building is a lot of work and what

“we” as Directors want to do is provide the principals with a better support structure so that they

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can be in the classrooms as much as possible, as that is where the different is made and that is what

“our” jobs are and that is to educate kids. The Directors at Central Office are committed to

showing up at the buildings, all of us, Sheryl Wilson will be going out, Superintendent Little-

Kaumo will be going out, Assistant Superintendent Christensen will be going out and they will be

looking at different things. One of Wilson’s pieces will be that the District has a new math

curriculum and part of Wilson’s visits will be helping with the implementation and is it going like

it was intended too. Superintendent Little-Kaumo really thinks that this is going to be enjoyable,

but the bottom line is that “we” really want to amp up the opportunity for principals to dialogue

more with the teachers and help them in their practices.

John Malone asked if there was a program in place for identifying the 3rd graders who are

struggling and remediate them while they are in the 3rd grade which Superintendent Little-Kaumo

that yes there is and that there are inventions in all of the grades. Superintendent Little-Kaumo

thinks that one of the things that is happening in 3rd grade is that “we” have to give the students

more exposure to that type of setting that the students need when they encounter this test. Typically

in a classroom the students have assignments and when they hit a little tough spot they raise their

hand and the teacher comes and supports them. But on this kind of test, a student doesn’t get to

raise their hand to get help, so the students need more opportunities to do more on demand kinds

of experiences where they need to build up their endurance factor on what do I do, how do I ferret

through this, how do I go back. One of the things that Superintendent Little-Kaumo likes to do

with what she calls the distractor, which are the choices on a multiple choice item, what would

you have to do boys and girls to get that answer; Oh if I added this problem instead of subtracting

I would get that answer. That is illuminating for children because they will often tell you are they

trying to trick us, no they are just trying to find the common mistake, so you just need to be good

consumers of how to take a test. So one of the things that has to be done is to build some endurance

with kids because for many of them to have to sit there and the test is untimed and they don’t get

any help and there is a script that needs to be read with instructions and then the students need to

get busy. So “we” want to do more of that so at least in the environment of taking the test, “we”

can check that one off that “we” have done. On top of this and as Superintendent Little-Kaumo

has said with the math, once of the things that she is really excited about is that the District is going

to be putting in the new aligned materials and the teachers will be starting to receive training this

week and that is going to help a ton because it will be aligned to what the standards are going to

be requiring rather than like last year the students still had their current math books and the teachers

were trying to pull things off of the internet and supplement which is difficult, because there are

going to be gaps when that is being done. There needs to be a curriculum that roles from one

concept to the next, so with the math it will be good to see this. Now, does this mean that the

District is going to have amazing results with 1 year, because remember there is an implementation

dip anytime new books are introduced, there are also new standards and when you put in new

aligned materials there will always be an implementation dip. That is why Superintendent Little-

Kaumo really wanted to be thinking about 4 or 5 years out because when standards are changed,

what can be expected is about 5 years for teachers to get adjusted to the new standards and to really

understand what the student workbook really needs to look like and respond with their feedback

to their children. “We’ve” got some work to do, but there are some nice bright spots in the data

and Superintendent Little-Kaumo thinks that the District is on the right track to move forward.

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Chairman Core stated that he had a comment that he would like to make and Chairman Core told

his wife what he was thinking and she told him that he needed to be nice; so Chairman Core has

watered this down a little bit. Chairman Core needs to tell you and he believes that you will all

agree that these scores are unacceptable. Chairman Core knows that there are a lot of factors in

the District’s PAWS testing, curriculum changes, standards changes, changes in the tests,

mandates that sometimes don’t align with our District’s values and thinking and issues that are out

of our control such as home life and those kinds of things, but to Chairman Core that doesn’t

matter; we can and we will do better and we must and Chairman Core likes the initiatives that are

in place to help all of us to get better. But remember that we as a Board will support our

administrative teams to help get to our 4 year goals as they are ambitious goals and with proper

support from your Board of Trustees Chairman Core thinks that we can get there. Chairman Core

is not saying that the sky is falling because it is not in this District because we have some great

things going on, but Chairman Core is not a big fan of testing and we test too much but it is the

law of the land and until it changes it is what we must deal with. We must put our best foot forward

and Chairman Core believes in everyone in this room, you are a great team, a wonderful team and

you are great people and likes working with you. So let’s get to work and have a great year and

remember that we are your friends and if there is something outside of the box thinking to help get

to where we need to get too, bring it to Superintendent Little-Kaumo or Assistant Superintendent

Christensen and they can bring it to us and Chairman Core can guarantee you that if we like it

we’ll fund it. Okay? So have a great year, we’re here to help you and thank you.

7.02 Hear Curriculum Update for the 2015-2016 School Year (S. Wilson)

Sheryl Wilson, Curriculum Director, stated that she would like to share with the Board some of

the curriculum initiatives that are in place for the upcoming year to support the District principals

and District students in achieving a higher student achievement results. If there are questions as

Wilson goes along, she would like to encourage that Board to ask as Wilson is more than happy to

stop and address those at that time.

Curriculum Initiatives

1. Continue to work on the new District Assessment System (DAS) that is aligned to all

of the new standards. As the Board is aware, the last 5 years there have been new

standards adopted in every content area; all 9 content areas are experiencing new

standards. With this recent legislative session, a new law has been passed that got rid

of the Body of Evidence (BOE) so to speak and put in to place DAS; and what the

District has been working on for the last year is to try and align the District standard

with this new District Assessment System.

Teachers in grades 7-12 started this process last year and the District is working

in all 9 content areas to update their assessments

Teachers in grades K-6 will begin to write their assessments in the area of

Language Arts and Fine & Performing Arts. Wilson stated that she has learned

from her past mistakes that you can’t ask elementary folks to do 4 or 5 major

content areas at once. But “we’re” going to be doing language arts and these

other 2 this year and will drive in to mathematics next year with the K-6 folks.

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2. Curriculum Mapping will be continued which is the guarantees and viable curriculum.

The District knows that this is an important and is expected with the NCA process.

The District will revise and revisit our current maps and update them as needed.

The District has had a year of using these maps. These are living documents and

the District expects teachers to be using them and as they work through them the

District wants changes to take place. So, there are committees that are set up and

Wilson will be meeting with the committees and the current maps will be looked at

and changes will be made as needed. This is important, as “we” are working with

teachers with their learning targets, the District needs to make sure that there is

update and clear learning targets and the curriculum maps gives the District a venue

for doing this, so that teachers can take those and work with their individual

classrooms for learning targets.

K-6 will have a separate committee that will work on creating Social Studies

curriculum maps. As the Board may recall, last year the District worked on

Language Arts and Mathematics, and those maps are in place and those will just be

revised and now this year the District will create Social Studies maps in grades K-

6.

Scope and sequence will also be created for Social Studies in grades K-12, because

unlike Language Arts and Math, these standards are not grade specific as the scope

and sequence is written by grade span. There is a K-2 grade, and really what that

standards shows is that by the end of grade 2, here are the items that 2nd graders

need to be proficient in, so it is up to the District to decide what do 1st grades need

to do, what do kindergarteners need to do in order to reach the goal by 2nd grade.

The District will be working with the K-12 Social Studies folks to get that all in

alignment.

3. Wilson stated that she has been working with Greg Farnsworth, Technology

Supervisor; as the Board knows that District has purchased lots of Chromebooks in the

last year or so and what “we” need to do is come up with a plan on how to train folks

to use these.

First the Chromebooks will be rolled out to the principals and instructional

facilitators and at semester time the Chromebooks will be rolled out to the teachers.

The District does have some teachers that are very proficient with this and the

District will solicit their help with this, but also “we” want to help them so that

Google classrooms. In fact, at Truman Elementary some of the teachers are going

to set up Google classrooms this year and Wilson is excited to see how that works

and then replicate that in other classrooms across the District.

4. The District is going to continue with the Kagan Cooperative Learning in an effort to

support the student engagement.

This summer there was a continuation in days 3 and 4 of the training for K-12 staff

members and another session of days 3 and 4 will be held during the school year.

The District has already trained three-fourths of the teachers with days 1 and 2, so

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the District is continuing to move this initiative forward and have seen some

positive results with the Kagan and the cooperative learning structures. The nice

thing about this is that it is a strategies that will work under all content areas, so

regardless of what you are teaching, you can certainly implement these different

activities as you’re trying to increase the student engagement.

5. Superintendent Little-Kaumo has spoken a lot about tonight, but the District is going

to provide math training in really 2 avenues with the math training.

K-12 teachers will be supported in learning to use the new materials that were just

purchased, so that is a separate set of training that will be offered by the publishers

from the various math companies that the District is working with.

The second venue that is going to take place is that the District is going to work

with teachers on math pedagogy. What Wilson means by this is that “we” are going

to be teaching the teachers on how to be better math teachers regardless of the

material that they are using. This will involve diving deeply into the standards,

learning about the mathematical practices. As the Board may recall, with the

mathematic standards, the teachers are really working with 2 sets of standards, with

one being the content set of standards that the District is trying to help teachers

understand with the rigor and it is pretty enormous with this; but the second set of

standards is the mathematical practices. This can be thought of as the habits of the

mind that students need to be able to be good mathematicians. So what the District

is trying to do is teach teachers how to combine those 2 venues, so that the District

can create better math students within our schools. All of this training will support

regular education and special education math teachers in grades K-12; so it is not

specific to any one area and “we’re” going to work across the District with the

different areas to increase the math scores and to align them with the new standards

for our teachers.

Wilson stated that the other thing that was included in the board documents is the professional

development calendar that has been lined out so far for this year. A lot of the professional

development that is taking place does really align with these initiatives and the District tries to

keep that in close alignment so that it makes sense to teachers. If the District is going to try and

implement something, the District really needs to offer the support and Superintendent Little-

Kaumo and Assistant Superintendent Christensen have talked a lot about that tonight and very

intentionally it was looked at what was trying to be implemented and make sure that the support

is provided for the teachers. The main areas of focus this year will be with mathematics and

working on our District Assessment System and a lot of time will be spent on those 2 initiatives.

The District Assessment System is really a matter of compliance as it used to be that the Wyoming

Department of Education would send folks out to look at the assessment system and that is now

being rolled into the NCA process and that will become part of the District’s accreditation in the

next few years, so the District has to be sure that the system is up and running when the NCA

comes to do the District’s reviews.

Ann Rudoff asked in the training that Wilson spoke about for the implementation of the new Math

strategies as well as the curriculum mapping, will that kind of training be done of professional

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development days, which Wilson stated that some of it will and then there are a few days wherein

Wilson will pull different committees or groups of teachers to work with that too because the

District doesn’t have enough professional development days to handle all of that. Some of training,

Wilson will be meeting with teachers after school around 4:00PM, Wilson also tried to schedule

half day meetings because Wilson knows that “we” don’t want teachers out of the classroom a lot.

Rudoff commented that that was her concerned, which Wilson responded that that was the key.

Rudoff commented that fighting with instruction time and fighting with keeping those scores up,

though some of us are marvelous substitutes, but it is difficult to put a substitute teacher in with

students as the students do not have the rapport with the substitute teacher and the substitute teacher

doesn’t have the rapport with the students. Rudoff hears what Chairman Core says but those kinds

of things like pulling the teachers out of the classroom is as bad as pulling the principals out of

their schools, so that is what Rudoff kind of cringes, as she knows that the teachers have to get the

training but she hates to pull them out of their math classes to get more training to be better math

teachers. Rudoff just thinks that “we” have to be careful and she knows that putting a longer day

on the teachers’ plates and maybe that is something as a Board, and you guys can throw daggers,

maybe “we” have to reimburse them somehow.

Chairman Core stated that he had no problem with that.

Rudoff cringes at the thought of more time out of the classroom.

Wilson commented that Chris Dean, Assistant Business Manager and Pete Brandjord, Business

Manager, have been wonderful at putting money into the budget to support teachers who have to

come in to work as the District does pay them the $30.00 per hour most of the time when “they”

come in to do the work, if it is curriculum related work. Wilson stated that “we” do try to honor

this because it is important as it is time away from their family for most of them if they come after

school.

Chairman Core asked Wilson why she chose the order of the curriculum that is being done like

Language Arts, Social Studies and then Math and how did you guys come to that decision; Wilson

asked if Chairman Core was asking about as far as the adoption, which Chairman Core responded

“yes”. Wilson responded that her first couple of years here, Wilson did Language Arts and

Mathematics back to back and then she jumped right in to Social Studies and Science; and what

happens is that because for the secondary teachers that is an OK thing because they teach one

content area, but what happens with the elementary folks is that they are just bombarded and it

gets to be too much them. As far as the Language Arts and Math being first, those were selected

because those are the new adopted standards by the State of Wyoming and those were the ones

that came out first so that is why the District selected those 2 initially.

Wilson asked Chairman Core if she had answered his questions, which Chairman Core was kind

of confused because when Wilson said Language Arts and Social Studies this year and Math next

year. Wilson said as far as assessments, then Wilson didn’t answer Chairman Core’s question

then. With the Language Arts and Social Studies, the District is doing this because there is now 1

year of experience with the Language Arts standards and curriculum, so what Wilson wanted to

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do was to give the teachers a year to experience the Mathematics and the assessments that come

with the program and then the assessment will be written to go with those standards.

8. BID REQUEST ITEMS

8.01 Consider Approval of Bid for Harrison Parking Lot (Hamel)

Doug Hamel, Facilities Manager, commented that the bid results were disappointing for the

Harrison parking lot. The bids were anywhere from $175,000 to $230,000 over the budgeted

amount. Hamel’s recommendation is that the timing of the bid probably wasn’t the greatest and if

the District would put this bid back out again next spring, the District will try and see if “we” can

get some better results. The other position that it would put Hamel in for next spring is that he is

in the position for the District to bite off a share of this work so as to bring this job back into

budget, and that is the only way that it is going to happen. If you go down these unit prices, they

are all over the place on both sides. The fact of the matter is, is that this job is not going to come

into budget unless the District helps, and Hamel will be in a better position to do that next year.

Ann Rudoff moved, seconded by Sherie Smith to reject all bids and to rebid next spring. Motion

carried unanimously.

8.02 Consider Approval to Go to Bid for BOCES Inclusive Playground Mobius

Climber (Demaret)

Alan Demaret, Special Services Director, stated that last month if the Board recalls that the District

had received all of the BOCES requests that were approved and so Demaret is moving forward

with this now. This mobius climber is the last component that needs to be purchased and the

District had to wait until the BOCES grants were approved, so the District will be going out for

bid for this one specific piece of equipment. Demaret is asking for the Board permission to go out

to bid for this equipment.

Sherie Smith moved, seconded by Brad Cutler to go out for bid for the BOCES inclusive

playground mobius climber not to exceed $35,000; and this is a BOCES grant. Motion carried

unanimously.

9. OTHER BUSINESS

9.01 Consider Approval of the Resolution to Purchase Real Property (Brandjord)

Pete Brandjord, Business Manager, stated that the Board has before them a resolution approving

the purchase of real estate that authorizes the District to pay up to $100,000, subject to adjustment

from closing costs, for 25 Shoshone and also authorizes the Treasurer and Superintendent to act

on behalf of the Board and to sign any documents. The closing is scheduled for tomorrow.

Chairman Core stated that the closing is at 9:00AM tomorrow (August 12th, 2015).

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Brenda Roosa moved, seconded by Ann Rudoff to approve the agreement that the District has with

Sweetwater County Child Development Center to purchase the property at 25 Shoshone with a not

to exceed $100,000 with the closing happening tomorrow. Motion carried unanimously.

9.02 Hear Update on Summer Meal Program (Martin)

Linda Martin, Nutrition Service Supervisor, stated that she was just going to give the Board a brief

update on how the District’s summer meal program came out this year. It was quite exciting to

see the results and Martin will be providing some more current numbers than the ones that were

given in Board Docs, as the District has finished the program now. Nutrition Services was

averaging about 142 meals per day for lunch and 50 meals per day for breakfast. The total income

was higher than what Martin had anticipated and came out almost at $29,000 with a net of almost

$7,000. So the totals came out very well this year as it was a bonus for our District but also

especially a bonus for the community because the District allowed so many families to come in

and have meals for free without having any concerns about regulations to go through or hoops to

jump through. Martin looks forward to being able to expand this program next year and the District

knows that it will be at the same school for 4 more years and the District is guaranteed a total of 5

years at any school that has been allocated initially and that will increase depending on how often

that survey comes back, so this could continue for quite some time. Expedition Academy qualified

last year and Martin is anticipating that Expedition Academy will qualify again this year and

Superintendent Little-Kaumo and Martin have spoken about the possibility of having summer

school for the high school and 7th and 8th grade students at the Expedition Academy campus instead

which would allow Nutrition Services to save some money on the meal end for that group and

serve more people in the community.

Chairman Core asked Martin what were the general comments from the adults; which Martin

responded that what was really exciting was that Nutrition Services sent out flyers at the end of

school and those immediately went up on Facebook and parents were scanning them and sending

them out to each other which got the word out and Martin had a lot of phone calls from people in

the community just asking questions about what this is and how can we help and what’s happening

with it. It was very positive and Martin didn’t hear any negatives at all and it was an extremely

good experience.

Brad Cutler commented that he knew of 3 kids who participated and they loved the food and

everything so that is a good sign. Cutler asked if the money just comes in as one block or one

bunch of money and then if the District doesn’t spend it all what happens. Martin commented that

the District has a form that needs to be filled out each month that says how many students eat and

then the District gets reimbursed based on that.

Robin Steiss asked Martin if she had any difficulties, and this was talked about prior to the start of

the program, about not knowing how many people were coming and how did that go. Martin

stated that it went really well and Martin and her staff did learn some things. Martin probably will

not do breakfast on days that the District doesn’t have summer school as there were only 3 or 4

served on those days, so next year Martin would probably not to that again as Martin doesn’t know

if that what really cost effective. The staff did find that there were certain things that was purchased

to be used that the staff thought that the kids would love were not really practical. For instances,

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there was a frozen fruit cup that was great, but when you have to package 300 sack lunches, by the

time that some of the kids got their lunches they were drinking juice, so it wasn’t really a good

idea, but “we” learned things like that and some things that “we” will do a little bit differently.

The staff really did pretty well on guessing how many that were going to be served, as Martin was

figuring between 200 to 300 a day and that is pretty much where “we” fell on the days that there

was summer school. Steiss thanked Martin for all of her hard work.

Chairman Core thanked Martin and stated that he really appreciated it.

9.03 Hear Update on Activities (Beardsley)

Assistant Superintendent Jamie Christensen stated that he was just going to give a brief update on

some of the activities as Tony Beardsley, District Activities Director, is on his way to his new

second home in Casper, Wyoming and Christensen is sure that Beardsley is learning that in

Wyoming that is the center of the universe right there. Beardsley is going to Casper to attend some

introductory meetings for the new Athletic Directors, which will be good with Trevor and Ron up

there at the Wyoming High School Activities Association.

Beardsley is pretty excited about the progress that he has made since arriving on July 1st and that

all Green River High School and Lincoln Middle School sports schedules are ready to go. Officials

have been secured for the fall sports and fall practices begin next Monday, August 17th, 2015. All

of the coaches are geared up and fired up and it will be interesting to see what the activity numbers

look like after the first week, but Christensen knows that the kids have been working hard all

summer and it is fun to watch all of the camps and the extra times that the District folks put in with

these kids in trying to develop their programs and it has been really fun to watch.

As far as personnel, the Green River High School and Lincoln Middle School coaches have been

recommended for the fall and the staff is still working on some interviews with the Lincoln Middle

School Boys Basketball and those should be accomplished this week. Beardsley is feeling good

about these upcoming interviews as there are some applicants in there for those positions. All of

the activity sponsors have been recommended by Darren Howard, Principal of Green River High

School and Beardsley as well. These are activities such as music, drama, etc...

Hall of Fame weekend is scheduled for September 3rd, 4th and 5th, 2015 with the 3rd being the social

at the Hampton Inn from 6:00PM to 9:00PM, the 4th is the football game with the halftime show

to include the introduction of the Hall of Fame inductees for this year and then the banquet will be

held on the 5th in the Green River High School Commons at 5:00PM. Beardsley is pretty fired up

about this as Christensen has been talking to Beardsley since he started and Beardsley and Ruth

Dewick the Activities Administrative Assistant have been knocking off chunks of the program

each morning to get this all accomplished.

Fall sports parent night was August 6th, 2015 and there was a pretty good turnout and if that was

an indication of what the fall numbers are going to look like, they look pretty good. The Lincoln

Middle School fall sports night is going to be on August 13th, 2015 at 6:30PM in the Lincoln

Auditorium.

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There will be a head coaches meeting for the fall sports on August 13th, 2015 @ 4:00PM in which

Beardsley will be reviewing the expectations and the big ticket items that have come up and will

also be working with the coaches on training and supervision. First Aid/CPR training will be

coming up here pretty quick, which Michelle Cordova, GRHS/EA nurse, offers this course to all

of the District teachers and sponsors.

Regional tennis will be hosted here this year at Green River High School and is scheduled for

September 25th and 26th, 2015 with homecoming week slated for September 14th – 19th, 2015.

One of the things that Christensen and Beardsley have been talking about is there has been some

dialogue and Christensen wanted to share it with the Board tonight about the ideas regarding the

“C” team activities at Lincoln Middle School. Right now with the “C” teams, the District hires

coaches for those positions, but what has been going on is that it is very difficult to find competition

because other districts don’t run “C” teams. Beardsley has some ideas that he is kicking around a

little bit as far as potentially doing some intramural programs in elementary up through junior high

to try and develop those programs and students to feed those numbers at the high school and middle

school.

9.04 Hear Update on District Facility Projects (Hamel)

Doug Hamel, Facilities Manager, stated that before you tonight is the District’s list of summer

projects and going down through that list, the only project that needs changed is the Harrison

parking lot as it was in design before and now it is put off until spring. Vaughn’s Plumbing is

about 3 weeks away from completing the Central Office hub room with part and everything else

is done.

Chairman Core asked Hamel if the District has gotten the project completed out at McKinnon

Elementary School, which Hamel responded that it is done.

10. BOARD AND SUPERINTENDENT COMMENTS

10.01 Board and Superintendent Comments

Ann Rudoff: Rudoff stated that she had spoken with a person who is in charge with the USA

Swim Club and Green River did not get the bid for winter state as it will be held in Gillette,

Wyoming. But this individual did say that hopefully it will go from Gillette, to our District, then

go back to Laramie, Wyoming and it will become a triangle. But it depends on how much Gillette

is willing to give it up will depend.

Chairman Core stated that it is a bid process, which Rudoff responded yes.

Rudoff went on to say that the individuals concerns is having enough help, which Rudoff

responded that to just give a shout out to the community as there are a lot of swimmers in this

community. Rudoff was also looking at the football field and it looks pretty nice and pretty green,

shiny and white and wolfie, and no dandelions.

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Chairman Core commented that the field definitely needs some scores! Rudoff commented that

the feel is spiffed up and ready for that. So thank you for all of your hard work and it is good to

see everyone back here as it was kind of lonely without everyone this summer, so have a good

year. Rudoff can see Joe Hamel back there in the audience because he has on one of those

obnoxious bright shirts on!

John Malone: Malone appreciates Hamel’s work and since his injury Malone would have still

been in intensive care or something like that. With school starting, we don’t know what glitches

and successes there will be with school starting, but Malone promises you that there will be some

so everybody just be patient and we’ll get through it. And lastly and Malone always says it at this

meeting, slow down as it is a message to himself, as those school crossings are going to open and

I’ve got to pay attention to those flashing lights on those speed limit signs. To myself and anybody

else who wants to listen, but mainly to myself, slow down.

Brenda Roosa: Welcome back to another year and it is going to be a great year and Roosa can

just feel it. The playground at Harrison Elementary is going to be a big hit and that new little piece

is going to be great. It was a great finish to the speech and debate team and we are very proud of

them and it is all over Facebook; Mr. Parson’s was very excited as he is about his fish as well.

Roosa stopped by the Aquatics Center last week to see how the swim lessons were going for the

city and “our” facility worked great and it was wonderful to have everything in place and the glass

mezzanine looks great so they did a good job. Welcome back!

Robin Steiss: Steiss would like to thank Sandy Bowling and the Green River Education

Association for the great lunch today as it was a wonderful opportunity to be able to meet the staff

more personally than we have here and Steiss really enjoyed that a lot and it is kind of nice to be

on the other side a little bit and not have to do the talking. Steiss would like to welcome everyone

back and for the principals it would good to see everyone again. Steiss would like to compliment

the Harrison playground, as her grandchildren absolutely love it. The thing that Steiss would like

to recommend if you take anyone over there is that you plan hours because they don’t want to

leave because it is that cool and Steiss is so impressed and she can’t wait to go over and observe

those special education students on the equipment and see how inclusive it is as that is dear to her

heart and it is one of the best things that the District has done around here, so thank you Alan

Demaret.

Brad Cutler: Excited for another year, excited for the new staff and with regards to the testing

and everything else, we will accomplish what we want to accomplish as we have an awesome team

here. Best of luck this year.

Sherie Smith: Thank you Sandy Bowling for the luncheon as Robin Steiss and I have a really

good time talking to everybody. Smith really enjoyed the ribbon cutting at Expedition Academy

yesterday as it was awesome. Everybody have a good year as Smith remembers her feelings at the

beginning of the school year as they still come rolling back after all of the years that she has been

out of school, but Smith loves this time of year, so I hope you have a great year. Look forward to

seeing everyone every month.

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Superintendent Little-Kaumo: Thank you to our administrator’s as they are back in the saddle

again and have certainly been working really hard in preparing for this year. There have been

some enrollment blips, so there has been a lot of transitions. The District is finishing up Monroe

to get that ready for the beginning day of school, so there has been a mad dash on technology, front

doors and camera’s and all kinds of stuff. Superintendent Little-Kaumo thought that the ribbon

cutting yesterday was wonderful and Ralph Obray welcome home as your staff has waited a long

time to have a permanent place to call their home and thinks that they are really pleased to be there.

A big thank you to our principals, as they work really hard, and as Superintendent Little-Kaumo

said in her talk, we’ve got the best ones in the State and there is always work to do, but she wouldn’t

want to work with anybody else in the group that she has. We’re excited about the new school

year and John Malone, Superintendent Little-Kaumo appreciates the reminder about the speed

zones as we talk about that every year and it is certainly coming up right around the corner.

Steve Core:

11. Executive Session

11.01 Potential Litigation

Chairman Core stated that the Board needs to adjourn in to executive session for potential

litigation.

Sherie Smith moved, seconded by Robin Steiss to go in to executive session to discuss potential

litigation at 8:14PM. Motion carried unanimously.

Sherie Smith moved, seconded by Ann Rudoff to come out of executive session at 8:33PM.

Motion carried unanimously.

Brad Cutler moved, seconded by Brenda Roosa to approve the settlement with the portables, and

it is spelled out in a document and if you want to look at it you certainly can. Motion carried

unanimously.

12. ADJOURNMENT

12.01 Adjourn

Steve Core, Chairperson ____________________________

Sherie G. Smith, Clerk ____________________________