Your source for news in Hot Springs County
Your source for news in Hot Springs County
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With the recent tragedy in Florida involving a school shooting, I find it appropriate to update our patrons about our ongoing efforts to upgrade and improve security in Thermopolis schools. I am going to do my very best to put the discussion in layman’s terms because many of you may have never heard some of the terms associated with school security. Because there are so many “what ifs” with school security, the District will be examining all aspects of school safety, but school security and safety drills will be our focus for the time being...
Wyoming has amazing students and educators, some of the best in the country and even the world! Some may debate that first statement and when the goal is to simply cut funding to education, it is easy to point out areas of weakness; every organization has things they are working on. Schools in general must focus on the concept of continual improvement because the work is never done. Being an educator never comes with the opportunity to stand back and admire your work for long periods of time, because each fall a new group of bright, young...
Educational practitioner and researcher Dr. Rick DuFour coined the phrase “the genius of AND versus the tyranny of OR.” His theory can be applied to the current school funding crisis in Wyoming. Many times when we talk about a funding shortage for any fundamental service, we often utilize the “tyranny of OR” to defeat solutions to our problems. What I mean by that is that we often make the assumption that we must sacrifice one group of people, or one measure, to save another. We rationalize our position with the protection of one, at the exp...
Last week I shared about the idea that cuts mean different things to different people, and as long as your children/grandchildren are not affected, they may not bother you that much. This week, I want to touch on how we are all tied together. Roughly 85 percent of school budgets consist of staffing costs. In education it is simple, we need staff to educate our students. School funding cuts equals less people and fewer programs. Less staff also means less patronage to our local businesses and less tax base directly affecting our local economy....
Is there room for more cuts and efficiencies with schools? The answer depends on what is important to you. Big School/Small School: In small schools one certified staff member represents an entire elective program. Band, agriculture, art, and digital learning are just a few of the programs that are represented by only one or a partial teacher in HSCSD #1. Reducing a position can eliminate an entire program and student opportunity. Personal Importance: I learned long ago that every person’s passion may not be important to others, but that d...
The 2018 Wyoming Legislature reconvenes on February 12, 2018 to begin the budget session. Many legislators have shared publicly they have no interest in addressing the shortfall in state education funding with additional revenue sources. My last column addressed the cuts that have taken place in HSCSD #1 since 2010, and that the legislature has a constitutional obligation to provide for education, and thirty-six other fundamental rights in Article I. The Wyoming Legislature could choose to ignore the shortfall in funding in the upcoming...
What educational choices do we want for the children of our community? Last week I shared in regard to fundamental rights provided by the Wyoming Constitution with regard to education and the impact of the Wyoming Legislature’s choice to leave out the external cost adjustment component of the Wyoming school funding model since 2010 to our students’ education. This week I want to focus on reductions that have taken place since that time in HSCSD #1. Complete program eliminations include: the family consumer science (home economics) program tha...
In my last column, I touched on the significance of our forefathers providing education as a guaranteed fundamental right to the citizens of Wyoming. (Article I Section 23 provides for education). Article 7-1 of the Wyoming Constitution states: The legislature shall provide for the establishment and maintenance of a complete and uniform system of public instruction, embracing free elementary schools of every needed kind and grade, a university with such technical and professional departments as the public good may require and the means of the s...
Greetings Hot Springs County Patrons, The new school year is off to a terrific start. Students and staff are settling into their classes, and parents and families are establishing their routines. There is a great deal of positive energy at the start of a new school year. For our seniors, they are experiencing their “last first-day”, and for our youngest students, it is the beginning of a journey that will literally change their lives. Having had the humbling privilege of serving children for more than two decades, I have had the great opp...
It is difficult to read many of the facts below specific to Hot Springs County Schools, unless you realize what we may lose as a community. Can we live with fewer teachers, fewer bus drivers, without sports and activities, without agriculture programs, music programs, computer programs? Can we live with large class sizes in our younger grades? How about adding to an economic downturn in our community by reducing the number of educational professionals who make their home here, buy goods and services here? While these questions are yet to be...
