Your source for news in Hot Springs County
Your source for news in Hot Springs County
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The Hot Springs County School Board met on November 13 for their regular monthly meeting. The school district’s auditor appeared remotely to review the district’s fiscal year 2025 audit report. Due to the federal government shutdown, the auditors are still awaiting a final directive from the United Stated Department of Education (USDE), before the report may be finalized, however, the auditor stated that all work has been completed on the report, and he anticipates that the report can be finalized in short order, once the USDE has issued the...
The Hot Springs County School Board met on October 16 for their regular monthly meeting. The board welcomed new trustee Chauncey Johnson. Johnson thanked the board for giving him an opportunity to once again be involved with the school district. The district’s technology director Josh Taylor reported on the status of his department and provided the board with information pertaining to creating an AI policy for the district. The board is in the process of considering the adoption of such a policy, and welcomed the information to consider. S...
The Hot Springs County School Board met on October 9 in a special meeting to consider applicants to fill a vacancy on the board left by the resignation of trustee, Justin Budd, which became effective on October 1, 2025. Budd had advised the Board that he had accepted an offer to work over-seas, and that he and his family would be leaving the state. Immediately after opening the public meeting, the Board moved into an Executive Session, so that the trustees could consider letters of interest in the position, which had been submitted; to conduct...
Ralph Witters Elementary of Hot Springs County School District #1 is one of three Wyoming schools named as 2025 National Blue Ribbon schools. The Wyoming Department of Education announced last week that the public schools had been selected as recipients of the prestigious award. This honor recognizes schools that demonstrate overall academic excellence or make significant progress in closing achievement gaps. “Congratulations to our 2025 Blue Ribbon Schools. Wyoming continues to lead the nation in education, and these three schools are s...
The Hot Springs County School Board met on August 21for their regular monthly meeting. The board took up a number of matters, including resignations by board member, Justin Budd and maintenance/custodial director Jared Jeffs. The board disclosed that Budd had submitted his resignation from the Board, which will be effective on October 1, 2025. At their upcoming September meeting, the board will determine the manner in which the vacancy will be filled. The reason for the resignation was not disclosed. At a July 2, 2025 special meeting, board...
Following on the heels of the little dust-up which transpired at their July 2 special meeting, the Hot Springs County School District Board of Trustees, held a much more subdued regular meeting on July 15. As their first order of business, and without any objections being stated, the board formally accepted of the resignation of Justin Budd from his position as chair of the board. Moving on to an election to elect a new chair, the board went through of couple of rounds of nominations and votes to finally elect board member Jennifer Axtel to...
At the May 15 Hot Springs County School District #1 Board of Trustees meeting, during public comments, former trustee Joe Martinez discussed the minutes from the May 1 meeting regarding the approval of the contract for the new superintendent and finances. Martinez spoke about Trustee Bethany Webber’s “consistent pattern” regarding her not voting for multi-year contracts for the past few years. However, Martinez wanted to know “for transparency purposes” why Webber changed her position when she voted for a multi-year contract for the new super...
At the March 13, Hot Springs County School District #1 Board of Trustees meeting, Superintendent Hunt announced that two alternative calendars community meetings will be on March 31 at 6:30 p.m. and Thursday April 10 at 6:30 p.m. Both meetings at the William H. Malloy school auditorium. Members of the community do not have to attend both meetings, as similar information will be presented at each meeting. Hunt said there will be discussion of the myths and facts of a four-day week and the possibilities of what opens up for the district with the...
The Hot Springs County High School Speech and Debate Team's long and impressive 2024-2025 season closed with a third place trophy finish in 1A/2A at the Wyoming Speech and Debate Tournament at Cheyenne South High School in Cheyenne on March 13, 14, and 15. This year's large tournament included 34 schools in attendance with over 470 individual entries. The tournament culminated nearly six months of competition that started back in October 2024. In the season-ending competition, five Bobcats...
The Hot Springs County High School Speech and Debate Team celebrated another strong showing at the National Qualifying Wind River District Speech and Debate Tournament at Central Wyoming College in Riverton on February 27 through March 1. Seventeen Bobcats, coached by Lyle Wiley, Alyssa Brown, Riley Jeffs, Markie Whitney, and Tyler Kay, traveled and competed in the tournament. The tournament hosted 19 Wind River District schools with competitors of all Wyoming school classifications (1A/2A, 3A,...
The Hot Springs County High School Speech and Debate Team closed out the regular season with two simultaneous third place finishes in small school divisions at separate tournaments. Ten students, accompanied by coaches Alyssa Brown, Riley Jeffs, and Tyler Kay, competed at the Greybull Forensics Challenge Speech and Debate Tournament held at Greybull High School on February 21-22, while five debaters, accompanied by coaches Lyle Wiley and Markie Whitney, competed at the Star Valley Tournament of the Brave at Star Valley High School on February 2...
The Hot Springs Speech and Debate Team captured the 1A/2A Champion at the Big Horn Speech and Debate Tournament held at Big Horn High School on January 31-February 1, 2025. The Bobcats brought 15 students to compete in the tournament that hosted 10 schools including large teams from South Dakota. Junior Dean Bihr built on his strong season, capturing the champion plaque for Congressional Debate in a heavily populated field. Bihr also finished third in Impromptu Speaking, and went 3-1 in Lincoln-Douglas Debate - tying for fifth place overall....
Hot Springs County High School senior, Kaylee Bazzle, has been a member of the Bobcat Cheer Squad since her freshman year. Each summer, the squad attends a training camp, somewhere in the state of Wyoming, to build their skills, and to take on new opportunities to excel in their sport. Last summer, the squad went to cheer camp in Cokeville, where Kaylee was given an opportunity to try out for a spot on the All American Cheer Squad. At Cokeville, twenty-three cheerleaders competed for six open positions on the national team. Following the...
The Hot Springs Speech and Debate Team continued their impressive season, bringing home a 1A/2A runner-up trophy at the large, dog-themed Roverton Speech and Debate Tournament held at Riverton High School on January 24-25, 2025. Ten students coached by Lyle Wiley, Alyssa Brown, Riley Jeffs, Markie Whitney, and Tyler Kay competed at the tournament that hosted twelve teams and over 280 entries. Bobcat debaters continue to improve as the season progresses. Junior Dean Bihr was tournament runner-up in Lincoln-Douglas debate (losing on a close split...
Thermopolis Middle School has released their honor rolls for the first semester of the 2024-25 school year. 5th Grade A’s/B’s: Baylee Bears, Gunther Bihr, Joshua Blair, Morgan Blakesley, Abel Cordingly, Ellie Denton, Penelope Evans, Connor Fairbanks, Ben Farrell, Jonathan Haddix, Brooklyn Hunter, Bain Lahoe, Jaylee Larson, Fletcher Lewis, Ike Marvel, Skylar Ohrt, Aksel Polson, Hayden Robinson, Tristan Steadman, Ruby Stotts, Khloe Zimmerman 5th Grade All A’s: Maggie Culbreath, Jennifer Deromedi, Kyle Egger, Kade Enis, Brice Garrison, Joshua Hadd...
Hot Springs County High School has released their first semester honor roll. Superintendent, 4.0 - Ann Allen, Cannon Boren, Gage Bowman, Jon Bryce, Sean Bryce, Elijah Budd, Nolan Collins, Ava Dafoe, Jacoby Elder, Jadeth Elder, Logan Farrell, Hayden Franklin, Alexis Garrison, Ammon Gevas, Teancum Gevas, Isabela Hetzel, Hanna Hill, Clayton Hubele, Reagan Huckfeldt, Orion Jenks, Paige Jones, Morgan Jones, Clayton Keller, Cole Keller, Marguerite Keller, Aubriana Layman, Kacey Mackay, Benjamin Mansfield, Alec Martinez, Carter Mascorro, Mac...
The Hot Springs Speech and Debate team finished in second place in 1A/2A at the first ever Riverside Jurassic Classic Speech Tournament held at Riverside High School in Basin on January 18. Coaches Lyle Wiley, Alyssa Brown, Riley Jeffs, Markie Whitney, and Tyler Kay traveled with a team of 10 Bobcats to compete with 9 teams and over 120 entries. The one-day Riverside tournament excluded debate events, so Bobcat debaters had a weekend to focus on interpretative and platform events. The only debate event held at the tournament was the...
At the December 19 Hot Springs County School District board of trustees meeting, an election of officers was held. Newly elected trustees were present, including Marshall Keller, Justin Budd, Jean Skelton and Nichole Weyer. They were joined by Sherman Skelton, Jennifer Axtell and Bethany Webber. For the election of officers, Marshall Keller nominated Justin Budd for chairman, and Nichole Weyer nominated Jennifer Axtell. Justin Budd, Bethany Webber, Jean Skelton and Marshall Keller voted for Budd for chair. Sherman Skelton, Nichole Weyer and...
New inductees to the National Honor Society from Hot Springs County High School include Emme Miller, Annalyn Sharp, Aubriana Layman, Ella Slover, Nolan Collins and Alec Martinez. They were honored at a ceremony last week. Academic awards were also handed out at the ceremony....
At the November 14 Hot Springs County School District #1 board meeting. Trustees Marshall Keller and Jennifer Axtell were not present. At the beginning of the meeting, Trustee Clay VanAntwerp made a motion to add to the agenda the extension of the superintendent’s and other contracts. Trustee Bethany Webber voted against the additions to the agenda. Later in the meeting, after the executive session, Trustee VanAntwerp made a motion to extend Elementary Principal Nichole Ciz’s contract through 2027. During discussion Trustee Bethany Webber said...
At the October Hot Springs County School District #1 Trustees board meeting, the principals of all three schools shared their accountability ratings and all the rankings for state assessment data. Hot Springs County High School Principal Catelyn Deromedi said, “Regarding our ACT rankings this year, the last couple of years, we’ve been ranked in the top three, as a district across the state. Our juniors from last year, our seniors this year, were ranked number one in the state of Wyoming as a district for their ACT scores.” Deromedi added...
The Hot Springs County Republican Party hosted a School Board Candidates forum at the fair building on Sept. 30. In the general election, there are four seats open for the Hot Springs County School District #1 Board of Trustees. This is part three of the forum coverage. Part one and two ran previously in the IR. A special general election section will be printed in next week’s IR with info on our local candidates and state candidates. There are two incumbents currently running for reelection, t...
The Hot Springs County Republican Party hosted a School Board Candidates forum at the fair building on Sept. 30. In the general election, there are four seats open for the Hot Springs County School District #1 Board of Trustees. This is part two of the forum coverage. Part one ran in the Oct. 10 IR. There are two incumbents currently running for reelection, they are Clay VanAntwerp and Nichole Weyer. Marshall Keller is also running and is currently an appointed trustee who filled the seat from Will Ferrell who recently resigned. Trustee Joe...
On Monday, September 23, Hot Springs County School District #1 Superintendent Dustin Hunt made a surprise announcement to the Thermopolis Middle School (TMS) students and staff at the Bill Malloy Auditorium that the U.S. Department of Education recognized them as one of the 2024 National Blue Ribbon Schools. The Department of Education recognized 356 schools as the 2024 cohort of the National Blue Ribbon Schools, including three schools in Wyoming. This prestigious recognition highlights...
At the September Hot Springs County School District #1 (HSCSD#1) Board of Trustee meeting, after reconvening from executive session, Trustee Joe Martinez said, “Mr. Chair, I move to approve an addendum to the superintendent contract that states: superintendent may perform outside contract and or consulting work for educational firms, provided that work is not for Hot Springs County School District Number One, and his outside work does not interfere with his duties to Hot Springs County School District Number One. Superintendents outside of w...
