Your source for news in Hot Springs County
Your source for news in Hot Springs County
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Next year, kindergarten is going to look and feel a little different at Ralph Witters Elementary as the kindergarten team will be switching from a focused learning classroom to a “play based” curriculum for 2019-2020. That’s not to say the classrooms will be running amok with fingerpaints, dancing and all day games of tag. Quite the contrary, actually as the children will be learning through things like make-believe play, block play, sand and water play, art activities and exploring the outdoors...
Around 100 parents, students and athletes attended the Hot Springs County School District’s Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday night, expressing their wish for the district to reconsider the firing of Coach Matt McPhie. McPhie, who coaches football and girl’s basketball as well as teaching, was denied a renewal of his contract for the upcoming year. About 30 of those in attendance spoke up for McPhie, the parents urging the board to reconsider their decision based on how they have watched him...
Hot Springs County School District #1 celebrated both parents and staff during a special assembly on Tuesday afternoon in the auditorium. Power Parent Awards were given to TJ Owsley, Amber Cox and Jennifer Duncan for going above and beyond as parents with children in the school system. The trio is always willing to help with everything from lending a hand in the classroom to volunteering for field trips. The district also honored the three retirees from the district this year, Dorothy Rhodes,...
Three Hot Springs County High School juniors took top places in the Code of the West American Dream Essay Contest sponsored through the Boys and Girls Club of Wyoming. Hannah Hu with her entry Forge Your Own Path, earned first place which comes with a $300 cash award and entry into the state level competition and a chance at $5,000. Ashley McPhie and her Crooked Paths of Courage took second and a $200 award, and Tahja Hunt’s Taking the Long Road took third and a $100 award. The American Dream Essay Contest is centered on bestselling author, J...
Hot Springs County School District No.1, in partnership with law enforcement agencies, will be hosting a community informational meeting about the rise in use of vaping devices amongst our youth. The district will discuss school policy, and law enforcement will provide warning signs and information for parents and students. Parents and students are encouraged to attend this important community meeting. The meeting is at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5 in the school district auditorium....
As adults, we hear a lot of talk about how all the technology our teens are exposed to is having detrimental affects. At Hot Springs County schools, some steps are being taken in an attempt to curb some of the effects things like smartphones and the internet are having on our children’s learning. High school principal, Breez Daniels said, “We are still trying to get the same message out this year about cell phones that we started sharing last school year. It is a challenge because our stu...
Bobcat Senior Barbara Kissel was recently chosen as the Wyoming FFA Region 2 Star in Ag Business. Kissel said she has her own club lamb operation, named B Spear Club Lambs after her brand. She kept records and explained her program to a committee, and in the Big Horn Basin the committee thought hers was the best running and best overall. FFA Advisor Britton Van Heule noted there were two other applications, but every student that has an entrepreneurship Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) c...
Thermopolis eighth grade student Karina Lea will be attending the 28th Jackson Hole Writers Conference June 27-29 on a full ride scholarship. Lea said the conference brings together Wyoming writers, to read each others' work and give critiques. It also provides the opportunity to meet with agents, she noted. "Of course, with these kinds of things there's always a fee to get in." Last summer, she went to a camp the Jackson Hole Library offered and was able to speak with authors and get advice on...
The Wyoming Department of Education recently released statistics on the graduation rates for high school students across the state, showing an increase in graduating seniors for the fifth consecutive year. For the 2017-18 school year, Hot Springs County had an 80.4 percent graduation rate, down from the 87.3 percent graduation rate of the 2016-2017 school year. In 2017, 48 out of an expected 55 seniors graduated from Hot Springs County High School, while 45 out of an expected 56 graduated in...
Student numbers in Hot Springs County Schools are holding fairly steady this year with just two fewer students from the end of December to the start of January. December had 640 students enrolled and by the time kids headed back to class in January, there were 638. Third grade, seventh grade and tenth grade all added one student over the break, however, ninth grade, sixth grade, and fifth grade each lost one student and the fourth grade lost two, creating an overall loss of two students. Overall, the numbers are down from this time last year...
Hot Springs County School District Board of Trustees met last week for their January meeting and received the final presentation of the District’s financial audit from Koerwitz, Michel, Wright and Associates. The auditors didn’t find any glaring discrepancies with the annual audit that have not been present before, such as not enough separation between duties in the administrative side of things. This is typical with most businesses in the area since there simply aren’t enough employees to ke...
Named to the Hot Springs County High School Honor Rolls for the first semester are: Superintendent, 4.0: Caydence Becher, McKenna Bomengen, Kamry Bowman, Ashley Brawley, Autumn Brawley, Josiah Butler, James Christensen, Cole Christiansen, William Clark, Jasmine Collins, Kaylee DeVries, Eli Dickey, Bronwyn Dobbins, Kolby George, Sterling Gerber, Xander Getzfreid, Lee Grimm, Tyler Hoskins, Hannah Hu, Tahja Hunt, Courtney Jeunehomme, Hardy Johnson, Tyler Kay, Taydee Landrum, Dakota Leonhardt, Hallie Martinez, Eli McCumber, Wyatt McDermott, Ashley...
Thermopolis Middle School has released the lists of students who had straight A’s, perfect attendance and perfect 6 P’s for the first two quarters of the school year. Straight A’s Fifth Grade — Elizabeth Arcand, Dean Bihr, Lainie Boren, Sharon Burgess, Scott Coale, Nolan Collins, Caden Dodd, Jadeth Elder, Kamryn Farrell, Peyton Green, JolieAnne Herring, Cooper Holman, Taylor Ivie, Kamilla Johnson, Miya Mailloux, Mercede Martinez, Cruz Mascorro, Maile McCumber, Jayssiie Owsley, Charlee Slagle, Alix Sorensen, Cambria Stephensen, Kaycee Stothar...
One of the best things about living in Wyoming is the access parents have to quality schools to ensure their children are getting the best education possible. Its hard sometimes, to know exactly where to look if you’re curious about your own school’s “report card” on education, but the Wyoming Department of Education has created a website to make that job a little easier. At wyomingmeasuresup.com, parents, teachers and others can access information about different schools and school distric...
Hot Springs County School District #1 has announced two of the four Champions for Children this year, Nichole Ciz and Brandon Deromedi. Each year the district chooses four champions and one of those lucky four will be selected at the school district’s Teacher of the Year for 2019. Ciz comes to Thermopolis from Wheatland with her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education from Chadron State College along with a minor in vocal music. She began her career at Ralph Witters Elementary in 2010 and taught kindergarten for four years before moving on...
Students and teacher Britton Van Heule are using the former auto shop space in the Vocational Building to build a new kind of gardener, a "farm bot." Van Heule explained the bot uses a grid system for a vegetable garden, with the programming done by the student. The bot plants the seeds, waters them, and even pulls and kills weeds. Van Heule noted the bots can be ordered from a company in California, and even NASA is considering using them on some of their projects. As for the assembly, Van Heul...
The Hot Springs County School District’s Board of Trustees met on Tuesday and as their first order of business, elected new board officers and distributed the various committees amongst the board. The officers for the coming year actually remained the same as last year with Clay VanAntwerp continuing as board chair, Jennifer Axtell stays on as vice-chair, the clerk remains Joe Martinez and board treasurer is Nichole Weyer. In other business, the board approved a bus stop off of 393 Highway 1...
The Thermopolis Head Start center has been busy this year, welcoming new staff members including teacher Jill Van Heule, teacher aide John Martinez and cook Laura Dockter. These three share a love for children and roots in the community. Dockter said she was becoming bored with retirement and the job was open. Van Heule said her husband has lived in this community for 16 years and supported the program, and the two want to raise their children in the county. Martinez started in February as the...
The Wyoming Coaches Association recently named Thermopolis cross country coach Stephanie Metz and golf coach Joey Johnson as Coaches of the Year for the 2018 fall sports season. This is Metz's sixth year with Hot Springs County School District No. 1, and she was an assistant swim coach before moving to Wyoming. She taught third grade her first year in the district, and during the past five years she has been teaching eigth grade math. One of the years she taught seventh and eighth grade math....
As students returned from their Thanksgiving break their parents were informed of a new system being used district-wide that added a new level to the security at each of the buildings. The Raptor Visitor Management System allows the schools to better screen visitors, contractors and volunteers at the various buildings. A form of identification, such as a driver’s license, is scanned or manually entered into the system and Raptor will check to ensure no registered sex offenders are entering t...
The Hot Springs County High School Drama Team took first place in 2A at the State Drama Festival this past weekend in Rock Springs. Twenty-four students traveled and competed against students from around the state of Wyoming. In addition to the first place award, they also had six students receive All-State Medals and 19 students receive Honorable Mention awards. The six students that received All-State Medals and a Superior rating are: Ben Manning (Stage Management), Breeze Petty (Stage...
The Wyoming Department of Education recently released the Wyoming Test of Proficiency and Progress (WY-TOPP) results for all schools within Wyoming. Stat Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jillian Balow said, “We went from a paper and pencil, multiple-choice-only test that provided limited useful information to teachers, to an adaptable, interactive, online assessment that gives teachers data that can be used to inform instruction. “I’m so proud of the teachers, principals, tech direc...
Maintenance supervisor Jere Apland reported to the school board last week on the summer maintenance his crew completed. At Ralph Witters Elementary (RWE) they finished the last of the carpet and linoleum replacement on the south end of the building. Apland added next summer will see new flooring in the kitchen and some patching of various spots on the roof. They are systematically replacing carpeting and doing some painting at the middle school. The classrooms should all be finished with their...
The Lights On Afterschool program through the Hot Springs County School District just finished an excellent 2017-2018 year and are already in full swing for another successful year. According to program coordinator Elisa Daniels, 266 children were enrolled in the programs at the schools last year with 238 of those coming on a regular, sometimes daily, basis. There were 109 in the Ralph Witters Elementary (RWE) program, 97 at the middle school, 17 at the high school (robotics) and even 15 little ones in the Pre-K program. When it came to family...
Homecoming for the Thermopolis Bobcats will be next week and the school district is inviting everyone to be a participant as they proclaim “One Town, One Team, One Dream.” The concept is to get the community involved in all the Homecoming activities and see how the environment at the school is changing and evolving into a place students want to be rather than just something they have to finish to get on with their lives. Dean of Students, Curt Mayer, said the change in attitude will hop...
