Groups, activities, staff recognized at school board meeting

Student trustee Hallie Martinez reported the week of Feb. 22 would be Future Farmers of America Week, “so I know that FFA members have a lot of cool stuff planned, including the petting zoo that we do every year.” Martinez explained that event would take place Thursday, Feb. 24, “if anybody wants to pop in, say hi and see some animals.”

The school district’s FFA members took part in the state Agriscience Fair competition conducted by the Wyoming FFA. Martinez elaborated that Hot Springs County School District’s FFA members would get to know if they’ll compete at the state level, which itself would determine whether they get to move on to the national level of competition.

Board Chair Sherman Skelton added that the recent school science fair was “really hurting” for judges, “so I was able to participate in that, and it was amazing for the job the middle school and high school students did, so I just want to thank them for all the hard work they put into that.”

Hot Springs County High School Principal Breez Daniels celebrated the Drama Team as “our State Drama Champions,” which made it a three-peat since this was their third year.

“I’ve waited for a long time to say the word ‘three-peat,’” Mary McGillivray said. “We’ve won three times in a row.”

McGillivray explained that the one-act portion of the festival pitted the Hot Springs County High School Drama Team against 1-A, 2-A, 3-A  and 4-A schools, with the local students as a whole coming back with a third-place win.

Two of those local actors took home honorable mention certificates, which McGillivray said “means one of the three judges circled their names,” while four local students received all-state medals, “which means one or two or more of those judges circled their names for being excellent in their roles.”

The online portion of competition saw a group scene with 13 members, which McGillivray said “is a very large group scene,” that scored “excellent ratings,” with every single one of them also  earning an honorable mention.“ We had four superiors, with four all-state medals, 11 excellents and eight honorable mentions,” McGillivray said. “They were troupers through snowstorms and windstorms.”

She added that “we were the only team in 1-A and 2-A to actually fulfill the requirements,” and “we took enough events to compete at the 3-A level.”

McGillivray thanked the local students for doing due diligence on their research, completing their portfolios and delivering presentations that were “spot-on,” enough that she received emails from directors and judges throughout the state saying, “Oh my gosh, I just watched one of your kids, and their makeup portfolio is so good, they have every research page and they labeled everything,” so she was “really proud of them for that.”

She added that the local Drama Team members were also lauded for treating their fellow teams kindly and being “just great humans in general.”

McGillivray reported that Hot Springs County High School had 19 students that participated this year at state, including five seniors.

Thermopolis Middle School Principal Steven Soderstrom introduced eighth-grade math teacher Stephanie Metz for staff celebrations, recalling how he was “lucky” to teach with her for a couple of years before becoming principal, and “I could tell right away how good she was at her job.”

Soderstrom cited Metz’s dedication and knowledge of each individual student, to the point that, “if you ask her about any one of her students at any time, she can tell you what they need to work on, what they’re really good at” and how to “have them work with other students, to build on each other’s strengths.”

Metz was specifically being celebrated for earning her National Board Certified Teacher status, as Soderstrom noted how she’s already “a leader in our school, both horizontally and vertically, in the math team,” having mentored “countless” other teachers.

Daniels then celebrated the whole of the high school staff, lauded their hard work over not only the past several months, but also the past few years, to create a “collaborative culture” of “putting student learning first” and “focusing on results.”

Daniels expressed enthusiasm about how “all of these points are coming together for us,” after years of concerted efforts, and “we’re at an exciting place at the high school,” which was named a Model Professional Learning Community in May of 2021, “and these folks worked very hard to make that happen.”