School board approves 2025-26 school calendar after discussion

At the January 18 Hot Springs County School District #1 board meeting, advisor Becky Martinez and Thermopolis Middle School’s Big Spring FFA gave a presentation during the celebrations portion. The students showed a slideshow of their activities and their trip to the FFA Nationals event. The Thermopolis Independent Record ran a full story on their trip to Nationals in the November 16, 2023, edition beginning on the front page.

The students said their goal is to be in the top five chapters in the state, which is made of 58 chapters, including both middle and high schools. They also highlighted state champions and those who made it to the national level. Their next event is an Agri science fair.

During the student trustee report, Jarek Jeffs said the Speech and Debate will have seven tournaments upcoming. These include 350 entries and 18 total teams. They will also hold the Jackalope Jump fundraiser for the Special Olympics. There will be a robotics competition in Casper in February. Jeffs also gave the sports update, and he said the high school paper rebranded from Predator to Bobcat Tales.

Superintendent Dustin Hunt gave the strategic plan progress report, which highlighted their accomplishment and future actions to achieve their goals. Hunt also mentioned the Yes We Can trainer, which is to grow their capacity for special education instruction.

Hunt also said, “We are scheduled to host the second annual PLC for School Board statewide.” The event will be on April 8-9.

Hunt continued and said, “One of our goals to recruit, retain employees and maintain a top quality daycare. They have done a tremendous job.” Hunt described how during the cold weather a sprinkler went off in the building and the daycare staff moved young people to a safe spot.

School board chairman Sherman Skelton opened the meeting up for public comments, however, no one came to speak at the podium. 

Jessica Benefiel gave the financial report that the district is now halfway through the fiscal year. Benefiel said, “Expenditures are right on track and we were actually within one-half of 1% of FY 23 expenditures at this time.” She added they have “pretty consistent our revenues. On the other hand, you probably noticed, they are significantly lower for fiscal year 2024 year to date, which they had been all year. The student activity expenditures will ramp up a little with all of our officiating requirements for winter sports and then travel costs for our various activities.”

Benefiel and the board also mentioned the Donate app for school lunches or drop off for negative lunch balances. This helps those who want to give money to those in need of school lunches.

The board also said they are hiring a crossing guard, but it will take a little bit of time for training and that there will be additional interviewing.

In new business, during the discussion regarding planning the next 2025-26 school calendar, Trustee Joe Marninez said, “I did send an email to Mr. Hunt, but I had gotten information back from the state fair and state fair is August 12th to the 16th, which is also when staff is back prior to students. We have discussed in the past that is a time when you’re going to have staff members who are out due to that. Parents who are wanting to take their kids to the state fair for various reasons or other staff members. So, I mean, really, I would like to see that bumped if possible. If there’s any potential ability to change that there just so that you don’t have staff missing out on one or the other.”

Chairman Skelton replied, “I appreciate that discussion. I know one thing that we’ve heard in the past is that if they moved those PD [profession development] dates, that created a conflict as well. Right?”

Superintendent Hunt replied, “I definitely sympathize with what Joe is bringing. But it’s one of those things. If we move it that way and then it’s going to create other conflicts, other ways, it’s just what we want to do. So it’s always kind of been tradition. It’s not, but it actually makes zero difference to me other than my only thing that I would bring forward is the more we move it deeper into August gets less instruction time before we do assessments. But if we move it back, then you almost would have to have a break. If you moved it deeper into August, you also would finish in June rather than kind of the standard, which is usually right after Memorial weekend.”

The calendar discussion also included what teachers said about the overlap, anomalies in this next calendar, the hunting season and graduation.

During the vote, all trustees voted in favor of the new calendar as is, with Trustee Martinez voting against. 

Later, the school board went into executive session for personnel issues. No action was taken.