Education congregation
School trustees meet with other districts in the region
As much as I enjoy the times I’ve been able to travel from Gillette to Newcastle to cover events and spend time with the rest of the News Letter Journal team, it was a nice surprise to see Weston County School District No. 1 school board members come to my city for a change.
Superintendent Brad LaCroix mentioned during the Aug. 28 school board meeting that the board would be coming to Gillette for a workshop on Sept. 3, and I reached out to him to learn more. He quickly shared the details for the Wyoming School Boards Association’s 2024 Fall Regional meeting of the public school districts from Campbell, Crook, Johnson, Sheridan and Weston counties, and I considered myself sufficiently “invited” to attend.
Newcastle board trustees Dana Gordon, Billy Fitzwater, Jason Jenkins, Paul Bau and Joe Prell joined LaCroix in attending the meeting, along with board members and superintendents from other districts and WSBA staff.
I was the only news reporter.
I sat next to LaCroix and the other Newcastle board members in the meeting room, which was at Campbell County School District No. 1’s Lakeway Learning Center in Gillette.
The association’s executive director, Brian Farmer, welcomed the roughly 30 attendees and announced that the goal was to allow school board members “to have the opportunity to engage with each other” as the districts begin their school year. One way that happened was an icebreaker activity in which people at the event filled up cards by asking other attendees to initial which of 25 descriptions they met. In their participation, the school board members walked around the room to chat with other people and had to find out background information about their peers in other districts.
For example, one square asked board members to find someone who had been a school board member for more than 10 years. Another prompted players to find someone who believed their district had “a good way to share positive news with our community.”
After that, the group discussed common challenges, such as trying to fill board vacancies, experiencing decreasing student enrollment, deciding what business should be conducted in public meetings versus executive sessions and helping students explore their interests.
Gordon noted that the Newcastle district holds a trade fair in the spring, where area businesses talk to students, and Prell said children who attend the fair can learn about careers in the various trades. Other districts highlighted programs such as dual language immersion and personalized learning.
People who attended the event later paired up or created small groups to discuss responses to open-ended questions. For example, some trustees shared what their relationships were like with the public who attended board meetings. While a board member from another district said her board receives an overwhelming amount of interest from the public during public comment, Weston County School District No. 1 officials noted that few people make remarks during public comment portions of their meetings.
Prell said after the workshop that it’s always good to see how other districts’ board members operate.
“Not one single board has all the ideas and all the right moves, right? So it’s good to network and learn stuff,” he said.
Fitzwater said he plans to reach out to some of the people he met and learn more about what they’re facing and the solutions they have reached.
“It’s a small area,” he said. “They have the same issues we’re having, and the same positive things we have too.”
Weston County School District No. 7 board member Curtis Rankin reported that he spoke with a board member who said his community holds a monthly community lunch, where the elementary school dines with the high school and the community. He believes having that kind of event could boost community involvement in the district through activities such as reading to the children.
Gordon said she believes parents are sometimes “leery” to come into schools, but they’re always welcome. She noted that visits from parents and other community members benefit classrooms.
Farmer reviewed the association’s advocacy initiatives and the state’s finances for education. More resources can be found at bit.ly/FALLRU24.