School staff cuts — District trustees approve reductions after tie vote

Weston County School District No. 1 trustees approved a staff reduction plan March 11 after a second vote broke a 4-4 deadlock, authorizing job cuts affecting all three school buildings and the district’s transportation department as the district confronts a projected $1 million budget shortfall.

Superintendent Brad LaCroix asked trustees to accept a recommendation presented in executive session authorizing staff reductions tied to declining average daily membership, or ADM, the enrollment measure used to determine school funding.

Seven positions cut

Seven positions were included in the reduction in force, Taylor Borgialli, the district’s human resources director, told the News Letter Journal in a March 16 email. Five of those positions were certified staff, and one additional position will have reduced hours. Employees impacted by the reduction in force have been notified and will finish out the 2025-26 school year, Borgialli said.

“These were incredibly difficult decisions, and we value and appreciate the staff’s dedication to our district and to our students,” she said.

LaCroix told the NLJ that administrators focused on student enrollment and program needs when developing the reduction plan, including whether programs could remain viable with fewer staff.

Tie vote

Before the board cast its first vote, two trustees said they disagreed with parts of the proposal. Board Chair Billy Fitzwater said he disagreed with two items included in the reduction plan, while trustee Dana Mann-Tavegia said she had one concern.

Trustees then voted on the proposal. The board split 4-4, causing the motion to fail.

Trustees Dana Gordon, Jason Jenkins, Paul Bau and Susan Pillen voted in favor of the motion. Fitzwater, Mann-Tavegia, Sean Crabtree and Tyler Mills voted against it.

Abbi Forwood, the district’s attorney, told trustees they could continue discussing the issue and bring the proposal back for another vote.

After the tie vote, trustees spoke about the difficulty of the decision.

Jenkins, the board’s vice chair, said trustees did not support the reductions but believed the district’s financial situation required action.

“I think and I hope the staff knows that everybody in this room put a lot of time and thought into it,” Jenkins said. “There’s nothing about this that we like.”

Trustee Paul Bau said administrators had been asked to provide their best recommendations.

“Just because we don’t like it doesn’t mean we don’t have to do it,” Bau said. “Math is math and numbers are numbers.”

Trustee Dana Gordon said the board still had a responsibility to address the district’s finances.

“We have to do what’s fiscally responsible, whether we want to or not,” Gordon said.

Eventually, Fitzwater said the board needed to move forward.

“As much as I don’t want to say it, we have to do this,” he said.

Trustees then voted a second time. The motion passed 6-2. Mann-Tavegia and Crabtree voted against the plan. Trustee Joe Prell was absent.

Budget shortfall

Borgialli told the NLJ that the district expects a shortfall of about $1 million due to declining enrollment, increased insurance costs, higher Wyoming Retirement System contributions, the need for potential pay increases to recruit and retain staff, and reduced financial resources available to the district.

Administrators and trustees considered several options to address the deficit, she said, including reductions in force, resignations, retirements, attrition and possible decreases in building budgets.

Collectively, the reduction in force, staff restructuring, resignations, retirements and budget adjustments are expected to offset more than $900,000 of the projected deficit.

“The overall goal is to maintain quality programming for students,” Borgialli said.

LaCroix told the NLJ that declining enrollment alone is projected to reduce district funding by about $600,000.

“The bottom line was somewhere around that million-dollar estimate of not being funded appropriately, meaning that we had more staff than what we had for student numbers,” he said.

Administrators reviewed staffing across the district before presenting their recommendation to trustees.

“We looked at actually everything,” LaCroix said.

The review included classrooms as well as custodial services, maintenance, transportation and other operational areas. Programs with very small enrollment were among the first areas examined.

“Some of these things were looked at primarily because they had less than 10 students in a total section,” LaCroix said.

He said district leaders wanted to save as many programs as possible while aligning staffing with the levels assumed in Wyoming’s school funding model, which estimates classroom staffing based on enrollment. For example, the model generally assumes about 16 students per classroom in early elementary grades, roughly 22 students in upper elementary grades and about 25 students in high school core classes.

LaCroix said the district’s enrollment patterns make those ratios difficult to maintain.

“Most people think of a school district this size as having 75 to 100 students in a class,” he said. “We’re not there. In fact, a big class for us now is in the 60s. A small class for us is in the 20s. So things are going to look considerably different.”

Enrollment in some programs is far smaller than many residents realize, he said.

In one example, he said an agriculture class sometimes assumed to serve dozens of students actually has only a handful enrolled.

“Your Ag 1 numbers are four, not 40,” he said.

Certain activities may face additional scrutiny if participation continues to decline, and some smaller programs could continue through alternative funding sources, such as community donations.

More changes coming

Later in the meeting, LaCroix warned trustees that additional financial challenges may lie ahead because of potential changes in Wyoming’s school funding system. The district’s new budget will be finalized in July, when the changes formally take effect.

“This hurdle in front of us was really based on the loss of stu–
dents and correct-sizing the district,” he said.

Senate File 81, the Wyoming Legislature’s K-12 school funding recalibration bill, could lead to additional changes, according to LaCroix. The law was enacted on March 9 without Gov. Mark Gordon’s signature.

“I don’t think we’re quite over
with what’s in front of us,” LaCroix said. “I think there’ll be some big winners and there will continue to be big losers.”

Leadership transition

District leaders are also evaluating whether to refill several administrative positions that are about to become vacant, including an elementary counselor, a middle school principal and a business manager.

Jenkins said during the meeting that the district would not replace Newcastle Middle School Principal Tyler Bartlett when his resignation, ahead of a move to Nebraska,
takes effect at the end of the 2025-26 school year.

LaCroix told the NLJ that the board will decide March 25 whether to fill that position or handle the responsibilities internally. Two of the three candidates are internal applicants. He also said that if the board asks him to assume the responsibilities of a middle school principal, he will, noting he has held that role before.

LaCroix said the district’s financial restructuring is also meant to position the district for future leadership. His contract runs through June 30, 2027, and he said he does not plan to seek renewal. 

Addressing the district’s financial challenges now, he said, could help ensure that the district is in
a stronger position for future
leadership.

“Nobody wants to take on a farm that’s broke,” he said.

Transparency questioned

The motions used by Weston County School District No. 1 trustees to approve staff reductions March 11 raised questions about transparency.

The board’s first motion — which failed in a 4-4 vote — was to “accept the recommendation … to approve the staff reduction in forces due to ADM loss, downsizing, maintain quality programming for the students that were presented to the board during the executive session.”

A second motion later passed 6-2. Trustees voted “to accept the reduction in force as presented to us” and “to accept the recommendation to approve the staff reduction of forces due to ADM loss, downsizing and maintaining quality programming for students that will be presented to the board on Wednesday night.”

Neither motion publicly detailed which positions would be eliminated.

Superintendent Brad LaCroix did not identify affected employees during the meeting, saying he had been asked not to include the names. He told the News Letter Journal on March 12 that he “can’t” share their names.

Trustees also did not publicly explain specific concerns about the plan. Board Chair Billy Fitzwater said he disagreed with two items, and trustee Dana Mann-Tavegia said she had one concern.

“The specific issue falls under confidentiality and open meeting policies, so I am unable to share that,” Mann-Tavegia told the NLJ.

Fitzwater said his concerns were “discussed in executive session about personnel.”

Wyoming Press Association attorney Chris Wages said the board’s actions fall into “a close call” legally. While not necessarily a violation of law, he said, the motions may conflict with “the spirit of the open meetings law” because they did not clearly describe what was being approved.