EVANSTON — Controversial topics dominated the evening for the Uinta County School District No. 1 board of trustees at the Sept. 12 meeting. Reduction of board size and school safety and security were primary topics of the evening, and both issues are likely to be recurrent agenda items for the next several meetings. 

District superintendent Ryan Thomas provided the board with a school safety and security update. “The good news is that there are funds available,” said Thomas, referring to capital construction monies designated by the legislature for school security. 

Thomas said the first step is to hire an architect or engineer to come in to survey each school to determine what would be needed to improve security, specifically in terms of building communication and controlling building access. He said that facilities director Jaruan Dennis will be initiating that process. 

The other facet of the safety and security discussion dealt with concealed carry of firearms by district employees. Thomas said that the Wyoming School Board Association has put together a group to study available research on this issue, including staunch supporters, staunch opponents and those who just want some clarity. 

“This is a very polarizing topic,” said Thomas, acknowledging that there is very little middle ground on the issue. He said that they needed to survey the staff to gauge feelings and interest. Fackrell said he is sure that there are staff members who will be interested in applying for concealed carry authorization. Thomas said he is sure there are also “staff who will be horrified that the person next to them is potentially carrying.” 

Thomas suggested a tentative timeline to move forward on any district policy allowing concealed carry by staff, including public meetings, with an eye on having a policy in place for the 2018-2019 school year. 

One possible roadblock to implementing any policy is liability coverage. Thomas said that the only other district in the region that is actively working on concealed carry by staff is in Star Valley, and they have been told that if they were to implement this policy they would lose their liability coverage. UCSD No. 1 has the same liability provider. 

Thomas said that even the state-funded liability pool, funded by the state legislature, would currently not cover districts that implemented a concealed carry policy. At that point, trustee Jami Brackin said incredulously, “Let me get this straight. The state insurance pool, funded by the legislature, who passed this bill, is not going to carry your insurance if you adopt a policy adopting this bill. Have I got that right?” Thomas replied, “Yes.” 

Thomas said he suspected that ultimately they would be able to find some type of liability coverage if the policy were adopted, but that it would be expensive.

The timeline that Thomas proposed included putting together a committee of law enforcement, district employees and parents to start working on the issue and creating a draft of a policy, with that committee being formed in October. He stressed that there would be a public form and opportunities for voices to be heard. “What I want to avoid is, I guess, hysteria or people storming the board thinking we’re going to do this without input,” said Thomas. 

Discussion regarding reducing the size of the board from nine to seven was first initiated by trustee David Bennett at the Sept. 5 meeting, and he spoke on the subject again at the Sept. 12 meeting. Bennett said that the average attendance at meetings currently is around seven, that most of the boards of other districts around the state have seven members, and that he thinks a timeline needs to be in place to go through whatever steps are necessary to reduce the board size. 

Board chair Cassie Torres shared some information with the other board members regarding the size of most boards in Wyoming, which showed that of 48 total districts 22 have seven-member boards, with 12 having nine-member boards like UCSD No. 1. Torres also shared statistics on how many trustees typically attend board meetings. From July 2013 to August 2017 there were 92 meetings and all nine trustees were present for only 16 of those, with average attendance of seven. 

Discussion not only centered on the number of trustees, but also on why all board members were elected at-large. According to Thomas, the decision to elect all trustees at-large instead of by different residential areas of the district stemmed from issues that occurred years ago when there were areas, specifically Hilliard, where there was  little interest in running for those positions. 

Trustee Kerby Barker said he was concerned about loss of representation for areas outside of town should the board size be reduced and wondered if perhaps some redistricting should be considered as well. Trustee Kay Fackrell said he doesn’t understand the need for reducing the board to seven and pointed out that if the board were reduced to seven then a majority of four people would be able to make decisions for the district. “I think we have too much on our shoulders to let four votes make those decisions,” said Fackrell. 

Ultimately it was decided that public input should be solicited regarding this topic. Thomas said a couple of different resolutions could be drafted outlining different options for reducing the board and for redistricting. The resolutions can then be shared with the public in October in order to get feedback. 

Other topics during the evening included approving a contract with a consultant to come in to the district multiple times during the 2017-18 school year to provide staff training on professional learning communities. Assistant superintendent Doug Rigby said that the PLCs are an entirely new model and that bringing a consultant in to the district would be a new approach to training and would allow for far more staff members to participate. 

Rigby said, “We can’t continue to do what we’ve done and only train a few of our folks. We have to be able to train them all.” 

Professional learning communities and guaranteed and viable curriculum came up again during discussion of the 2017-18 district strategic plan. One of the district goals is that all schools will be certified as high reliability schools by 2022, and guaranteed and viable curriculum is part of reaching that goal. 

Thomas told the trustees, “I’d like to at least for five years not be bringing in something new every year. . . My commitment to you is that this is not the flavor of the month.” 

Trustees opted to vote on three board goals for the current school  year, including supporting standard and assessment work for K-12 with a goal of providing a guaranteed and viable curriculum, continued implementation of the district communication plan, and emphasis on school safety and security including Enroll Act 93 (possession of firearms by school employees) policy development and implementation. 

Following the board vote, Thomas thanked trustees for including the emphasis on curriculum. Thomas said it was the first time the board has decided to make that a priority.