Thought for the Day:  “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count.  It’s the life in your years.” Abraham Lincoln

Legislative Process:  I attended the Wyoming School Boards Association Legislative Forum yesterday in Cheyenne.  Wyoming school board members and superintendents convene to discuss the progress of the legislative session and highlight significant bills that are working through both chambers.  As you would suspect, education funding continues to be a concern. 

ACSD#1 funding from the state for the past few years has been relatively flat—our budget is approximately $59.5 million annually.  The declining revenues at the state level for the past few years has resulted in funding cuts to public education, so we have been doing more with less.  The discussion this year is whether or not to fund an external cost adjustment (ECA) for public education.  This is an inflation adjustment or cost of living increase.  If the legislature passes the finance bill to include an increase in the ECA, our funding from the state will remain about the same due to other cuts that have been imposed, but the cost of living increase will allow us to continue to operate our current programs.

I share this information as we head in to next year’s budget discussions at the board level, so that our employees can be informed about decisions that we make to do the very best for our employees.  We continue to look at statewide teacher salaries to make sure that we are keeping pace with the rest of the state and region.  We continue to offer low cost health insurance, and provide significant benefits for our employees.  In addition to making decisions that support our employees, the school board has a commitment to provide resources to the classroom and maintain low student to staff class size ratio. 

The meet and confer committee process is one communication channel for sharing perspectives on salary and benefits. You can use the “Let’s Talk” feedback channel to share your personal perspective as well.

Conversation, Feedback, and Recognition:  I will start visiting schools this week to discuss the engagement survey, answer questions about the upcoming budget, and share a few more stories about OWL recipients.  We have collected a number of pictures and stories about our wonderful employees.  Here is the LINK to our page.

School Board Meeting This Week.  The school board will consider the high school curriculum guides, a proposal for high school softball, and a number of policy changes at this week’s meeting.  This month’s board agenda can be found on our website.

Have a wonderful week!

Jubal