Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
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The April meeting of the Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) Board of Trustees may get a dose of cheer. During the March 21 meeting of the Board of Trustees, CCSD2 Superintendent Jim Copeland and Saratoga Middle/High School (SMHS) Principal J.D. Johnson informed the board two parents had expressed interest in starting a cheer group for the high school. According to Copeland, the parents said they were considering self-funding the program. This would not be without prec...
The Valley Service Organization (VSO) has, once again, opened up the Youth Citizenship Award for graduating seniors from Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2). This scholarship awards $500 each year to a senior selected by the VSO Award Committee. VSO Chairwoman Cindy Walton has emphasized this scholarship is not based on grades. Instead, it is a cash award given directly to the student for their “community service and understanding of what it is to be a good citizen”. The award is open to graduating seniors from Sar...
In February, Darren Jennings, principal at Saratoga Elementary School, was offered a contract as district superintendent for Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2). Jennings accepted, which left the CCSD2 Board of Trustees with the task of finding someone to fill his position for next school year. The search wasn’t long and came down to two candidates; Stephanie Long and Seth Hetherington. Long currently teaches 6th grade at Saratoga Elementary School and Hetherington c...
If you received your newspaper on a Thursday, there’s no need to worry. The mail wasn’t late this week. Instead, this week marks the Saratoga Sun’s return to Thursday publication. We have switched to a new printer, one in eastern Wyoming, in our continued efforts to provide you with the best product we can each week. When we use the term return in regards to Thursday publication, it may be confusing to some of our readers. It may seem to some that the Sun has published on Wednesday forever. Long-time Saratoga locals, howev...
To say the photo used for my column in the Saratoga Sun is outdated would be a bit of an understatement. In October 2021, I made the decision to finally commit to my balding and began shaving my head. Now I’m beginning to think it was some serious forethought on my part, presumably to prevent me from pulling out what was left of it. The past few months at the Sun office have been a little strained, to say the least. Change, they say, is the only constant in life. For those w...
Gershom Richard "Dick" Barkhurst , 93, passed on to his heavenly home and to reunite with the love of his life, Marion, on the most appropriate day, February 14, 2022. Born September 8, 1928 to Gershom Jay and Vera Large Barkhurst in Rawlins, WY; he was raised an only child on the Barkhurst Ranch southeast of Saratoga, WY on Brush Creek which had been homesteaded by his grandparents G.H. (Gus) and Elizabeth Green Barkhurst in 1886. When Dick became of school age he attended...
Darrin Jennings was happy to talk about his new position as superintendent of Carbon County School District No. 2, but he said he didn’t have long for an interview because he needed to drive a busload of kids home. “I help out wherever I can,” he said Thursday. “I’ve only done it a few times this year.” He later explained that the bus is really a Suburban, and he was driving a regular route, “to take our country kids home.” The CCSD2 board of trustees announced Wednesday that it had chosen Jennings as the district’s new...
Carbon County School District No 2 (CCSD2) Superintendent candidate Noel Manning came to the Hanna Recreation Center to take questions from community members of the north part of Carbon County even though the weather was challenging to get around on Wednesday when the event started. The audience was a mix of adults and students. Hanna Elementary School 6th grade teacher Jackie Jones moderated. Manning gave the audience information on his professional and personal background....
The Saratoga School Spelling Bee was held on January 21 at the Platte Valley Community Center with 57 students in grades 2-7 participating. Fifth grader Cooper Smith was declared the champion by spelling the word, "rhetorical." Seventh grader Snowdon Williams took 2nd place, and Averie Sanchez, a fourth grader, took 3rd. These students, along with the top 3 spellers from grades 2-7 as identified by their classroom teachers, attended the Carbon County Spelling Bee in Rawlins...
On Tuesday, February 15, a Community Forum was held for superintendent of schools candidate Darrin Jennings at the Platte Valley Community Center (PVCC) in Saratoga. Doctor Jim Copeland, the current superintendent for Carbon Country School District No. 2 (CCSD2), retires on June 30 of this year, and candidates have stepped up to the plate to hopefully fill his role. Community Forums were organized for each of the candidates at both the Hanna Recreation Center in Hanna and the PVCC. Members of the public were encouraged to...
Prior to their rescheduled February 15 meeting, the Hanna Town Council meeting held a special meeting for the presentation of the preliminary design of the Hanna Old Town Water System Rehab Phase 2 Project. Craig Kopasz of Engineering Associates gave the presentation. All council members were present as was Mayor Lois Buchanan. Kopasz went over the funding and costs that are estimated, but acknowledged there were still some approvals from agencies that were needed before firm...
Patricia (Pat) Wilson Bensen passed away on Friday, January 28, 2022 in Reno, Nevada. She was born on August 8, 1938 in Saratoga, Wyoming to Roy E. and Mildred Woody Wilson. Pat spent the majority of her life in Saratoga. For many years she and her husband Len operated Len’s Sport Shop. She was also a teacher in the Carbon County School District for over 30 years and was devoted to her students and to her profession. Many former students remember her as their favorite t...
In another life, much younger, I was a kindergarten English teacher in Taichung, Taiwan. It was an early job when I first arrived fresh from Hawaii. It laid the ground for me teaching English at hospitals and becoming a private teacher. It was an amazingly fun era for me; as I look back. Especially teaching kids. After living in Hawaii for two years, I came to island with only an English degree from the University of Maryland. Good luck was with me and within three months I...
Class, integrity and character. These are words not often found in this day and age when describing individuals, but there is a man known by just about anyone who has met him to have these attributes. His name is Dario Soto, but to most-friend, student, player, parent or colleague-he is known respectfully as Mr. Soto. After coaching basketball for nearly 60 years, Mr. Soto finished his coaching career on January 11 at Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School on the...
I find it funny how I have to go to kids’ concerts to remind myself how important the arts are to school programs, and to me. I was a lucky kid growing up around Washington D.C. because both sets of my folks liked to take me to plays and concerts even though, sometimes, I wasn’t really into going. Still, I saw Broadway shows which came to town and I even went to New York a few times. Culture was being ingrained into me whether I wanted it or not. My mother was always pla...
The Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) Board of Trustees met for their final meeting of 2021 on December 20. Early in the meeting, Superintendent Jim Copeland shared a Good Sportsmanship Award letter from the Wyoming High School Activities Association for Eddie Buford during the 1A Six-Man State Championship on November 12, 2021. Also in sports, Copeland congratulated Rex Hohnholt on being named the Wyoming Coaches Association Girls 2A Cross Country Coach of the...
Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) advised parents today of a post shared widely on the social media platform TikTok. The post, which appears to be part of a national TikTok trend, refers to a threat to school safety “for every school in the USA, even elementary” on December 17. The notification comes as the United States saw its 29th school shooting of 2021 on December 1 at a high school in Humboldt, Tennessee. Parents throughout the district were notified of the...
Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) continues to prepare for the retirement of current Superintendent Jim Copeland. Copeland’s final day will be June 30, 2022—the end of the current school year. The Board of Trustees voted unanimously to contract the Wyoming School Board Association (WSBA) $65,000 to assist in the search for a new superintendent. The Wyoming School Board Association will assist by creating ads and other materials, as well as expectations of the new...
The outcome may not have been what many fans of the Encampment Tigers were hoping for on November 12 as Encampment fell 65-24 to the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Rattlers in War Memorial Stadium. Despite the outcome—and a loss to the only team they had fallen to in the regular season—the Tigers had already made school history before the 1A Six-Man Championship had even begun. As they walked onto Jonah Field in their red and white uniforms, it was the first time in school h...
Just three years into their six-man program, the Encampment Tigers have obtained their Golden Ticket to the University of Wyoming's War Memorial Stadium on November 12.For some of the players, who stood before the Carbon County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees their freshman year, it is an almost poetic end for their senior year. For 30 years, Encampment played for nearby Saratoga and have spent the past two seasons in a varsity schedule earning their stripes. Denied en...
Garden boxes are at the new community garden site and the Hanna Agricultural Resource Committee (HART) is working hard to get them ready before winter sets in. There are 31 boxes in total, which had been supplied by C. J. Mahon Construction. The company made a deal with HART and Carbon County School District No. 2, which owned the land where the former community garden resided. If they could have the land for their cement manufacturing site, the construction company would...
Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) Superintendent Jim Copeland will retire effective June 30, 2022. “It is with mixed feelings I submit my resignation,” wrote Copeland in a letter submitted during the October 18 meeting of the CCSD2 Board of Trustees. “I plan to retire after 45 years in public education - the last eight of which have been as superintendent of Carbon County School District No. 2. It has been such a blessing to me to be able to serve alongside a great...
Editor, I commend the Carbon County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees for unanimously adopting a resolution addressing the teaching of Critical Race Theory. Your resolution takes aggressive pro-active action against a divisive, destructive theory that should not be promoted in a public school classroom. Thank you, Mark Jones Saratoga, Wyoming...
The teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) hasn’t been outright banned by Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2). Instead, a resolution passed by the CCSD2 Board of Trustees on October 18 states neither teachers nor staff within the district will promote CRT “or similar ideologies”. The unanimous passage of the resolution comes one month after the board discussed the topic during a September 20 work session at Saratoga Elementary School. CRT, which began as a legal frame...
When it comes to traveling in Carbon County, there are many unsung heroes who make it possible. Chief amongst those are the employees of the Carbon County Road and Bridge Department. On September 7, Encampment resident Gary Jacobsen appeared before the Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC) to change that. In what Jacobsen would later call a “good precedent”, he proposed the county commissioners consider naming the road and bridge building in Encampment to honor lon...