Moving on up

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 Year. Todd Weber was named the Wyoming Coaches Association Junior High/Middle School Coach of the Year. Finally in coach honors, Zack Scott was invited to help coach the Six-Man All Star Football Game in summer of 2022.

In resignations and hirings the motion was carried unanimously to accept the resignation of Janel Moore effective December 3, 2021. The board unanimously carried a motion to offer a contract for the remainder of the 2021/2022 school year to Heather Bergman. Bergman is currently assigned to special education at the northern elementary schools. The motion was carried unanimously to offer a contract for the remainder of the 2021/2022 school year to Bergman.

From the audience, Nick Haderlie presented his plan to develop and construct an aquatic or recreation center in the Upper North Platte River Valley. It is in the very beginning stages with a Feasibility Study to provide detailed information on costs of construction, operation and maintenance. His hope is to create a collaborative public-private partnership to help subsidize operations and maintenance of the proposed facility. The school board has worked with the Hanna Recreation Center in recent months for use of their indoor pool.

Moving the sixth grade to Saratoga Middle High School was discussed in detail in the December meeting. Copeland explained the process followed to gain public input on moving the sixth grade from Saratoga Elementary to SMHS. Part of the process included a guided tour of the areas at SMHS the 6th grade class would occupy.

The class sizes continue to grow at SES and there is no longer room in the building to accommodate the current classes. The current proposal would keep the classes “self-contained” meaning the students would remain in the classroom and only leave for elective activities and restroom breaks. This would be similar to the school day students currently have at SES.

Copeland said, “The feedback from my perspective from that group was to keep the classes self contained for now. There’s always the option further down the line to departmentalize. Departmentalize is where they go to a separate teacher for every subject, self-contained would be all in one classroom only leaving for things they already do now such as P.E. and Art. Our recommendation is to move the class to SMHS and keep it self-contained. This will open one teaching position and split the sixth grade into two classes. Personnel wise, and based on the input received from parents, keeping the 6th grade self-contained versus departmentalized is what we would recommend; having two self contained 6th grade classrooms. Moving forward, this gives us time to reconstruct the area as needed for the best use for two classes.”

It was pointed out there are restrooms at the end of the building in SMHS which could be used for the 6th grade as well as installing lockers. The ability to offset passing periods between the older students and 6th grade to further prevent interaction between students was also pointed out.

SES Principal Darren Jennings stated, “The parental feedback we have received has been positive about moving the 6th grade to SMHS. Some parents wrote that it was a necessary move along with incorporating athletics. I didn’t receive anything in writing that anyone was against the move.”

Parents attending the meeting stated the current sixth grade class was running out of room and class sizes were continuing to grow.

“If something isn’t planned now, come June we will be wondering what to do with them all,” said the parent of a current 6th grade student.

The motion was carried unanimously to move the 6th grade class to SMHS as self-contained classes starting the 2022/2023 school years and to modify the rooms accordingly.

The next regular meeting of the Carbon County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees will be at 4:00 p.m. on January 17 at the Medicine Bow Elementary School in Medicine Bow.