Sports and science

The Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) Board of Trustees began their first summer meeting with a presentation recognizing State track champions

J.D. Johnson, principal of Saratoga Middle High School, introduced the coaches to say a few words about the teams this year beginning with Rex Honholt. Hohnholt was recently named Girls 1A Outdoor Track Coach of the Year.

Honholt began with the Saratoga boys, introducing the 3200M relay team state champions Calvin Condict, Kelton Johnson, Grady Bartlett and Grant Bartlett. He also mentioning Grant Bartlett as the 3200M State Champion and 1600M State Champion.

The Saratoga girls also left their mark at the final track meet returning with 1600M Sprint Medley Relay State Champions Makenna King, Josie Little, Olivia Everett and Madison Teichman. Whitney Bennett won multiple events for the Panthers as she returned home the 300M Hurdles State Champion and the Triple Jump State Champion. Madison Teichman was the 3200M State Champion. The Saratoga Girls also won their first State Championship in school histoy.

Honholt said, “I can’t thank them enough for all the effort they put into the state championship because they don’t come easy. I thank the board for inviting us here tonight and everything you do to put things together. Congratulations as well to the other athletes here.” 

Jackie Jones, Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) head track coach introduced the four state Champions for the Lady Miners. Justine Widdison, Rainey Wilson, T’ylsa Solaas, Avery Scott participated in multiple events ultimately winning the 3200M relay as state champions.

Quade Jordan was introduced for Encampment as a two time state champion. Jordan returned home as the discus state champion and shot put state champion.

Next on the agenda Ellen Freeman, vice president of the Hanna Agrictultural Resource Team (HART) addressed the board. HART asked for time to address the Board and thank them for their support, particularly in the relocation of the garden site near HEM.

 “The Hanna community garden club has doubled in size and participation,” said vice president Freeman. Fifteeen families are part of the garden and five more are looking to join. There are hopes to involve the high school FFA, so the growth doesn’t seem to be slowing down. 

“We thank you for supporting us and helping us, for not letting us get wiped out in the crazy construction in Hanna. We would love to hear opinions and ideas on anything to help work together more and help the community.”

The Board was presented with spider plants grown by the club and supporters as a thank you from HART.

Moving on to resignations and hirings for CCSD2, the board looked at many hirings for the 2022/2023 school year.

A contract was offered to Andrea Leinen for the 2022/2023 school year, current assignment will be H.E.M. math interventionist. A contract was offered to Casey Jones for the 2022/2023 school year, pending certification, with current assignment SMHS math. A contract was offered to Steven Grover for the 2022/2023 school year, pending certification, current assignment will be HEM science. 

Activity/Extra Duty Contracts were approved for the 2022/2023 school year. This includes Greg Bartlett at Saratoga and Janice Peterson at Encampment. Finally a contract was offered to Ranelle Hindman for the 2022/2023 school year current assignment will be Agriculture Education - H.E.M.

In the superintendent report, the summer facilities projects are so far on schedule. In the locker rooms almost all of the demolition is complete. Following some extra floor preparation the new flooring will be installed. Superintendent Jim Copeland said he was glad the projects were on schedule as it can be complicated to complete such extensive projects over summer break.

School board positions up for election are James Sewell in area 4, Kassey Westring in area 3, KayCee Alameda in area 4, Karen Condict in area 2, Charlie George area 1. Filing period for positions is during the month of August.

Curriculum Director Noel Manning was recently elected as the new small district Southwest Regional Director for the Wyoming Curriculum Directors Association. With many projects in the works it seems Manning is busy as ever.

On a fun update shared at the meeting involved a new science curriculum students and adults alike can be excited about. 

Encampment staff and students have influenced the high school science program with exciting new projects and demonstrations.

Manning said, “Over this past year Kevin Pantle put work into researching programming and robots to use with high school computer science courses across the district for the new program, and purchased the initial few kits for Encampment with his own funds. His students put on a couple of demonstrations towards the end of the school year, which were received quite well, and we just made a very large purchase of additional kits for HEM and SMHS. Please look for future demonstrations of this to see what students can build and program.”

Science isn’t the only program getting attention. A donation was received from  Bridge Street Bargains for the Saratoga K-12 Art program totalling $1,000.

Student Handbooks for the 2022/2023 school year for Elk Mountain, Hanna and Medicine Bow Elementary Schools, HEM Jr/Sr High School, Encampment K-12 School, Saratoga Middle/High School and Saratoga Elementary School were approved. 

The next meeting of the CCSD2 Board of Trustees will be at 6 pm on July 20 at the Central Office in Saratoga,