SD No. 1 approves website proposal

by Rhonda Swain

Sublette County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees approved the proposed district website at its meeting Tuesday night, with a proposed target date of May 1 for the site to be up and running. Dawn Svalberg of Pinedale Online created the page for the district, and was on hand to answer questions following a presentation of what she has come up with for the site.

The site includes links to each of the schools within the district, school calendars, pool and sports schedules, lunch menus and information on staff and administration on the campus.

Svalberg said a website, which will be a great communication tool for parents and the community, does an excellent job of highlighting the various facets of the district. When completed, the board will have made significant progress in achieving district goal no. 4, "promoting communication among all shareholders of the district."

Svalberg proposed that, to keep costs down, personnel at the school maintain the calendars and menus using web tools that simplify the process.

Following nearly an hour spent in executive session, the board approved several cash reserve allocations. According to a supporting statement, the district attained the maximum level of recapture as specified in the Wyoming Constitution.

"Hitting this mathematical limit places the district into a position of having cash reserves that could be identified as ‘at risk’ on June 30," according to the statement, so the board approved several expenditures totaling approximately $2,244,000, including paying of the existing bonded debt for $1.4 million, providing a one-time 12-percent bonus payment to returning staff (based on reviewed criteria) costing $425,000, pay $356,000 for the high school locker room and pool platform project from the cash reserve, pay off the $28,600 lease on a 1999 Freightliner bus, and purchase a new FFA truck and livestock trailer for about $35,000.

The board also opted to have district business manager Tom Burns start the bond defeasance process to pay off the Series 1996 General Obligations Bonds.

Briefs

Transportation Director John Overgaag reported to the board on his involvement in the Pupil Transportation Committee, comprised of 16 people from various school districts across the state. Overgaag was appointed to the committee to help establish guidelines for the selection and purchase of new buses, and set expected lifetime and reimbursement rates for school buses. The committee has determined the specifications for 12 buses, varying in style, length and use (activity, mountain, special needs).

The Pinedale Middle School’s Lagoon honors trip and the fifth grade’s Salt Lake City field trip were approved.

The board approved increasing the .6 elementary special education teacher position to .8 for four days per week, as recommended by Special Education Director Brad Martin. Elementary school Principal Pat Morgan’s request for the addition of an elementary .6 Title 1 math teacher was also approved. Morgan said that Pinedale Elementary School students are doing well in reading, and suggested the increase in remedial math would be beneficial to her students.