By Hannah Shields
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE — Wyoming lawmakers will carry the weight of a recent court decision to adequately fund public schools as they approach a new season crafting policies for the state’s K-12 public school system.

The Legislature’s off-season, formally known as the interim, is when legislative committees meet and investigate state issues and respond to these problems in the form of carefully crafted legislation.

Three of these committees are dedicated to Wyoming’s schools and education system: the Legislature’s Joint Education Committee, the Select Committee on School Facilities and the Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration.

The Wyoming Education Association sued the state in August 2022, claiming it has failed to meet its constitutional obligation to fully fund its K-12 public school system.

Five weeks ago, Laramie County District Judge Peter Froelicher issued a bombshell decision, finding the state’s funding model for the K-12 public school block grant is “unconstitutional” and “no longer cost-based.”

The court declared the state “failed to maintain a constitutionally compliant school finance system by not including funding for elementary-level mental health counselors, SROs (school resource officers), nutritional programs, and computers for every student.”

Froelicher also found the state has not properly accounted for inflation in teacher and non-teacher salaries, nor did it “adequately and evenly” assess school facilities for sustainable education. The state has appealed the decision to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle spoke with chairmen from each of the three committees to ask how the court’s decision will impact their approach to considering state policy for Wyoming’s K-12 public schools.

Things to consider

The Wyoming Supreme Court previously ordered the Legislature to recalibrate its public education funding model once every five years to ensure education funding is adequate and equitable. The Legislature is supposed to adopt each newly recalibrated model, but the last recalibration adopted by the state was in 2010.

Froelicher ordered the state to modify its funding model and its school facilities financing system “to assure the school financing system for operations and for school facilities are constitutional.”

“The Court notes, because 2025 is a recalibration year, there is an excellent window of opportunity to address these issues,” Froelicher wrote.

The Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration was created to work on the recalibrated funding model this year. House Majority Floor Leader Rep. Scott Heiner, R-Green River, one of the two chairmen on this committee, said funding for mental health, school resource officers, nutritional programs and computers will be “taken into consideration.”

“One of the first things we’re going to do is listen to input from school districts, from people that are involved and experts, to find out what some of the concerns are,” Heiner said. “The first thing we want to do is listen before we act. We want to be able to hear and see, to hear all sides of the story.”

Heiner and other lawmakers said they “were disappointed” in Froelicher’s decision. They told the WTE the state has “continually tried to fund the schools as a high priority.”

“But during times of COVID and things, it’s difficult to fund everything. And everybody has their wants and their needs,” Heiner said. “And we’ve got to differentiate what is a ‘want’ and what is a ‘need.’ … We have a finite amount of money to distribute to all the different organizations.”

Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, is the chairman of the Select Committee on School Facilities. This committee oversees the process of funding school facility projects across the state and makes annual budget recommendations to the Legislature.

Landen hesitated to comment on Froelicher’s decision in detail, since he had not read it yet, but said he was overall disappointed.

“I do think that we have tried to the best of our ability to fund schools at a good level in Wyoming,” Landen said. “You can always do more. We can always do more for any agency in state government.”

Funding school facilities

The second priority for the Select Committee on School Facilities this interim is to respond to the court’s decision. Landen said this simply means educating committee members on what Froelicher’s decision means and getting input from legal staff on how to move forward.

“That’s the most important thing for me, as chairman, and all the rest of our committee is to understand exactly what the concerns were in that court decision,” Landen said.

It’s not an easy job taking care of 25 million square feet of buildings across Wyoming, Landen said. Every four years, the state funds a third-party consultant to go on the ground and create an assessment list of every school building.

School facilities are scored on condition and capacity. A high score means the building has a higher condition or capacity need. This is how the committee prioritizes funding for school facility projects.

“It’s not an easy task, you know, to sit down at the beginning of an interim and say, ‘Look, we’ve got to take a look all the way out across the state with respect to where our facilities land,’” Landen said. “We rely on our agency folks, who do an amazing job of that assessment.”

It is up to the governor and legislative appropriators to give the final stamp of approval on the projects list recommended by the committee.

“All we can do is make the recommendation,” Landen said.

In regard to the court’s order to adequately maintain public school buildings, Landen said there’s always room to improve, but he offered no further details on how the committee will work to satisfy it.

The committee has several new members this year, and Landen said the first meeting will be spent educating newcomers on the process of funding school facility projects. Landen has served on the committee since 2011, and has been a committee member, vice chair and chairman.

Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, served as committee vice chairman for two years and then chairman for two years after that. This year, Landen is chairman, and Rep. Abby Angelos, R-Gillette, will serve as vice chair. This is her first time on the committee, and Brown is no longer a member.

“I’m sorry that he won’t be back on the committee,” Landen said. “He did a great job of serving as the chairman, and I’ll try to pick up the ball and run with it from there. Anyway, I really tip my hat to Rep. Brown.”

Teachers and school discipline 

The Legislature’s Joint Education Committee prioritized six topics for the upcoming interim. Recruitment and retention of K-12 teachers is the sixth priority on the list, and addressing school disciplinary policies is the first.

However, Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, said the list of priorities does not reflect the actual, weighted priorities of the committee. Recruiting and retaining quality K-12 teachers is one of her top priorities, along with school discipline, she said. The former priority is specifically mentioned in Froelicher’s decision.

Under the school discipline topic, committee members will study federal and state law and local school district policies “regarding school discipline, the use of restraints and seclusion, and how to best provide the least restrictive educational environment for students pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.”

Educators told Schuler there’s an increase in behavioral issues with elementary students, including foul language and disrespectful remarks toward teachers. Mental health counseling is lacking in elementary schools, she said.

“We’ve got to get more mental health counseling in the elementary schools, for sure,” Schuler said. “We’re going to need more and more of that support in that area to help find out what’s going on with these little kiddos that make them so angry.”

Statewide data obtained by the WTE showed there’s an influx of students with behavioral health issues enrolling in Wyoming’s public schools. 

Meanwhile, school districts are struggling to recruit and retain certified special education teachers. Many of them, including Laramie County School District 1, are hiring non-certified teachers on a provisional license to teach special education classes on the promise they’ll work toward their certification.

Both of the committee’s chairpersons recognized that school discipline issues are tied to issues of teacher recruitment and retainment. House Education Committee Chairman Rep. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie, said “school discipline was overwhelmingly chosen” by committee members.