Superintendent Matt Erickson from Lincoln County School District #2 stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Tuesday, June 23 for his monthly report.

(0:00) Getting into this hour’s guest interview segment and Lincoln County School District Number Two (0:04) Superintendent Matt Erickson in studio today for the monthly report from District Two Superintendent. (0:09) Good morning, happy middle of June to you today here. Thank you Duke, good morning to you.

I (0:14) appreciate your time and for stopping by and the district office is open year round over there (0:19) isn’t it? You guys just keep going to work. You know it is, yeah there’s a lot of good things (0:24) that happen in the summer so we’re in the process of closing out the fiscal year and (0:29) getting ready to launch one on the new one on July 1 so. Absolutely now of course this time (0:37) of year it’s not not quite there yet but we have those running for office in state positions and (0:43) county positions all that you know of course it’s candidacy season and later on this year in a few (0:48) months you’ll have your filing period for school board positions and a few openings this year (0:52) correct? You’re exactly right Duke so I believe it’s August 5th through the 24th is the filing (0:57) period for school board and we’ll have multiple seats that are available.

We’ve got an at-large (1:06) and then we’ve got I believe three areas it’ll be up for election this year so this summer so (1:12) if anybody’s interested we’d love to visit with them and and maybe give them a glimpse into the (1:18) life of a board member and we need great people we have great board members right now we need (1:24) quality people to step forward and be willing to serve the pay is extremely high it’s it’s (1:30) absolutely zero and there’s there’s very little stress and and very little contention (1:38) parents are happy and stakeholders are happy and there’s no stress with budget or anything (1:44) from the state level. Just smooth sailing all around. Yeah so we just we’d love to have some (1:49) quality people step up and and serve though it’s a wonderful opportunity and and you can make a (1:57) generational impact on on students and families.

You talked about a glimpse in the life of a board (2:02) member maybe give us just that quick glimpse now because I mean we see him at the monthly (2:06) board meeting a little more than that is that what you’re saying? Yeah there’s there’s quite (2:10) a bit more than that you know maybe this would be a better question I’ve never been a board member (2:17) obviously so maybe it’d be a better question for one of our current board members but (2:23) from my vantage point you know you’re looking at roughly 20 hours a month I would say (2:30) multiple meetings obviously there’s the the monthly meeting but then somehow we tend to have (2:37) a bunch of special meetings and then something that maybe people don’t realize is is our (2:43) seven board members seven elected officials they they spend a lot of time in training and (2:50) we try to offer a bunch of PD through Wyoming School Board Association and then (2:55) other trainings so there there’s quite a commitment. Yeah absolutely Superintendent (3:01) Matt Erickson in studio from District 2 this morning speaking of the elections a lot of (3:07) education focused elections happening all across the state from the state superintendent to (3:12) the governor’s race and even some of the local races and everything going on across the state (3:16) of Wyoming. Yeah I appreciate you bringing that up Duke this is going to be a very impactful (3:21) and important election the primaries going on August 18th this is vastly important to (3:28) the 48 school districts across the state.

Tomorrow and Thursday in Lander we continue (3:36) with recalibration meetings and I believe that we’ll get some good information out of those as (3:42) we continue to work our way through recalibration but when it comes to some of these state races I (3:50) would just ask people to to dig in and look at the track record we have some wonderful folks that (3:56) have stepped up and are running if you look at you know like Eric Barlow he’s been a senator for (4:02) several years and before that he was a representative and he’s running for governor and he has a nice (4:09) track record of supporting public ed there’s 94 percent of students in the state of Wyoming (4:15) Duke are participate in the 48 school districts 94 percent so overwhelmingly people in the state (4:24) of Wyoming support public education and in the 48 school districts and then when it comes to state (4:29) superintendent representative Harshman certainly has a nice track record of supporting the state (4:37) but also supporting public ed he was a teacher for four decades and in Natrona County high (4:44) football coach so these races are really really important and then our local legislative races are (4:52) very impactful as well and there’s clearly track records of those that support public ed and (4:59) and those that maybe offer additional challenges but looking forward to the election and and I’m (5:06) optimistic and and have trust in the in the residents of Lincoln County and the state of (5:12) Wyoming that we’re going to move forward in a great direction superintendent Matt Erickson (5:18) from LCSD number two in studio this morning superintendent of course this time of year we (5:23) always like to bring up the the summer schedule and facilities and everything doesn’t seem to be (5:28) any big projects this summer right as far as facilities maintenance just kind of the normal (5:33) routine stuff this year right there’s a lot of routine things going on I would say the biggest (5:38) project this summer we’ve got a little bit of a renovation going on at the transportation building (5:44) so and that came about through a Mercer study and being funded at the state level but (5:50) Warren Hicks and his team do an amazing job putting all the projects together and (5:55) and our maintenance department and and contractors that have been awarded bids they’re they’re busy (6:02) right now and then we have several custodians that are in the process of deep cleaning our (6:08) buildings and and maybe some people don’t realize the importance of our custodial staff but (6:14) when we look at attendance and those types of things it’s they’re such an important part of the (6:20) organization and keeping you know sickness and whatnot and docked down so that students can attend (6:27) because we’ve been having a challenge with with attendance since COVID and and so we appreciate (6:35) our our custodians and our maintenance people so absolutely in fact there was a kind of an (6:41) attendance discussion at the last school board meeting maybe walk us through that discussion (6:46) what took place there remind our listeners so there’s uh there’s several students that are (6:54) that are choosing to maybe do other things and and so Star Valley High in specific (7:00) specifically is trying to address and give reason kids a reason to be there and and we believe that (7:09) kids in front of our quality teachers engaging teachers master teachers is obviously best so (7:17) we’re working to address some of those things but we have much higher attendance at the elementary (7:22) level than we do secondary but you know I’m old school but things are changing as well you know (7:27) with online and and there’s so many choices and options available to families now so (7:32) but we have great families and and Duke I know we’re in the middle of June but since we spoke (7:39) last you know we had three wonderful graduations our business office does a great job there like (7:46) as mentioned to start with they’re getting ready to roll over all of the books and and that takes a (7:51) lot of time and effort so we appreciate uh Brandy and Jess and JC with the our business office and (7:59) getting ready to roll everything over so we can kind of school district number two superintendent (8:03) Matt Erickson in studio today for the monthly report always appreciate it anything else we (8:07) missed it’s just a pleasure to have you working with us and uh I hope the valley will come together (8:14) and support you and um Duke and or Dow excuse me and uh get you to Alaska to to broadcast the games (8:22) we’re hoping it all works out we’re hoping we get a shaved dow’s head is what we’re kind of hoping (8:27) exactly I’m counting on you Duke to uh be able to broadcast those games because obviously I won’t (8:33) be able to make it but uh first couple days of school with students so absolutely that’s uh coming (8:39) up July 3rd in thane next week so appreciate that superintendent Matt Erickson district (8:44) two it’s all part of the weekday wake up this morning on the SBI radio network