With Senate File 81 (SF81) passing legislation in the 2026 budget session, questions and concerns have been arising across the state of Wyoming about how exactly funding in school districts will be allocated and how activities will be affected come July 1, 2026.

Lincoln County School District #2 administration visited with the Cokeville community Monday, May 11 at Cokeville High School. Superintendent Matt Erickson, Director of Education Jason Horsley, Director of Finance JC Inskeep and Director of Education Kory Hokanson and school board members Jake Long and Tim Tiechert were all in attendance representing the district. State Representative Scott Heiner and State Senator Laura Pearson were also in attendance.

Cokeville’s Principal Kenneth Deitz opened the meeting with a slide show of information about what will be affected come July 1 in the Cokeville schools. He had three goals for his presentation; provide accurate historic and current perspective on Cokeville schools and provide accurate information relative to the legislative session and the impact on Cokeville and other Wyoming schools and finally steps on how the community can help.

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He shared some positive outcomes from the legislative session that introduced a “silo” spending approach to the funding

received from the state to the 48 school districts in Wyoming, including overall funding for teachers/instructional staff. Also, funds for tutoring, extended day and instructional coaching also increased in funding.

He then shared that unfortunately portions of the above funding reduced funding for needs such as supplies, activities, utilities, and raises for non-teachers/paraprofessional staff. The cut to the “needs” would be 70% with the new legislation but this next year it will only be 12% thanks to LCSD#2 helping supplement some of those cost for this upcoming year.

Dietz talked about the history of the block grant, that will be replaced with the “silo” approach that has been used for approximately the last 20 years. Most small schools in Wyoming must be supplemented by district funds. Cokeville has been receiving between $200,000 to $250,000 to keep current activities going and another $200,000 to $250,000 for staffing. This is only possible because the block grant is being administered by our local school board.

SF81 changes the amount distributed from the state to districts for student activities based on average daily membership (ADM) which drops funding for Cokeville High School students from $2,633.12 to $833.00 and for Cokeville Junior High students from $1,066.85 to $477. Star Valley students will also be affected but the impact is much less; going from $1,008.84 to $833. These numbers were shared by the LCSD#2 administration. The whole Senate File can be found on wyoleg.gov (2026 – SF0081) It was explained that most of the LCSD#2 activities budget goes to the salaries of coaches.

Dietz shared that there isn’t enough information about what will be in the “silos” for funding since not all the rules for what is allowed and what is not has been finalized. Without that information the districts in the state are trying to think through all possible scenarios.

His call to action was to work with the legislative representatives and make our concerns and feelings known. Also, he encouraged those in attendance to “vote for candidates in August that express your views on what should happen.” Later in the meeting Superintendent Erickson said, “Make your voice known in August.”

Jason Horsley shared that there are 239 instructional staff and 221 support staff. The support staff as far as they can tell from the “silo” set-up will not be covered and if they are they will not be paid as they currently are.

Representative Heiner mentioned that changes to SF81 is on the agenda for their June 25 meeting; to help with this recalibration be more beneficial. He said he was committed to seeing what can be done due to the unseen consequences of the bill.

Superintendent Erickson concluded the meeting by saying, “Its local control, if you take away anything tonight let it be that.”

Heiner and Pearson will be holding a Town Hall Meeting on May 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Cokeville Town Hall; regarding this, tax relief, state budget and parental rights and protections.