How’s everything on your Tuesday so far? (0:08) Doing well, Duke. Thank you so much for having me. (0:11) Absolutely.

Well, I think right out of the gate, let’s chat about Mr. Rob Hill, (0:15) professor from University of Wyoming, spent some time around the district yesterday and gave a (0:20) presentation. And as someone, obviously, who’s spent his whole career in education and multiple (0:26) aspects of it, wanted to get kind of your thoughts on what he said about (0:31) classrooms and the trades and how the district’s doing there. (0:35) So it was a great morning yesterday, as you mentioned, with Rob Hill from University of (0:39) Wyoming.

He spent the day with us, or the morning with us. And we were fortunate enough to be able (0:47) to go on a tour down to Star Valley High and see all of the CTE classes, the Career Tech Ed classes. (0:53) You know, we were from the auto shop to the wood shop to robotics to drafting, (1:01) went and toured the house that the residential construction class is building.

And he was so (1:09) complimentary. He was in awe at our facilities and especially the, we keep calling it the new (1:17) CTE wing, but it’s six, seven years old now. So anyway, it was a great experience.

And then we (1:24) also went to Afton Elementary and got the privilege of watching a couple of teachers in action to (1:31) include some UW graduates. And then we were able to introduce Rob to some student teachers and (1:40) whatnot that are here in district that we’re hosting through the University of Wyoming. (1:44) So it was a fantastic morning and able to showcase some of the many, many great things (1:50) that are happening in Lincoln too.

Well, based on comments he made during the luncheon with the (1:55) Star Valley Chamber of Commerce, he made it clear that in both offerings in CTE and teachers in the (2:02) district in CTE that LCSD number two seems to be well ahead of the curve here. We were so blessed (2:08) and you’re absolutely right. The teachers that we have in our CTE, if they chose to go back to (2:15) industry or go to industry, they would triple, quadruple their salaries and whatnot.

But we’re (2:20) sure blessed and fortunate that they’re willing to serve kids and pay it forward if you will. (2:27) So LCSD number two, Superintendent Matt Erickson in studio. Legislative session (2:32) starts in a couple of weeks and there’s been a lot of talk about education funding, (2:36) recalibration and recommendations heading into the session.

So you mentioned this a couple of (2:42) months ago, maybe just refresh our memories. What’s recalibration? What’s being talked about here? (2:47) Okay. So Duke, every five years by the Wyoming constitution, (2:50) the legislators form what’s called a select committee on funding for K-12 education.

And (2:57) Wyoming has the most beautiful, amazing funding system, the model in place in the nation. (3:04) If we would just step up and consistently fund it as the constitution calls for. (3:10) And what I’m mainly referring to there is with the ECAs, external cost adjustments.

(3:16) This cycle of recalibration, we have a committee that’s maybe stacked or loaded, (3:22) that not as favorable towards education. Just being honest. And my main concern right now (3:30) with the way that recalibration is going is it’s a big infringement on local control.

(3:40) Local school boards in the 48 districts, and I’m just going to reference ours, (3:46) our school board works extremely hard. In fact, today and tomorrow, most people don’t know the (3:54) hours that they put in, but our school board is going to be in training with a national (3:58) trainer out of Wisconsin from 5.30 to nine the next two evenings. And so our local school board (4:05) does an amazing job with the budgeting and making sure that kids have the basket of goods, (4:12) making sure that our teacher salaries are, we try to be second or third in the state, (4:19) obviously behind Jackson.

We’re currently second in the state. Our average teacher salary (4:24) is a little over $77,000. And as part of recalibration, the select committee, (4:31) not all, but the vast majority of the select committee, they feel that they can govern better (4:38) from Cheyenne than maybe local school boards.

So their proposal is to go to a weighted salary (4:45) of $70,560, which is 5,000 off of ours. So that’s causing a little bit of problem. (4:55) Then there’s an adjustment being proposed to class size at the secondary level.

(5:02) Currently it’s 21 to one at the intermediate level, and it just got amended last week in (5:09) some meetings to go to 22, and then 9-12 to go to 25. So that’s a big hit. Then activities, (5:18) we’re currently prorated on activity funding for extracurricular and athletics at the school level.

(5:26) And the proposal is to go to the district level by your ADM or your average daily membership. (5:32) And so that would be a hit of several hundred thousand dollars to our district. So again, (5:38) my main concern, I could talk about this all day, super frustrated right now, but I think that (5:45) I’ve got faith and I’m going to be optimistic.

And I have total confidence in Senator Docksteader (5:52) and Representative Erickson, Representative Andrew Byron at a whole back that represents (5:58) part of our district. Those guys will prevail with some common sense when we get to the session (6:05) here in a couple of weeks and do a good job for us. So in the end, there’s no need to panic right (6:11) now, but there are some proposals that would be major, major changes or the way that we do business.

(6:20) So something certainly to watch for. And as stakeholders within the district, I guess, (6:25) what would you like maybe parents to do to make sure they’re involved in this? (6:31) I would certainly encourage parents and whatnot to reach out so that they get the facts. We’d be (6:38) happy to meet with anybody.

JC is our business manager. Jason Horsley has a great handle on (6:46) this. Corey Hokanson has a good handle.

Nate Westcott is our special services director. (6:52) We’re all, I’m happy to talk to anybody and then encourage them to get involved. (6:56) And we’ve met with principals and department directors and asked them to get their staff (7:03) involved as well.

And we just need to make sure that we hold legislators accountable (7:10) to what’s best for students. Thank you. County School District (7:14) number two, Superintendent Matt Erickson in studio this morning.

(7:16) Superintendent, anything else you’d like to mention today? (7:18) Duke, there is one thing, and we’re going to celebrate later on after we have a chance to (7:23) celebrate with the admin team and then the school board, and then we’ll go public with it. But (7:30) graduation rates were just recently released. And in Lincoln too, as a district, we saw (7:37) over 5% rise in our graduation rates.

So we’re over 90, 90 and a half, 90.7, I think, (7:45) percent graduation rate now. And that’s phenomenal. Cokeville is 100% graduation rate on time.

(7:52) Star Valley High is doing very, very well. And then Swift Creek continues to (8:00) see dramatic increases. And Dave Kazare and his staff are doing a great job at Swift Creek.

But (8:06) graduation rates are a result of kindergarten through high school teachers. (8:14) And certainly all of our support staff, everybody from a custodian that keeps a clean learning (8:21) environment to a bus driver that gets kids to and from, food service keeps their bellies full. (8:28) I mean, it takes all 500 plus employees to have this student achievement.

And then obviously (8:35) families play a major role in that as well. So we’ll be celebrating here in a couple of weeks, (8:41) but just wanted to bring that up today. Thanks, Duke.

(8:43) Absolutely. That’s Superintendent Matt Erickson. (8:45) This morning, it’s all part of the weekday wake up on SVI radio.