Superintendent Matt Erickson of Lincoln County School District #2 (LCSD #2), which represents schools in the Star Valley and Cokeville areas, spoke with SVI about the recent end of the 2026 Wyoming Legislative session. One major aspect of that session was the new school recalibration and what that new model may mean for locals. The issue was a hot topic and while there are positives, Erickson felt there were negatives as well.

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“I’m still not a huge fan,” he said of the final product. “There’s a victory lap on teachers’ salaries so that’s a major win which needed to happen. But the teachers’ salary are now put into a silo. Up to now we could function under the local school board and now an unintended consequence of this silo could be activities.”

Erickson explained that the silo is a location for monies which will be used for teachers’ salaries and while it will result in a “pretty significant raise” on the salary side, there are also drawbacks.

“Extracurricular activities for example, at Cokeville, we are funded by Average Daily Membership (ADM) and with Cokeville, that number is $2,633 per student. Starting on July 1, we’ll be going to a district-wide ADM. So for Cokeville, going forward, it will be at $833. With the teacher silo we don’t have the local flexibility to work through that. Star Valley High School is currently funded at $1,066 and it will also be going to that $833. That’s an example of the lack of flexibility.”

Erickson also stated that the district will be trying to solve for these new questions without a lot of information.

“We’ll be budgeting blind this spring because we don’t even know the rules yet,” he added. “They haven’t been written yet.”