Cokeville High School Principal Kenneth Deitz called into the Weekday Wake-Up on Thursday, May 14 to share the impacts the new funding model passed by the state legislature will have on Cokeville school’s specifically, including a 70% cut in funding for activities and support staff. Upcoming interviews are also scheduled with Rep. Scott Heiner and Rep. McKay Erickson to hear their thoughts on the legislation and funding.

Click below for related interviews and stories:

Principal David Cazier – Swift Creek High School

LCSD#2 Superintendent Matt Erickson and Director of Finance JC Inskeep

WHSAA press release on activities funding

(0:02) This is the weekday wake up on the SVI Radio Network. (0:06) It is 8.48 this morning on Swift 98 and the Spur rolling right into our next guest interview (0:12) segment this morning and from Cokeville High School, Principal Kenneth Dietz is on the (0:16) air today. (0:17) Principal Dietz, good morning.

(0:18) How’s Central Lincoln County treating you these days? (0:21) Doing really well, Duke. (0:22) Thank you and your team so much for having me on to talk about some important issues. (0:27) Things are very busy, but going well.

(0:29) Absolutely. (0:30) Well, of course, Cokeville recently hosted along with the school district administration (0:34) a kind of a public information meeting earlier this week. (0:37) Had some of your local representatives with Representative Heiner and Senator Pearson (0:41) there as well.

(0:42) But talking about this new funding model and recalibration of the silo and kind of some (0:48) unique impacts to Cokeville specifically. (0:50) And so Principal Dietz, if you want to just kind of summarize, if you could, the meeting (0:54) earlier this week and what was presented to the public. (0:57) Yeah, absolutely.

(0:59) And I appreciate the opportunity to do this because I think there’s some misinformation (1:02) going around the state and really appreciate the opportunity to clarify some things. (1:07) So my understanding is the last day of the legislative session, some wording was changed (1:12) that shifted activity funding from small schools to small districts. (1:17) And Cokeville is very grateful to be a part of Lincoln County School District number two, (1:21) but Lincoln too is not a small district.

(1:23) It’s a large district. (1:24) And so what happened is all we used to get small school activity funding to the tune (1:29) of about $2,700 per student, which is how it was across the state of Wyoming because (1:36) it costs more to do activities in small schools. (1:39) And so the state was aware of that and funded at a higher level.

(1:42) When they switched it to small districts, Cokeville shifted over because we’re attached (1:48) to Lincoln too, to the lowest level of activity funding, which is about $833 per student. (1:54) So it created this huge hole, $130,000 hole for Cokeville and four other small schools (2:01) that are attached to large districts across the state of Wyoming, which equates to about (2:06) a 70% cut, which is just absolutely devastating for our small school. (2:11) And so really appreciate Lincoln County School District number two, being willing to step (2:16) up and help support us through the coming year as we work with legislatures to try to (2:20) get that fixed.

(2:21) At our meeting on Monday, Senator Pearson and Representative Heiner did say, you know, (2:26) that was an unintentional consequence. (2:29) I noted at the meeting, I’m still concerned that that got across the finish line, that (2:33) something that devastating to five small schools in Wyoming could get across the finish line. (2:38) And then we have to figure out how to pick up the pieces after the legislative session.

(2:42) So that was one of the things, and maybe a bigger piece of that is the idea of state (2:48) versus local control. (2:50) So that goes to that silo you were talking about, where it’s interesting because we’re (2:55) in the most conservative state in the nation that’s all about local control. (2:59) But in this last session, the Freedom Caucus really pushed for, we want state level control (3:04) of funding in the silo.

(3:06) And it created a series of issues for us, that being one of them, the activity situation (3:12) being one of them, but a series of other issues that when that control was shifted (3:17) to the state level, it makes it difficult for our local districts to meet needs. (3:23) And part of that is we were able to give teachers a raise, but in Lincoln too, it’s always been (3:27) a priority for every employee that contributes to the education of kids to be recognized (3:34) when Lincoln too gets new funding. (3:36) But what the state did at the state level, rather than letting the school board locally (3:40) make that decision, they decided we’re going to give funding to teachers, but not any other (3:45) groups.

(3:46) So custodians, secretaries, some of our paraprofessionals all got left out. (3:52) And really appreciate Lincoln too stepping up and saying, you know what, that’s not right (3:57) for us locally. (3:58) We don’t feel like that’s the right thing to do.

(4:00) We want to ensure our secretaries are taken care of. (4:02) They do incredible work for our kids, our custodians. (4:05) If you’ve ever been to Coquille High School, we have an immaculate building.

(4:08) That’s because we’ve got phenomenal people taking care of the facility that live here (4:13) in Coquille, and they deserve to get a raise along with everyone else. (4:16) But when that control shifted to the state level, it made it difficult for that to happen. (4:21) And so really just working with the legislature on a series of things.

(4:26) I know you had Dave Kazare on earlier this week. (4:30) I’m passionate about alternative high schools for the legislature to cut 70% of the teacher (4:35) funding for alternative high schools is just unacceptable to me. (4:40) They work incredibly hard.

(4:42) I know some of the people from our alternative high school in Star Valley that came out. (4:47) We had an accident, unfortunately, a little over a year ago. (4:50) We had people from Swift Creek coming to help us because we had kids in trouble and we needed (4:55) help.

(4:56) And Swift Creek was willing to send their counselor out so we could meet with kids. (5:00) And for them, for the legislature to just cut 70% of the funding for teachers in alternative (5:05) high schools across the state to me is just not acceptable. (5:09) And so those are a few of the issues that it’s like, wow, we’ve got to get this cleaned (5:13) up.

(5:14) We’ve got to get this figured out across the state of Wyoming. (5:17) And I know Senator Pearson and Representative Heiner are going all over meeting with Green (5:22) River earlier this week at a school board meeting, trying to assure them that they’re (5:26) going to work to fix some of the activity fallout that’s happening across the state (5:30) of Wyoming because Coquille got cut 70%. (5:33) But every school in Wyoming was cut significantly on activity funding.

(5:37) And so I kind of went for a minute, but I’m pretty passionate about this stuff. (5:42) No, I appreciate you with those comments, Principal Deets. (5:45) And so let’s stick currently right now.

(5:48) I’m glad you brought up the support staff funding because I did want to ask you about (5:52) that. (5:53) But the 70% cut specifically to activities. (5:56) And just to clarify, that is not athletics.

(5:59) That’s all activities. (6:00) We’re talking athletics and music and the drama. (6:03) I mean, all of it.

(6:04) Right. (6:04) So WASA sent out their press release over the weekend that sent ripples, giant ripples (6:10) throughout the whole state. (6:12) It’s even worse for a school like Coquille because of the small school funding that you (6:15) talked about.

(6:16) And so let’s just say nothing changed and the 70% stays in place. (6:20) What does that mean for activities in Coquille? (6:22) Because WASA is saying we might have to cut a few things. (6:25) I think like Coquille, that’s a lot of almost everything is getting cut.

(6:29) Right. (6:30) Right. (6:31) And the answer to that question really comes down to how much the school district Lincoln (6:36) 2 is willing to supplement what the state is giving us.

(6:39) So for Star Valley High School and Coquille High School, Lincoln 2 school board has always (6:44) been willing to locally step up and say, we want more activities for our kids. (6:49) We prioritize that. (6:50) So they’ve taken what the state has given them and added additional funding to that (6:54) to help create more opportunities for our kids.

(6:58) So the answer to your question would be if we like, if nothing changes and Lincoln County (7:03) school district number two school board continues to supplement, which is now almost impossible (7:08) because of that silo, we don’t have flexibility with our money anymore. (7:13) We’re talking about $2,000 per kid that we’ve got to figure out with that $130,000 hole. (7:21) If Lincoln County school district number two did nothing to supplement what the state gives (7:26) us and everything stays the same.

(7:28) And this is not what’s happening. (7:29) I want to be clear about that. (7:30) It’s not what’s happening for next year.

(7:32) But basically what that would mean for Coquille is take one activity for boys, one activity (7:38) for girls. (7:38) We’ll have that at the junior high level and the high school level and everything else is (7:42) gone, which would just be absolutely devastating. (7:46) I met with a group of our kids two or three weeks ago and they said, that’s like our family.

(7:51) Like those, we learned so much from those experiences. (7:53) How can the state do this? (7:55) And so just educating people is important, but yeah, if our local school board didn’t (8:01) did not supplement us at all and everything stayed the same, we’d be losing almost everything. (8:07) So again, that’s worst case scenario.

(8:08) And it does sound like lawmakers are working on this and trying to make those changes. (8:14) And so we’ll see where that goes. (8:15) Let’s talk more about the funding piece for your support staff, because yes, extra funding (8:20) went in to give teachers the raise, but it’s, I mean, the paraprofessionals like you taught, (8:27) all the support staff, it sounds like that really needs to be focused on.

(8:32) Absolutely. (8:33) I work with some incredible support staff, like our team in Coquille. (8:38) I mean, I’m obviously biased.

(8:40) I’m sure everybody feels that way about their teams across the state of Wyoming, but I have (8:44) some exceptional people that are involved in our support staff. (8:48) And so they really need to be recognized and appreciated. (8:52) And that’s always been a priority for Lincoln too.

(8:55) Let me give you an example. (8:57) And this is another thing that’s really frustrating me and our administration, as far as the Freedom (9:03) Caucus goes, they keep distributing this report that Lincoln County School District number (9:07) two did not give money to the teachers when it was allocated from the state level. (9:14) And it’s just not true.

(9:15) Yes, we put less money on the base than some other districts, but we actually went around (9:20) to the teachers and asked in listening to her, like, what do you want us to spend this (9:25) money on? (9:26) And they said, well, for those of us that have been with the district for 10 or more (9:30) years, there were three frozen years. (9:32) And it’s hard when we hire a new teacher and they get all their years of experience. (9:37) And I don’t because I stayed with the district.

(9:39) And so that was a huge amount of money that was spent listening to our teachers to restore (9:45) those years, which the report that the Freedom Caucus is distributing doesn’t account for (9:50) that. In addition to that, we added five lanes to the salary schedule that for our most senior (9:56) teachers, it allows them to continue to advance and make more money throughout their (10:01) retirement. Now, this is where the support staff comes in.

(10:04) Not only did we do that for teachers, we did that for our support staff. (10:08) Our secretaries were also here when those three frozen years occurred, and we restored (10:13) those frozen years for our nurses, for our counselors, for our secretaries, for everybody. (10:19) Because in Lincoln, too, we recognize that we cannot do this without custodians that (10:24) are keeping our learning environment in great shape.

(10:27) So the kids come to school and they want to be here and it’s clean and it smells good. (10:31) Our secretaries, they do incredible work to bring activities to pass and organize things (10:36) and make phone calls and all kinds of things. (10:39) So like it just needs to be a priority, in my opinion, statewide.

(10:43) I absolutely love teachers. (10:45) I came out of the teaching ranks. (10:47) I advocate for teachers, but I also recognize and appreciate our support staff, like you (10:52) said, and they deserve similar increases to compensation and to be recognized and (10:58) appreciated for the great work they do.

(11:00) Principal Kenneth Dietz, Cokeville High School, this morning on the weekday wake up. (11:03) Principal Dietz, thank you for your time. (11:05) If you could just maybe summarize everything here for us and your final message to our (11:09) listeners on this.

(11:11) Yeah, I get involved. (11:13) We all know that elections occur in August in the state of Wyoming in the primaries (11:18) because we are so conservative. (11:20) I just encourage people, if you’re not happy about something that’s happening, if you (11:24) don’t feel like this is the right direction for your kids and want to see those (11:29) activities restored or any one of these other issues, reach out to your representative (11:34) is make sure they know how you feel.

(11:36) And then research people in August, because I think 28% of Wyoming showed up to vote in (11:41) the last election. (11:43) We need people to show up and have their voices be heard so we can ensure that that’s (11:48) what being what is being done represents the voice of the people and the will of the (11:53) people, because we live in a phenomenal state. (11:55) I came out of Idaho.

(11:57) I choose to raise my kids here because I love the opportunities that we provide. (12:01) And I’m sure there’s many others that feel the same way. (12:03) Now is the time if you’ve been sitting on the bench to get off the bench, get educated (12:07) about what’s going on and get involved.

(12:09) That’s Principal Kenneth Deeds, Coatville High School. (12:11) This morning, weekday wake up on the SBI radio network.