District’s new staff meets School Board

Big Horn County School District No. 4 held their monthly meeting last Tuesday, Aug. 11. The meeting focused on introducing new hires, the special education report, state board of education report, and policy amendments.

The 2026-27 school year began this week on Tuesday, Aug. 18. The district has transitioned to a four-day week schedule, Mondays through Thursdays. Classes begin at 8 a.m. with the final bell at 4 p.m. 

Staff impact, for elementary teachers, will include one mandatory Friday per month for professional development, collaboration, and help with the Beyond the Bell program. For middle and high school teachers, they will rotate coming in on Fridays with 25% of the Riverside Middle High School staff in the building. Paraprofessionals had the choice of working a four-day week or five-day week. “Those who chose to work the five-day week will be here every Friday,” said superintendent Keith Campbell. 

“The ones that are just doing the four days, they’re just choosing to have less hours,” added school board member Austin Alexander. 

NEW STAFF

The board voted to approve the hiring of Matt Jensen as the district’s athletic director. Percy Tigner was hired as custodian, Linda Gollar, part-time custodian, and Hannah Klitzke as the assistant high school volleyball coach. 

New teachers were introduced to the school board. In attendance were Suzanne Casad, preschool teacher, Anthony Montanez, Middle School Special Education teacher, Nikonia Nabozney, Middle/High School English teacher, and Matthew Schlichting, CAD and Woods teacher.

EXPANDED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

The “Rising Rebel” program provides academic wraparound support for students during school hours. Students are given time to work with staff on missing assignments, ask about things they didn’t understand, and get help meeting their goals. How students spend their Rising Rebel time depends on current academic standing and upcoming school activities.

“We’re hoping that makes a huge difference with how we support students,” said Campbell. “And then they have Friday as well to get help if they if they haven’t met their goals by Thursday.”

Mandatory Friday attendance may be required for students with multiple missing assignments or failing grades. Schoolboard member Linda Osmond asked, “If the parent doesn’t want to send their child, how are we going to enforce that?”

Campbell responded, “We’ll talk about these things at the parent meeting (held August 13) about what exactly that looks like,” further noting that there are consequences if a student doesn’t show up when asked to.  

Another opportunity for district students is the “Beyond the Bell Program,” a free, grant-funded academic and enrichment before-school, after-school, and summer program. It provides academic support and engaging activities—such as STEM, art, computer science, and games—for local students. The program offers one-on-one academic assistance, homework help, and meals or transportation options depending on the specific session schedule. 

For this school year the program offers multiple choices to children of the district:

Brain Boost (K-5) drop off at 7:00 a.m.

Zero Hour (6-12) 6:30 - 7:30 a.m.

Beyond The Bell Afterschool (K-12) 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Friday Adventure Program (K-12) 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

SUMMER FEEDBACK AND STRATEGIC PLANNING

Laura Irwin Elementary School principal and Special Education Director Katie Seeley gave a presentation to the school board last Tuesday that included a general update and highlighted key points for strategic planning. 

“As this summer comes to a close, I want to take a moment to recognize the remarkable dedication of three teams whose behind-the-scenes efforts made our summer programs a success. Our maintenance crew kept our buildings safe, clean, and welcoming through the hottest months of the year—working early mornings and long days so that students and staff had comfortable spaces to learn and grow. Our transportation team showed up every single day with reliability and care, ensuring our students arrived safely and on time, rain or shine. Their consistency is the quiet backbone of everything we do. Our summer school and extended school year (ESY) staff poured their hearts into their work, delivering meaningful instruction and support to students who needed it most. Their patience, creativity, and warmth turned summer learning into summer joy,” said Seeley.

“These teams worked with quiet professionalism and genuine heart. Their dedication reflects the very best of our district, and they deserve our sincere thanks and recognition,” she added. 

Seeley then went on to discuss with the board changes facing the district regarding academic achievement, “As we review this year’s accountability results, the board should be aware that the district’s transition to the new state assessment platform will affect our reported literacy proficiency rates.”

“The new state accountability assessment platform reflects a change in how student literacy progress is measured and reported. As with any transition to a new assessment instrument, results from the new platform may not be directly comparable to prior-year data. This is a matter of methodology and reporting, not a reflection of the quality of instruction or the commitment of our educators. It remains our firm priority that every student meets or exceeds grade-level literacy expectations,” said Seeley. 

In support of this work, the district is implementing new literacy curriculum materials. On August 13, an in-person trainer from Curriculum Associates led training on the first unit and on the iReady assessment platform, which LIE will use to drive instruction and interventions.

WELL-ROUNDED GRADUATES 

The Wyoming State Board of Education (SBE) recently updated their graduation standards by creating the “Wyoming Profile of a Graduate;” an ideal vision of a Wyoming graduate to guide the state in matters of education policy. In response, School District #4 has created a new program, Crew. 

“We are thrilled to introduce our new Crew groups — a school-wide initiative designed to build strong, lasting relationships between staff and students,” said Seeley. 

Crew groups are small groups of cross-grade-level students, each led by one dedicated staff member, who will meet every Wednesday afternoon. 

“By bringing students of different ages together in a consistent, supportive circle, these groups create a sense of belonging and connection that reaches far beyond the classroom,” she added. “Groups will follow the Cowboy Ethics—Ride for the Brand curriculum, which focuses on character, teamwork, and social-emotional growth, giving students shared values and a common language for how we treat one another.”

Once these groups are underway, they will select names for each Crew to strengthen their identity and sense of pride. “We are genuinely excited about the friendships, mentorship, and school community this initiative will cultivate, and we look forward to presenting the program to the board to expand everyone’s understanding of how Crew groups will be a significant part of our efforts to create well-rounded graduates starting at the pre-K level,” said Seeley. She noted that this will enhance the Second Step social-emotional program, not replace it.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Seeley has helped lead the district’s efforts for staff recruitment and retention. Last week, a post-training survey was sent to LIE staff to collect feedback, including their ratings of how relevant or irrelevant they found the recent professional development sessions.

“We value this input as we continue to refine our training offerings. Additionally, our new certified staff members met with their mentors to begin the support process,” she added. “We are committed to supporting both our new educators and our mentors as we build a strong, collaborative professional community.”

OTHER NEWS

RMHS Principal Matt Jensen was absent from the meeting as he was picking up a foreign exchange student at the airport, a young man from Brazil. 

During his superintendent report, Campbell encouraged board members to register for the upcoming Wyoming School Board Association’s Fall Round-Up meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 1 in Worland. A regional half-day conference for the area’s school board trustees and administrators. 

“This would be good for everybody to attend, with just all the changes that have gone on in the last year and the direction that we’re moving. You know, with all the literacy stuff that’s coming and all the changes in curriculum and all of those things, I think this would be a really good one to attend,” he said.

Vice Chairman Greg Gloy added, “It’s a great way to get outside of just Basin and see what’s going on.” 

Campbell also informed the board about the annual WSBA annual conference scheduled for November 18 - 20 in Casper. Board member Kristen Schlattmann chimed in, “That’s also super valuable. I think most people here have gone to that, but it’s a great opportunity to not only learn about new things but also collaborate.” 

Later in the meeting, Schlattmann gave the board an update about what she’s observed this summer while serving on the State Board of Education. In addition to receiving feedback about math and CTE standards, the state board has heard comments about wanting to include more financial literacy into standards. “Part of what we’re mandated to do is to communicate and get feedback from stakeholders and districts. And one of the pieces of feedback that we have consistently heard is that people want to include financial literacy in our standards,” she said.

Board member Terri Hobmeier chimed in, “I thought Economics was a class…when did they get rid of it?”

A robust conversation ensued where the group discussed further about losing local control due to state standards. Campbell noted that in addition to financial literacy, the state is wanting to include computer literacy and cyber security curriculum, adding additional standards at every single grade level. “But at what point do you stop adding,” Campbell said. 

Schlattmann told the board, “They’re trying to reduce standards, but they’re also aligning them and trying to make them consistent with law and what we’re trying to do with the profile of a graduate.”

She went on to say, “The way they (SBE) work on those standards and determine those standards is with stakeholder involvement…parents, anybody in the public, gets a chance to review and make comments. And I can tell you that is one thing, in my opinion, that we need to do better on is how to get that out and get the comments because we’ll send it out, and we don’t get a lot of comments sometimes.”

Campbell added, “It asks a lot of our teachers and a lot of our schools.” Schlattmann noted, “This is just a huge transitional year. We don’t know yet who’s going to be the state superintendent in charge.” 

HOMESCHOOL

Applications for homeschool students living in the district were approved which led to a discussion regarding homeschool students’ eligibility for classes, sports, and activities. 

“If a homeschool family accepts the educational savings account (ESA) we cannot let them take classes in our school unless we’re an approved vendor for that course,” said Campbell. “So, like for pre-K, they will be an approved vendor for pre-K. So, people who took that ESA money could enroll in our pre-K, but they could not enroll in elementary music or high school band or anything like that.”

In Wyoming, homeschool students cannot take part in the Wyoming Education Savings Account (ESA) program and simultaneously receive partial enrollment or funding through a public school district. ESA rules bar participating families from being partially counted as public school students, which has created friction for homeschoolers wanting to join public school classes or activities. 

“As for athletics, we could deny ESA students from any and all school activities as well but we cannot deny non-ESA students from participating equally in athletics. At this time, BGH4 is not preventing either from participating. Our numbers are pretty low in many sports and all of our students benefit from having more students out,” he said. 

POLICY

The board reviewed several policy revisions, including staff responsibilities, and health/safety protocols. The second readings of policies 5.41 and 6.18 were approved. Staff and student handbooks for RMHS and LIE were approved. 

New policies regarding the distribution of non-school materials (Policy 5.42) and political activities and campaigns (Policy 5.43) were introduced for first readings and will go onto second readings next month.

The board voted to amend Policy 8.02, Administering Medicine to Students and the accompanying exhibit 8.02-E (1.) “I’ve been working for three months with nurse Katie,” said Campbell. “It was recommended by Wyoming School Boards, but we actually tweaked it, and we liked Big Horn School District No. 1’s policy better.”

The required change stems from the last legislative session regarding epinephrine delivery. “It basically only gave you the EpiPen, and now it gives you a choice of delivery systems, including like nasal sprays and those things,” he added. “Nurse Katie has been working with an association of school nurses to change our policy. This is the language that she would recommend to our board.”

During the first reading for amending Policy 5.31, Staff Health and Safety, concerns were raised by board members. Discussion focused on the clarity of language around medical examinations and the specific resources available to staff, they asked how the district can better define the specific resources offered to staff when addressing personal health or mental wellness issues in official policy.

Policy 5.31 was not approved in its current form and will be discussed again next month. 

All changes to board policies, and final versions of handbooks, can be viewed on the district’s website: www.bgh4.org

As the meeting wrapped up, the board discussed the need for “board norms” to establish decorum and group procedures, with Gloy suggesting a board retreat to define these standards.

Schlattmann agreed, “Now with four new people, it would be good for us to talk about how we’re going to handle certain situations.” 

Chairman Heath Hopkin told the group to think about dates for the retreat. 

Board member Brenda Wood commented, “I sit here with people who really want what’s best for the kids, staff, and our community. We’ve got a good superintendent. We’ve got good leadership in our schools, and we’ve got a good thing going. We want to make sure it stays that way.”