School district seeks state approval of four-day week

With one last public comment to contribute to their decision making, Big Horn County School District No. 4’s board of trustees unanimously agreed to send their application for a four-day week off to the state last Tuesday night. 

According to the four-day school week calendar for next year, also approved by the board, staff would be required to teach one Friday a month on a rotating basis. For teachers, the schedule would include five required workdays before the school year begins, nine Fridays over the course of the year, a fall and spring parent teacher conference, plus regular instruction days, amounting to 166 total contract days. 

For this year’s calendar, school is set to run from Aug. 18 through May 22 with 10 professional development days for staff, nine building PD days and 20 days of break. The 2026-27 calendar runs Aug. 18 through May 27 with five marked professional development days, a similar parent teacher conference schedule and 13 days of break. The elementary school will go to trimesters next year. Superintendent Keith Campbell expressed that the new calendar was overwhelmingly supported by staff. 

“This is a continually reviewed process where we’re going to continually monitor some of the things [the board] is talking about through surveys and decide if it’s working for us and if we should move forward with it the following year. We would do that each subsequent year up until five years,” Superintendent Keith Campbell said. No finalized operational plan for the day-to-day has been presented. 

“I’m sure staff will be very happy with it.”

RECALIBRATION

“[The legislature] did pass a recalibration bill for the first time in 15 years … I hope it will be more money, it will be different though,” Business Manager Trevor Whitaker reported. 

Governor Mark Gordon let the bill become law without his signature last week, commenting that it may disadvantage smaller districts, affect local authority, and fail to address operational funding. The recalibration will change the block grant model to a categorical grant model, limiting districts to specified spending for each line item. 

 “It wasn’t exactly what we had hoped for, but probably better than we had started with originally …” Campbell said. “It’s quite a change, historically, from the way Wyoming has funded its school districts. It’s taking away some of that local control.”

Admin will reportedly have about 30 pages to read through in order to determine how exactly the change will impact the
district, expected to be discussed at the next regular meeting. Whitaker noted one difference will be in “397 money,” which the district has carried since 1997 to the tune of about $460,000. Historically, the fund has been available beyond cash reserves. Before July 1, the district will have to move that money to the general fund. 

“We’ll still have it, it’s just not going to go to education, it will go to building projects or something other than that,” Whitaker said. 

STUDENT POPULATION DOWN

Whitaker reported that six years ago, the district had 260 students enrolled. It’s now down to 236. 

“Next year we will dip below 230,” he predicted. “And unless we get more in-district pre-K kids, it will go down another seven the year after that.”

Class sizes entering the school have been smaller than those graduating, reflecting an overall population decline in the state. A Wyoming Economic Analysis Division data from 2025 contributes this partially to vital events and migration, with fewer people moving into the state since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Big Horn County was listed at 0.2% change of population between 2023-24 - with 1% equaling replacement, a drop. Wyoming Public Media reported over the past two decades, Wyoming ranked in the top 10 states with the sharpest fertility rate decline as well. 

Riverside Middle High School Principal Matt Jensen said he recently broached the idea of combining the school’s concert band with Greybull. Jensen said ideally, with the participation numbers, middle school girls basketball and wrestling seasons would also be split to keep both teams running. 

OTHER NEWS

RMHS Principal Jensen and Business Manager Whitaker received unanimous board approval to extend their contracts for the 2026-27 school year. LIE Principal and Special Education Director Katie Seeley’s contract was also approved, with two ‘nays’ from board members Brenda Wood and Austin Alexander. 

The board approved three new hires: Middle School Head Track Coach Kelly Darling, Middle School Assistant Track Coach Stephanie Winters and a third coach, if there are over 30 participants, Brandon Nyberg.

Toby Wood resigned as assistant high school football coach and Cassie Russell resigned as Destination Imagination coach.