7 takeaways from Sweetwater County District 1 school board meeting

Board adopts stricter public comment policy

Early literacy scores show 'massive gains'

New curriculum implemented without expected performance dip

Data shows urgent need for Ninth grade academy model

District investigating 'significant' enrollment drop

Junior high students launch 'Sources of strength' program

Pilot program to track elementary students on buses underway

Board adopts stricter public comment policy

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — The Sweetwater County School District Board of Trustees voted Monday to approve a revised public participation policy, a move officials said is designed to protect the district from litigation while ensuring confidential concerns are routed through proper administrative channels. The policy, prepared on the advice of legal counsel, prohibits public comments regarding the performance of individual district employees or confidential student matters. Board Chair Cole Wright stated the policy preserves the public’s ability to address the board on district business while identifying alternate pathways for individual concerns. The board has failed in the past to provide a clear avenue for appeals, board member Matt Gardner said, and the new process aims to fix that by directing formal complaints through a process that can ultimately be brought to the board in a closed session.

Early literacy scores show 'massive gains'

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — The district is seeing dramatic improvements in early literacy, with kindergarten through third-grade students posting major gains in reading proficiency scores. Board member Matt Gardner, reporting on the Community Curriculum Council meeting, highlighted data from the Overland Elementary Early Childhood Education Center showing proficiency rates jumping from a range of 38 to 46 percent at the end of the 2021 school year to 55 to 63 percent at the beginning of the current school year. Gardner called the numbers “massive, massive gains,” crediting the district’s focused efforts on early childhood literacy as a key factor that will pay dividends as students advance to higher grade levels.

New curriculum implemented without expected performance dip

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — The district has successfully implemented its “Beyond Textbooks” curriculum without the initial dip in student performance that typically accompanies such a significant change, according to a report from board member Matt Gardner. He noted that a new curriculum often leads to a one-to-three-year decline in test scores as teachers and students adjust. Instead, the district has seen growth in all areas since the implementation. The data-driven curriculum, which provides methods for teaching state standards, was credited for helping the district move from being “dead last in virtually every category a year ago” to showing notable growth, particularly in English and science.

Data shows urgent need for Ninth grade academy model

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — The district’s Ninth Grade Academy was established to combat alarming national statistics showing that the transition to high school is a critical failure point for students, board member Matt Gardner reported Monday. Citing multiple studies, Gardner explained that unexcused absences quadruple from eighth to ninth grade, and ninth graders are three to five times more likely to fail a class than students in any other grade. He added that the on-track metric for ninth graders is more predictive of graduation than race, poverty level and prior test scores combined. The academy model operates at the Rock Springs Satellite High School ninth-grade campus to create stronger student-staff relationships in a smaller learning environment.

District investigating 'significant' enrollment drop

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — Superintendent Joseph A. Libby reported a “significant drop” in student enrollment between last year’s kindergarten class and this year’s first-grade class, prompting an investigation by the district’s human resources department. During his superintendent’s report, Libby said he has asked staff to compile longitudinal data to better understand where students are going and to determine if the decline is an anomaly or part of a larger trend. The official October student population count was 4,687, down from previous counts. The district is trying to determine if the drop is due to smaller grade levels moving up or if the district has lost families.

Junior high students launch 'Sources of strength' program

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — A group of student peer leaders from Rock Springs Junior High presented the “Sources of Strength” program, a peer-led initiative focused on upstream suicide prevention. The students, along with their adult advisers, explained that the program’s mission is to “spread hope, help and strength” by connecting students to support systems before they reach a crisis point. Based on a research-backed model, the program trains a diverse group of student leaders to run positive messaging campaigns that highlight eight protective factors, including family support, positive friends and mental health. Following the recent loss of a student in the community, the program’s focus on proactive mental health support was a key topic of the evening.

Pilot program to track elementary students on buses underway

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — The school district has launched a pilot program to track elementary students as they get on and off school buses. Superintendent Joseph A. Libby mentioned the program during his monthly highlights, explaining its purpose is to provide greater information and enhance safety for the district’s youngest students. The system is designed to give the district and parents better real-time knowledge of a student’s location as they travel to and from school.

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