School board hosts eventful meetings

It was a packed evening for the Sweetwater County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees, as they conducted both a Recreation Board and School Board meeting on Tuesday, March 11.

During the Rec Board meeting, they approved a slew of proposals, including giving $50,000 to the Green Belt Taskforce to help replace drinking stations at various parks throughout town and funds to replace damaged parts of the boardwalk area on the Greenbelt. Other approved proposals include giving $5,000 to the Green River Grapplers Wrestling Club for a summer camp, enabling them to allow local wrestlers to participate for free; $50,000 to the local BMX Club for a pump track that will be used for various sporting events; and $3,200 to the Miracle League to help with the cost of their liability insurance, uniforms, equipment, and end of the season banquet. Perhaps the biggest item of the night was the $165,000 amendment to aid with purchasing a new scoreboard for Wolves Stadium. During the proposal, Activities Director Tony Beardsley explained that the scoreboard being purchased from Nevco will include five sponsor panels at the bottom of it that will help in raising funds to pay back the rec-mill for additional funding needed. An initial amount of $200,000 was approved last year by the Rec Board for the purchase of the new scoreboard.

The regular school board meeting started with some remarks from a concerned citizen, Melissa Crowell, who currently has children enrolled in the district. Crowell cautioned the board about the recently purchased new curriculum as she feels that it may be in conflict with federal state mandates in regard to DEI.

The meeting also included retirement and resignation announcements. The retirements announced included Michelle Cordova, long time district school nurse, and Doreen Francom, long time special education teacher. There was a total of five resignations.

Assistant Superintendent Alan Demaret also gave an update on the new Summer School structure during the meeting. For kindergarten through fifth grade, the session will be held at Monroe Elementary School from June 17 to July 31, taking place Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each week from 8:15 a.m. to 12 p.m. The week of the Fourth of July will be time off for all students and staff. The session will focus on specific skills in Language Arts and Math, with a weekly Physical Education class for all students.

For grades 6 through 8, the session will be conducted at Green River High School June 9 to July 3, with classes each Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and classes from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Fridays. This session will also focus will be on specific skills in Language Arts and Math with a weekly Physical Education class for all students. For the high school session, which mainly focuses on credit recovery, the students can attend both online and in person this year, June 5 to June 27 and June 30 through July 3 if needed. The session is open to both Green River High School and Expedition Academy students. Students attend until their coursework is complete and the credit is recovered.

The district will once again also offer the extended school year program. The ESY program will run from June 17 until July 31 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each week, with the morning session being conducted from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. and the afternoon session being conducted from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. ESY focuses on children with Individual IEP goals, with various special education and special services provided. The district will also host an English Language Learner Jump Start Program from July 28 to August 8 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday each week from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., which includes both the morning and afternoon session as needed. The main focus will be on language acquisition.

Other important features on the board meeting agenda included a mill levy funding request and presentation from BOCES 5. BOCES 5 is a network of accredited K through 12 schools providing services for students age five through 21 who required diversified learning and highly focused programming. The Roosevelt School locally is one of those institutions. The board unanimously approved the mill funding request. It was noted that the future of funding request like this is unknown as the budget going forward could get complicated.

During a budget presentation for fiscal year 2026, some of the concerns raised included maintaining a competitive position for retention of employees, maintaining service levels provided to students, and addressing inflationary impacts, including utilities, property and liability insurance, supplies, etc. Several newly passed legislative bills reducing property taxes will have a direct impact on things like school district optional mill levies.

The meeting concluded with most of the trustees congratulating the Lady Wolves Basketball Team on their conference championship, the first one since 1998. Many members also remarked about the strength, resilience and pride of our community in the face of recent tragedies.