SCSD No. 2's new leader

The school district will be transitioning to the leadership of the new superintendent, Dr. Scott Cooper, over the next few months. 

Sweetwater County School District No. 2 began the process of looking for a new superintendent after the current superintendent, Craig Barringer, announced his retirement in January. Barringer will remain with the district until his contract ends on June 30. 

In looking for the next Superintendent of Schools, the SCSD No. 2 Board of Trustees worked with the Wyoming School Boards Association to search for candidates. 

"We had a lot of applicants – more than they had anticipated, which is great," SCSD No. 2 Board Chair Ashely Castillon explained. 

The board went over the applications together and chose their top three candidates, narrowing it down to Scott Cooper, Jason Fuss and Annette Walters. The district then worked with both a student panel and staff panel in evaluating the candidates, and had a community forum arranged and moderated by the Green River Chamber of Commerce. 

"At each of those, we were able to gather some feedback from people that participated," Castillon noted. 

The board then hosted all-day interview sessions for each candidate. After the interviews, the board members took time to deliberate on their own for several days, according to Castillon, before meeting again to have more discussions and make a decision. 

"We put a lot of thought into it, and really just decided who we thought was the best candidate," Castillon said. 

The school board hosted a special meeting on Tuesday, March 18 to deliberate the matter in executive session. After coming out of executive session, the board voted unanimously to approve the contract with Dr. Scott Cooper to be the new superintendent. 

"I think he'll do a great job," Castillon said of Cooper. "He is excited to move to our community and to really get started, and we just felt like he was who our district needed right now."

Several plans are already in place to help with the transition between superintendents, according to Castillon. 

"He wants to come and visit and get to know people before he actually steps into his position in July," she said of Cooper. 

Castillon pointed out that Cooper provided them with a 90-day plan for the transition, and she added that Craig Barringer has also committed to working with Cooper as he steps into the role. 

"Hopefully it will just be a smooth transition," Castillon said. 

The board chair also expressed her confidence that Cooper will continue to build on the strength and success of what's already in place. 

"I think that we have a lot of really good things going on in our district," she said. "He isn't planning to come in and just flip things over. I think his philosophy is to kind of steer the ship in the right direction." 

Cooper himself agreed that he hopes to help continue the positive things already happening once he joins the district full time. 

"There are many, many good things going on in Green River and at the Sweetwater School District there, and I want to maintain all those great programs and great opportunities for students," he said. "They've got a great foundation, so I want to be careful to maintain all that great work and then build upon that a little bit each year, so that they can just be better each year and provide even more opportunities for the students."

Cooper also explained his plan to visit Green River several times over the next few months, including coming for graduation. He said that he hopes to come at least three or four times in order to work with the school district, visit with students, and get to know the community as a whole.

He is also looking forward to being part of the community in the future. 

"My wife and I have always been looking at Wyoming as an option," Cooper said, explaining that he and his wife, who are both educators in Colorado, have friends in Wyoming and visit regularly. He added that it's been a dream to find a chance to move to Wyoming to work in a school district. "This opportunity came up, and I just thought, 'shoot, I think I'm going to go for it.'"

Cooper believes Green River will be a good fit, as will the position of superintendent based on his experience. He has a background of 25 years spent in education, "mostly leading small rural districts and rural schools." Cooper explained that he has had many roles in education, mostly in Colorado, including being a teacher, a principal, a superintendent, a career technical education director, a special education teacher, and a special education coordinator. 

Recently, Cooper's focus has been providing "leadership around Career Technical Education and online learning opportunities for students," he explained. He has spent the last five years as the Career Technical Educator Director of CRBOCES in Grand Junction, Colorado. He is also the Director of Classrooms for Colorado LIVE (CC-LIVE), where he oversees a statewide online learning initiative.

Going into his role as SCSD No. 2's superintendent, one of Cooper's main goals is making sure that "every student graduates with a purpose."

He explained that during his years as a principal and superintendent, he has noticed more and more students graduating with no clear idea of what they want to do next. He wants to help students be motivated and supported in their choices, whether they want to go to college, go into the workforce, join the military, or whatever they choose. 

"A lot of my work will be to help develop Career Technical Education pathways to expand upon what's already great and working there in the school district, but without losing the College Track option as well, so students have both opportunities," Cooper said. "I just would like to see all students graduating with a purpose." 

Cooper's contract as the SCSD No. 2 Superintendent of Schools will begin on July 1.