In the wake of the school funding recalibration passed in the recent legislative session, the Park County School District 1 budget is going to end up better than many had initially feared. 

There’s still some good and bad news that’s resulting from that as the district unveiled its preliminary budget figures to school board trustees April 28.  Preliminary general fund revenues and expenditures of $38.6 million are up more than $4 million from the year prior, although Superintendent Jay Curtis said much of that extra funding is a one-time infusion of cash for certain areas — like funding for dual enrollment that will be sent on to community colleges. 

On one hand, Park County School District 1 staff can expect in many cases large raises.  Teachers, non-teaching certified staff and paras can expect upwards of 10% pay hikes on average, and certified teachers will receive a base $6,500 increase and support staff a $2 per hour increase, which Curtis said are well deserved. The raise more than makes up for a hike in health insurance costs that also occurred due to the recalibration structure.

“I am thankful for the Legislature for the money they are putting into teacher salaries, finally,” Curtis said. “It is long, long overdue.” 

Other positions on the operational side, such as administrators, will still see smaller hikes in pay — roughly 5%-6% for building administrators — as all employees will see some sort of salary increase. Those salary schedules were approved at the May 12 business meeting, with the lone no vote coming from Trustee Ben Borcher in regards to the building and district administrator raises. He said they certainly deserved them and was not opposed to the smaller step and cost of living increases, but was not in favor of any larger raise on top of that. 

“The ones that we lead should be provided for first, and these raises should be for staff, teachers especially,” he said. He voted in favor of all of the other salary proposals. 

Less funding for operations

While all employees can expect raises and most substantial increases, a large shortfall in what the district can spend on operations will necessitate the reduction of a couple of positions in operations. Two teaching positions have also been reduced through attrition due not to the changing funding model — which provides a good bit more funding for instructional staff — but due to declining district enrollment. 

“We are actually dealing with two things right now. One is a decreasing ADM (Average daily membership),” Curtis said at the late April work session. “Our ADM that we are calculating for next year is 1,737; that’s the lowest ADM we’ve had since 2012.”

Enrollment numbers have been falling for the last couple years in line with a state and nationwide trend Curtis said was due to families having less kids and utilizing more alternative schooling options. 

Curtis said staff in operations positions which are eliminated will be offered other jobs in the district; he said they’re always in need of paraprofessionals. 

The district is also not looking at cutting any sports or activities despite the funding changes that restrict funding into silos for instructional staff and another for operations in the next fiscal year budget, he said. Previously, the district had received a block grant and the ability to more freely move money to fund the areas administration deemed most necessary. Cutting sports or activities had been a concern expressed by students, junior student representative Ashlee Jacobsen said. 

“We’re going to get $835,000 for activities. This year we’re spending $1.47 million,” Curtis said. “We are going to have to make a few adjustments. No question, we can’t be $640,000 off cycle, but I’m very confident in front of you right now saying that’s not going to include cutting any sports at this point now; we’re going to live within the model for a year.”

Coaching pay is being frozen this year — previously it had been tied to salaries, but Curtis said that’s unsustainable with the large raises in salaries on one hand, compared to the shortage of many in operations to pay for sports and activities. 

“I know the 40 or so coaches we have would rather have a pay freeze than see sports or activities cut,” he said Tuesday. 

He also noted a Cowboy State Daily story where various legislators said the severe cut in funding for activities and sports was a “bug” in the recalibration process, not intended, and legislators will work to correct that next session. Curtis said they’re not preparing for a quick fix, however, and said when talking to local legislators, they understood how the funding changes would cut into sports and activities budgets. 

He noted funding for IT, especially IT staff, is also well below what the district usually spends. And unlike just a year ago, Business Services Coordinator Mary Jo Lewis no longer has the freedom to put money where it is needed due to the bipartisan legislation passed overwhelmingly by the Legislature despite the concerns of many districts across the state, including all three in Park County. 

Recalibration process

The recalibration process is required every five years in Wyoming in order to adjust how much the state funds education. How much each district receives is based on enrollment, full time equivalency staffing, salaries, benefits and more.

This time the recalibration led to successful new legislation, which Curtis and other superintendents, including the other two in Park County, had expressed concerns about from the beginning. That led to a number of school leaders heading down to petition for legislative changes during the session, including some from Park 1.

Curtis said some changes were made that did help in making the change better than anticipated, and in the end almost all Park County legislators voted in favor of Senate File 81, K-12 Public School Finance, which sailed through both chambers. 

“We are in a completely different funding model than we were,” Curtis said. “The model that we are living under currently is totally different than the model we are going to be living under next year, and it has transformed into a very complicated beast. There are a lot of moving parts that we have never had to deal with.”

He said Lewis has been instrumental in working to figure out the new model, and revealing more of the pluses and minuses of the new bill. He said on one hand, the district is in much better shape than many due to the success of food services under director Savannah Layland in staying within its budget, while on the other they’re concerned about what they’ll be getting for utilities in the next budget. It’s being set based on this year, which Curtis noted had one of the mildest winters on record in Powell history. 

Still, now that it’s in place, the district is working to ensure any issues don’t result in any pain for students. 

“As a whole, it is way better than I thought it would be. The term I first used, was this is going to be a bloodbath on the operational side,” Curtis said. “We’re trying to be responsible, strategic, and at the same time, we’re just trying to do our very best, like kids, we’re doing the best we can. Going to be in really good shape.”