Park County School District 1 is meeting the needs of a growing subset of students in the state of Wyoming — female wrestlers.

Girls’ wrestling, which officially started in the 2022-23 season, is continuing to differentiate itself from the boy’s division. Previously girls could wrestle but did so on the boy’s team.

During their June 11 meeting Park County School District 1 trustees approved a middle school and high school head coach position for girls’ wrestling while also addressing other extra duty changes. They also approved a dependent on participant numbers (DPN) coach at the middle school who will assume coaching duties if numbers call for it and an activity assistant or DPN coach at the high school.

When hired, the high school head coach position would start at $6,890, the middle school head coach position would start at $3,498, the activity assistant position would pay $2,120 and the DPN position at the middle school would start at $3,180 if used.

The activity assistant position would not require certification unless the person is called upon to coach. If the activity assistant had proper certification and was called upon to coach they would then receive $5,300 as an assistant coach. Mainly, they would provide support, and assist with organizing activities and supervising wrestlers. 

With overnight trips at the high school level and the likelihood of a male coach, “It would be nice to have an activity assistant, so it’s multiple adults supervising overnight trips,” Superintendent Jay Curtis said at the board meeting.

During public comment, parent Amy Johnson questioned whether or not pay was decreased for the indoor track coaches in order to create the new wrestling positions. While she is in support of equality and inclusion she thought that if indoor track had in fact faced pay reduction to benefit another sport that cost should be shared by all. 

Pay for indoor track coaches was not cut to fund girls’ wrestling, Curtis said when addressing the need for the wrestling positions. Instead, pay was decreased because the season is not as long as outdoor track and has less events — until now both indoor and outdoor track received the same amount of compensation.

“I just want to recognize how much we appreciate our indoor track coaches and what they have brought to us, this … correction has nothing to do with them as coaches, the job they’re doing or support of track,” Curtis said. “It truly is just a correction based on length of seasons in an equitable fashion to other sports of a similar season.”

The district also approved a $2,500 stipend for library media specialists who work at multiple schools under extra duty changes. At the recommendation of Powell High School’s library media specialist who retired this year, Powell High School will no longer have a specialist. Instead the high school will hire a clerk and Powell Middle School’s library media specialist will also oversee the high school. The stipend also extended to the elementary schools that have been sharing a library media specialist.