With early voting already underway and less than two weeks until Election Day, six candidates are vying for four seats available on the Park County School District 1 board of trustees.

On Oct. 19, the six candidates, including incumbents Beau Fulton, Lillian Brazelton and Dusty Paul and prospective candidates Jon Allen, Laurie Larsen and David Burke, were present to answer submitted questions to a public forum hosted by the Wyoming Education Association in the Powell Middle School commons.

The candidates voiced their opinions on a broad spectrum of issues including addressing the needs of a diverse student base and improving retention and recruitment across the district among other issues, such as what role the community plays in the district’s mission and how the candidates would go about working with and communicating with district staff.

Top concerns

The first question asked what each of the candidate's primary concerns and focus points were for the district if elected or re-elected. The candidate's answers generally overlapped with one another.

Burke and Paul were both quick to talk about the need to ensure security across the district, with Paul talking about his views on the importance of making the district a safe place for students and staff alike.

“One thing that I really appreciated with our school board these last couple of months is we went through security programs and discussed it and had really good conversations and got different perspectives on what security means," he said. "The world is a changing place and that doesn’t just stop at locked doors."

Another topic that came up was activities funding and operations, a subject of great concern following the changes made to the funding model by the state Legislature earlier this year. Fulton spoke about the importance of activities in the educational process.

“Activities dovetail into giving kids a sense of belonging and we want to protect being able to give that to our students,” he said. "We have a dynasty of robotics here in the district so not every kid needs to be into athletics, so we need to give them every opportunity that we can and advocate for the funding to be able to provide that."

Allen focused on technology and its impact on students as a critical focus area.

“We have so much coming into our kids’ lives through the computer that they hold in their hands every day, we need to have a good balance on what that looks like," he said. "We need to take advantage of technology that's available, but also safeguard against things that are coming into the schools."

Budget and funding priorities

When questioned about budget priorities, the candidates converged on fiscal responsibility, maintaining district infrastructure, ensuring that staff pay remains competitive and sustaining a healthy reserve for unexpected needs and events.

The moderator also sought each candidate’s opinions on whether or not they believed religious or private educational institutions that receive taxpayer funding across that state should be held to the same standards and oversight required of public organizations like PCSD1. All six candidates emphatically believed that they should.

One question asked what could be done to improve the district’s efforts at retention and recruitment for staff and teachers. Every candidate praised the work of the district’s educators and support staff and discussed the importance of continuing to advocate legislatively for employees, encouraging professional development and maintaining a positive workplace culture.

“We need to support all of our staff as much as we can to allow them to flourish in their job and figure out a pay structure that is fair and equitable," Larsen said. "Support from the school administration goes a long way to ensure a positive work environment with opportunities for growth and collaboration with other educators.”

District operations and community

The candidates were also asked a few questions regarding district operations and the role it plays in providing resources to the district and the community.

When asked about how they would address the needs of an increasingly diverse student population, the majority of candidates focused on the growing needs among English language learners, access to special education services and other specialized staff and responding to changing student needs. Burke admittedly interpreted the question differently from the other candidates, highlighting a recent issue the high school has worked to solve that involved a biological male student using the girls' bathroom. The school now has a policy to prevent students from using a bathroom for a sex different from their sex at birth, while providing alternate accommodation to students who request it.

“If it comes down to the LGBTQ and trans issues, like we had with the bathrooms, I’m very much against that. Biological boys don’t belong in the girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms and we should protect our girls,” Burke said. “But we should have compassion and care for all of our students, they all deserve quality education and access to counseling and other programs for mental health.”

Lastly, in a question largely directed towards the incumbent members of the board, the moderator asked what experiences of value they had taken away from board retreats. Broadly speaking, they see them as opportunities for learning, relationship building and professional development. Brazelton spoke about her own experiences and the importance of finding the time to interact with everyone involved.

“I find the value in the relationships that you build with the administration and your fellow board members, you really get to know them as a person and not just as someone who sits at the other end of the table from you or as someone you only see at meetings,” Brazelton said. "We all talk about how we can do better, and most of the time we have really great discussions and always come out of them with solid goals and strategies.”

The candidates will meet for another forum hosted by the Tribune on Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. at The Commons at 135 N. Bent St. The forum will be held ahead of another forum the same night for city council candidates. For more information for each of the candidates and event information, visit powelltribune.com.