Candidates in the Park County School District 1 school board race differed in views on at least a few topics this week at one final forum before Election Day.

Incumbent board members Beau Fulton, Lillian Brazelton and Dusty Paul and challengers Jon Allen, Laurie Larsen and David Burke participated in the forum, hosted by the Powell Tribune, at The Commons on Monday.

In a departure from last week’s forum presented by the Powell Educators Association, this meeting focused heavily on individual issues ranging from opinions on Proposition 1 and the efficacy of district safety procedures, producing disagreement between candidates.

Proposition 1 and District Budget

The first question of the night produced a range of convictions as it related to each candidate’s personal opinions on Proposition 1, the proposed homeowner’s property tax exemption that would exempt 50% of a primary residence's assessed value — but not the land — from taxation on this year’s ballot.

Burke and Paul came out in support of the proposition, citing the increased tax burden homeowners in the state have seen since Covid while noting uncertainty about how much of a hit local schools and services might face.

“It’s not all property taxes, it’s just on qualified, primary dwellings without land included,” Burke said. “I couldn’t find an exact number on how much they project school districts or fire departments would lose because they don’t know. The Wyoming School Foundation Program can and would adjust their budget to account for district shortfalls according to their criteria.”

On the other side of the issue was Larsen, who came out against the proposition and expressed concerns over funding for other departments in the state if education funding needs to be compensated for.

“If [Prop 1] passes, there are people that say the schools are required to be funded which, to a certain extent, they are,” Larsen said. “But if the amount gets down to a certain point then the state is going to be forced to cut budgets in other departments like WYDOT or Highway Patrol.”

The question also sparked responses that recognized the reality of the tax burden while also expressing the need for more research regarding the impact school districts would realistically have to manage if it passes. Fulton spoke about his thought process regarding the proposal.

“I totally see the need for property relief, with which the Legislature has passed a few good things but I like having empirical data and knowing exactly what will happen if we do it,” Fulton said. “I think without that data, it’d be awfully hard for me to vote for it because while it’s a big issue, we need to see the schools and other departments fully funded.”

As the forum shifted discussion towards activities funding, which has been a point of difficulty for districts across the state following adoption of the new funding model in March, answers from candidates coalesced around continuing to support activities. Advocating for changes at the state level and careful budgeting were discussed as ways to address the pressure.

Different Definitions of Security in Schools

The next question to bring differing perspectives out of the candidates related to the district’s effort in expanding and upgrading security among the schools and where they believed the conversation on the board needed to go from there.

Having previously campaigned on the issue of security in schools in 2022, Paul spoke favorably about wanting to see more armed staff in response roles and proposing voluntary firearms training and qualification for staff who wanted to take on the responsibility. The district put in place a policy for rules on armed staff in 2025 following a change in state law to require districts to allow armed staff.

“In an ideal world, we’d have student resource officers at every single school, I wish we could have that. But it’s also hard enough for police departments to fill their own ranks right now just because of the way the system is now,” Paul said. “If a staff member wants to take on that responsibility and train with an SRO and get qualified, they should get funded a little bit from the district to train. The only thing that’s going to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

Conversely, Larsen expressed being uncomfortable with firearms but recognized the need for security measures.

“Getting more SROs in each school would help but I don’t think that guns are necessarily the answer,” Larsen said. “Mental health counseling services need to be available there and our teachers keep doing a really good job of keeping track of who's where and the issues they have.”

Also speaking to the need for student mental health services was Brazelton, who believes the conversation around security doesn’t just stop with SROs and shooter awareness.

“It’s not just about safety in the building, I think mental health also plays a part in that. We need to provide safety components like the cameras and the front door check-ins, but there also needs to be mental health resources available for our students,” Brazelton said. “It’s a wild world out there for our kids right now and we need to do everything we can to keep them safe.”

Another perspective on the issue was Allen, who previously served as the district’s security coordinator for a year. Allen praised the training that staff had already undertaken and for their diligence for watching for people who do not belong in the buildings.

“Security has been really important to our district for a long time. I think one of things that our schools do really well, in addition to all the security measures already taken, is training our staff to be aware and to be alert,” Allen said. “They know their students and their families, and they're very good at making sure that people that don't belong don't come in, and so I'm thankful for what we have with that.”

CTE and Technology

Candidates discussed the pivot in recent years to adopt more career and technical education (CTE) opportunities for students and the expansion into project based learning (PBL). While candidates were broadly supportive of the initiative taken through CTE training and practical learning, several expressed concerns about PBL and stressed the need to maintain core academics, including Allen.

“CTE is a great program to allow students to see what they might be interested in doing after they get out of high school before they get to college. Project based learning, I’m a little bit less enthused about,” Allen said. “It’s coming and I think we have to manage it well because there are some great things about it. But while you see those high efficiency students become even more efficient, I’m worried that the ones that can just coast are going to just coast a little bit easier.”

Speaking to the appeal of CTE was Fulton, who applauded the district and supporting community members for offering pragmatic learning opportunities for students.

“I was that student who needed my hands on something. It’s important that we have reading, writing and arithmetic too, but this district has done a really good job at trying to offer those opportunities and I think that’s just going to continue,” Fulton said. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t say we have some really generous community members that have come in and taught different skills to our students that maybe we can't directly offer and we need to keep pushing forward.”

Afterwards, the candidates shifted to talking about what the district has done to implement relevant technology policy. All members of the forum generally came to a consensus on supporting careful management of technology, commending the no-phone approach that has been adopted, preserving core teaching and learning principles grounded in human interaction and keeping up with the advancements in artificial intelligence.

This forum was the last opportunity for candidates to express their views publicly ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3. For more information about the candidates, visit powelltribune.com and previous editions for profiles on each of the nominees and their stances.