School to drop spring golf

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Carbon County District 1 School board member Juli Miller heralded the message that spring golf would be removed from the Wyoming High School Activities Association sports lineup during Thursday’s school board meeting.

She said the change reflected the outcome of a survey issued to gauge school sports and the time involved in participation. The decision was made in Casper two weeks ago.
Miller said many of the surveys illustrated a difficulty by teams in securing courses to use during weekends, which led to some contests having to be cut short in order for business to resume at the courses.

In other news, a revised school calendar passed its first reading Thursday night. Board members have the chance to review the calendar prior to the next meeting, at which point board members should receive final recommendations and decide whether to approve the calendar for the 2008-09 school year. Next year marks the second year in the three-year calendar survey cycle, so changes should be minor until the community again has a chance to scrutinize it.

The board officially approved a contract for Neil Terhune to become superintendent for the next two school years. Board member also approved the expulsion of four students from Rawlins Middle School. The board plans to consider the expulsion of one Rawlins High School student at 5 p.m. on Feb. 14.

In executive business, a resolution in support of hiring April Oman as a one-on-one para-educator and George Truman as a maintenance worker passed. The resolution also included the hire of two substitute teachers, Lori Voorhees and Sarah Munoz, as well as the resignations of Marc Stauffer, director of technology, and Tina Ellis, para-educator at Mountain View Elementary School. Bill Ingram, of the technology department, was terminated.

With excitement building over the School Facilities Commission’s decision to designate funding for new elementary schools in Carbon County School District 1, the school board pushed at Thursday’s meeting for a celebration of the hard work headed up by Superintendent Peggy Sanders.

After several years of trying to bring the schools to the attention of the commission, the board is momentarily resting on its laurels after seeing its schools listed on the commission’s needs index.

“It is so great that we have an educational reason to come to the SFC and ask for a new school,” board member Kristi Groshart said. She was so enthralled, she called the board to begin planning the celebration.

The rest of the board agreed that Sanders and the others who have pushed for this feat should be recognized. If the idea comes to fruition, the board envisions including community folks who have fought long and hard for gaining funding for the schools, two of which have been standing for more than 50 years.

Part of the reason the schools had been overlooked for so long was because District 1 took such good care of the buildings, board member Dave Dingman said. The commission continued to designate funding for the more poorly managed school facilities in the state.