June 4—CHEYENNE — Testimony from employees of Wyoming’s largest K-12 education district this week highlights where they say gaps in state funding have disrupted education services.
The Wyoming Education Association filed a lawsuit against the state of Wyoming in 2022, alleging that the Legislature had underfunded its public education system in violation of the state constitution. Eight Wyoming school districts have since joined the lawsuit as intervenors, including Laramie County School District 1.
A state district court judge in Cheyenne agreed to hold a trial in the case, which began Monday and is expected to last six weeks.
WEA President Grady Hutcherson was the first to take the witness stand, making it clear that the school districts were not coerced by his organization to join the lawsuit, as far as he knows.
WEA is a nonprofit organization with 5,000 members, he said, and 3,000 active members. The goal is to advocate for public school education and advance the teaching profession, Hutcherson said.
Story about two financing models
The Wyoming Supreme Court has ordered the Legislature to recalibrate its public education model every five years to ensure education funding is adequate and equitable. The intention is for the legislature to adopt any new recalibrated model, but the last recalibration adopted by the state was in 2010.
This has resulted in two separate financing models. One is a cost-based or evidence-based model recommended by state advisors from the recalibration, and the other is a statutory model used by the Legislature.
Tate Mullen, WEA government relations director, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that this legislative model is “outdated” and does not provide adequate funding for educational materials, technology or staff salaries.
The Legislature has failed to provide ongoing external cost adjustments (ECAs), or periodic increases in funding to help cover rising costs due to inflation. Historically, lawmakers will approve one-time or partial ECAs to cover the high costs of utilities or educational materials, but salaries often go unnoticed. LCSD1 Chief Financial Officer Jed Cicarelli said the lack of a consistent ECA adjustment for personnel costs has hindered school districts’ ability to retain and recruit staff.
A table from the Legislative Service Office shows the difference in funding between the two models since the 2006-2007 school year. The statutory model adopted by the Legislature provided more funding than the evidence-based model through the 2017-2018 school year. With the exception of 2019-2020, school districts’ financial needs exemplified by the evidence-based funding model exceeded funding through the statutory model by at least $20.6 million annually, peaking at $53.7 million in 2022-2023 .
A report from the WDE reflects the differences in both funding models when it comes to teacher salaries. The average teacher salary in LCSD1 was $60,799 for the 2021-2022 school year, but the state’s proposed average salary for the local district was $54,047.
This results in a 12.5% difference, equal to $6,752, between the two models in salary financing. LCSD1 Assistant Superintendent of Human Relations Victoria Thompson, who also testified Monday, said that salary is hardly competitive enough to keep teachers from leaving.
Cicarelli said he wasn’t fully aware of the impact of funding shortfalls until he left WDE and went to work for LCSD1. About 80-85% of the school district’s budget goes to staff salaries, he said.
A temporary ECA to fund legislative salaries does little to solve this problem, he said, because it is only good for one-time bonuses. Due to insufficient funding from the state to pay teachers and staff, LCSD1 has had to cut back or cut educational services, including driver training, gifted and talented programs, professional development training and elementary athletics.
A community-supported effort recently brought elementary athletics back to the district.
Unprepared teachers in classrooms
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find qualified candidates for vacant teaching positions, said Thompson, who visits college job fairs in Wyoming and Northern Colorado to recruit candidates. These fairs are fairly well attended, she said, and in 2022 and 2023, LCSD1 managed to fill all twelve interview slots.
“Last year we were lucky if we filled half of it,” Thompson said.
When searching for teachers for the classroom, the district will bring in a long-term substitute, ask a certified teacher to take on an additional class, or hire someone with a Professional Industry Career (PIC) authorization waiver.
Individuals hired as PICs are appointed to teach based on their level of experience in the professional industry, but lack a teaching certification. When hired, they agree to work toward obtaining their certification through the Wyoming Professional Teaching Standards Board.
Meanwhile, a certified teacher supervises the PIC instructor and helps develop lesson plans. But this is a stone’s throw away from an actual solution, Thompson said. Ultimately, these are still individuals without significant training, not to mention the fact that this puts a strain on their mentor’s workload.
Thompson said she has had to remove two PIC instructors from the classroom. One didn’t know how to keep his class under control when things got out of hand, she said, and the other consistently had poorly planned lessons. Students in this class were not performing at the same academic level as their peers.
“We are putting unprepared teachers in classrooms,” Thompson said.
Nutrition, mental health care
Hutcherson recalled seeing 7-year-old students digging through trash for food when he was an elementary school teacher in Goshen County. Nutrition is essential to a child’s success in education, he said, because a student cannot concentrate on learning if he is hungry.
LCSD1’s nutrition services program has encountered shortages more than once, Cicarelli said, causing the cost of school meals to increase for students. To cover this shortfall, the district has used money from the general fund to finance the program.
District officials who testified added that mental health care is also significantly underfunded by the state. School district officials have used federal COVID dollars to pay for mental health professional positions, but those funds are quickly drying up. By Sept. 30, 90 mental health positions in LCSD1 will be eliminated, Cicarelli said.
LCSD1 Superintendent Stephen Newton, testifying Tuesday, said there has been a “sharp increase” in both the number of students reporting mental health issues and the severity of those issues.
Ten years ago, about 70 students dropped out because of mental health issues, Newton said. That number has risen to 100 dropouts.
Under current law, the state is not responsible for reimbursing for mental health care unless it is an individualized education program for students enrolled in special education.
Inequality in LCSD1 schools
There are major equity issues in LCSD1 when it comes to school facilities, said Andy Knapp, executive director of Support Operations for LCSD1. Cramped classrooms, poor air conditioning and a lack of natural lighting are factors that contribute to a poor learning environment, he said.
Since 2005, 19 of the 37 LCSD1 schools were newly built or underwent a renovation project using state funding. District Superintendent Newton said the difference between these schools and the district’s older schools was “night and day.”
However, there are several primary schools that are in desperate need of renovation or replacement, and state funding to start these projects has been delayed.
Every four years (except 2020), the state pays an outside consultant to review the state and capacity scores of every school in Wyoming. These scores are collected into a list known as the Facility Condition Index/Capacity Index rating.
A condition score refers to the quality and safety of a school building, and a capacity score refers to how full a school’s classrooms are. Schools with the highest scores are considered to be in greatest need of repair or replacement.
The School Facilities Committee will select the top 10 to 20 schools and meet with that school’s district to discuss projects. Typically, a Most Cost-Effective Remedy (MCER) study will assess that school and work with the district to determine the best renovation or replacement plan. Once the study is completed, the allocated state funds will be used for the school facility project.
However, a new company was hired to prepare the FCI/FCA list in 2023, which had not been done since 2016. This list reprioritized the needs of schools, and Knapp said he disagreed with the new rankings.
For example, Buffalo Ridge Elementary School ranked 16th on the FCI/FCA list in 2016. Despite the $6 million renovation project the school underwent a few years ago, the school ranked fourth on the new FCI/FCA list.
LCSD1’s most problematic schools that ranked high in 2016 have dropped significantly in the 2023 rating. Arp Elementary, which currently has students in a swing room at Eastridge Elementary, ranked 34th in 2016 but fell to 280th in 2023. Fairview Elementary ranked eighth in 2016 but fell to 265 in 2023. Bain Elementary ranked ranked ninth in 2016, but dropped to 281 in 2023.
Knapp said the 2023 rating rankings compiled by Bureau Veritas “didn’t make sense” to him, nor did he agree with it.
A backlog of school facilities projects resulted from the legislature’s inability to fund a new FCI/FCA rating list in 2020. State law requires that a new MCER study be completed in order to receive funding for a school facility project.
Money was appropriated by the Legislature to build a new elementary school in LCSD1 after the 2023 General Assembly, but it was not distributed to the district. Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle in November that lawmakers “feared” they would violate state statutes by dictating where the money should go.
Funds to build a second new elementary school were approved by the Legislature earlier this year, but have not yet been allocated. The state told LCSD1 officials that another MCER investigation, which began in February, would have to be completed before the money is distributed.
“I’ll believe it when I see it, I guess,” Knapp said Tuesday.
Hannah Shields is a state government reporter for the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. She can be reached at 307-633-3167 or hshields@wyomingnews.com. You can follow her on X @happyfeet004.
