Johnson County school board votes to reduce size

BUFFALO — After years of revisiting and abandoning the idea, the Johnson County School District No. 1 board of trustees voted Monday to begin the process of moving from nine to seven board members.

Trustees Marcia Goddard and Dave Belus have been among the most vocal advocates for the change, citing concerns about finding enough people to fill all the board positions. They have been particularly vocal ahead of this year’s election, as voters will have six positions to fill unless the board makes the change in time.

“Even though we have a lot of people that want to be on the board now, we have not always had

a lot of people, and sometimes it was just people just ran because they had agendas,” Belus said at a special session last week. “To get seven quality people on here is all we need.”

During the special session, Goddard said that the board has experienced a number of turnovers due to unforeseen circumstances. In such cases, the board has to appoint someone to fill a vacancy when a trustee leaves the board before their term is up.

“I just think if we would shrink this down, we would have … less of that happening, and it really would be more of the public actually getting to elect who is on here,” Goddard said.

Trustees Travis Pearson, Reed Davidson, Goddard, Belus, Benito Maya and Katie Engling voted Monday in favor of the change, while trustees Lynette Fox, Tamitha Grabin and Casey Rodriguez voted against it.

In the past year, three trustees have left the board before the end of their terms. One was due to personal circumstances and another due to health reasons; a third trustee moved to return to school. 

Also, in 2024, only five people filed for the five vacant positions. Goddard said during the special session that when the exact number of people run as there are vacant positions, voters don’t get a choice.

Superintendent Charles Auzqui said in an interview that more people run for the board in times of controversy or conflict, not just in Johnson County but around the state.

“I think it’s been magnified a lot more since COVID and social media, but that’s always how it’s been,” Auzqui said. “If something happens, you can fill a board room.”

However, in times when everything is going smoothly, it can be difficult to find people to run, he said. Two of the biggest barriers that prevent people from running are the time commitment that being a trustee requires and the hard decisions members have to make that can impact their business and community relationships, Auzqui said.

When people come to the board with an agenda, it can hurt their effectiveness as a board member, and the reality is that not any one individual board member has the power to do anything – it’s a collective body, Auzqui said. Auzqui said that the size of the board isn’t what matters.

“It can be nine, seven or five, it’s all about the commitment of the board members,” Auzqui said. “I don’t think five is appropriate for us, but is nine better than seven? I don’t think there’s really a difference.”

If the process to change the board size moves forward without issue, it will mean voters next November will have four instead of six school board positions to fill. The next step moving forward will involve the district presenting a proposal to the county boundary board, which is composed of the Johnson County commissioners, the county treasurer and the county assessor. That board then needs to conduct a public hearing before it can vote on the proposal. If the boundary board approves the proposal, it then submits the proposal to the Wyoming Department of Education for final approval.

While Auzqui said before Monday’s vote that even if the board votes in favor of reducing its size, there is still time for the board to change its mind. However, if the board elects to not move forward with the size change at any point, the conversation should be put to rest, he said.

Davidson had been among the trustees voicing concerns about the change, largely

expressing worry about unintended consequences of the change if not enough time was taken to research the decision thoroughly.

“My biggest concern was (that) we might jump into this major structural change to solve one problem that potentially had unforeseen repercussions,” Davidson said prior to Monday’s vote. “At this point, though, I think we’ve spent enough time, we’ve investigated all those consequences to an extent that we’re ready to make a well informed decision on this matter. I trust that whatever decision we come to tonight as a collective board, it’s going to be the right one.”

Davidson said that after months of discussion, research, talking with experts and community members as well as reviewing community surveys, he still sees pros and cons to both sides of the issue. However, one of the biggest takeaways from discussion has been that quality is more important than quantity, and when not enough people run to give voters a choice, there’s less opportunity for the electorate to put the right people on the board.

The board hosted its special session on Wednesday last week at Buffalo High School, inviting members of the community to share their thoughts on the board’s size. While only one member of the public came to the meeting, trustees still shared their perspectives on the issue ahead of Monday’s vote.

During that meeting, Davidson said that one of his original concerns was that, if the board were to become smaller, it could mean “less diversity, less representation, potentially less collective experience and skill set.” The board has had really good “momentum,” implementing innovative practices and working well together, and a change could jeopardize that, he said.

Trustee Tamitha Grabin also shared concerns about reducing the board’s size, including how it might mean fewer people to share the work of the board. For example, there will be fewer people to take on committee assignments.

Goddard had mentioned earlier in the special meeting that elective tasks such as committees can also be changed, and the board can choose to take on less work.

“I know that there’s a lot of responsibilities to break up between seven members, but I also feel like maybe we should just really look at what we’re doing and try to make that plate even a little bit smaller and more focused to help us out in that too,” Goddard said.

Auzqui said in an interview that, in truth, the most time-consuming and challenging task of being a trustee is the onboarding process it requires to be an effective board member. Auzqui said he also admits that each superintendent has different expectations of trustees, saying that effective boards are more involved.

“Sometimes I push the board really hard about being trained,” Auzqui said. “They truly are making decisions on truly understanding and not just rubber stamping.”

Davidson said that in preparing for the special session discussion, he spoke to people and reviewed the results from a survey on the topic that the district conducted in 2022. From both, Davidson gathered a mixture of responses, with some people for a smaller board and some against. Davidson also encountered some misconceptions, such as people mistakenly thinking board members are paid and that reducing the board’s size would save the district money. Being a trustee is a volunteer position.

Another misconception that appeared several times in survey responses was people questioning whether changing the board’s size was politically motivated, he said.

“I rack my brain and try to figure out how you can make that politically motivated. But, no, it’s not. We’re doing it for all the reasons that have been mentioned so far,” Davidson said.

Maya said during Monday’s meeting ahead of the vote that with these misconceptions in mind, decreasing the board’s size may send a positive message.

“We’re not being paid, but they (the community) still kind of see it as that, so it’s kind of another way of saying, well, if we’re making teachers do more with less, then couldn’t we do the same thing?” Maya said.

This story was published on Jan. 15, 2026.