In session — Weston County trustees join other boards for legislative advocacy, budgeting talks

Weston County School District No. 1 trustees were among those gathered Aug. 28 for the Wyoming School Boards Association’s 2025 Fall Educational Roundup for eight school districts in northeast Wyoming: Campbell 1, Crook 1, Johnson 1, Sheridan 1, 2, & 3, Weston 1 and Weston 7.

The meeting, held at Campbell County School District No. 1’s Lakeway Learning Center in Gillette, focused on funding for
school budgets and legislative advocacy.

Brian Farmer, the association’s executive director, reviewed the impact of external cost adjustment and property taxes on school districts. He said that he anticipates that the courts will rule that the Wyoming Legislature’s $70 million investment into educational savings accounts will be ruled unconstitutional. If the courts do allow it, he warned that the projected costs may be dwarfed by the actual costs.

Farmer reviewed the association’s preliminary 2026 advocacy agenda, which features five goals: empowering local control for quality education, ensuring schools have “appropriate funding” that “accurately reflects the true cost of delivering a quality education across Wyoming,” helping students prepare for life after high school, promoting public education and enhancing school safety.

School safety isn’t confined to schools’ physical integrity; it’s also about providing a safe, supportive environment for children every day, according to Farmer.

“It is so heartbreaking that we are just barely at the beginning of a school year, and we’re already talking about a school shooting somewhere, but tomorrow there’s going to be a kid in Wyoming that’s bullied,” he said. “The day after that, there’s going to be a kid in Wyoming that’s dealing with some other issues.”

According to the preliminary 2026 advocacy agenda, the association also supports rehiring retired teachers, making it illegal for students to stop attending school before they either reach adulthood or graduate (whichever comes first) and keeping home-schooled children outside of the public school system unless local policy or capacity allows inclusion.

On Nov. 19, member school district voting delegates will have an assembly in Casper, where they will develop the association’s legislative and position platforms for the 2026 and 2027 legislative sessions, the document said. School boards can submit resolutions regarding statewide concerns for association members’ consideration by Oct. 13. The resolutions the assembly adopts will guide the association’s work in the 2026 session, and the association’s board of directors will consider them as legislative goals for the 2027 session. The group’s board of directors will set its goals for the 2027 session at its July 2026 meeting.

The meeting also provided an opportunity for trustees around the region to learn from each other.

After the event, Board Chair Dana Mann-Tavegia told the News Letter Journal that all Wyoming school districts are facing these issues.

“I do hope the Legislature makes a serious effort to stop passing unconstitutional laws and that they obey the courts’ rulings to date,” she said. 

For a few other WCSD No. 1 trustees, the Gillette event was a new experience. 

Trustee Tyler Mills told the NLJ that he was pleased to expand his network. In particular, he was grateful to learn from trustees for a school board whose district had experienced a book ban.

Trustee Sean Crabtree told the NLJ that he learned more about how the schools’ budget is tightening. Farmer had told the group that in the context of the state’s revenue dependence on coal, oil and gas prices and production and a proposal to end property taxes, public education would require a new source of revenue.

“Education is going to be a challenge,” Crabtree said.

He said the focus of the district remains on the children.