Going into the 2015 legislative session with a new state superintendent at the helm, education leaders are hopeful after recent years of controversy.

“There’s been some turmoil in the educational system in Wyoming in the past few years, and we’re excited to get the focus back on the kids,” said Rob McCray, chairman of the Park County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees.

Sen. Hank Coe, R-Cody, said he hopes newly elected Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow can bring stability and also help everyone get on the same page.

“I’m very hopeful for one thing in particular to happen, and that’s collaboration — at the state board, the Legislature, the superintendent’s office and the Department of Education — collaborating, trying to get something done rather than fighting,” said Coe, who is chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

School leaders from Powell, Cody and Meeteetse met with area legislators on Wednesday at Southside Elementary to discuss education issues. The 63rd Wyoming Legislature convenes at noon today (Tuesday) for the 2015 General Session.

Last year, the Wyoming Legislature used a budget footnote to reject science standards, known as the Next Generation Science Standards, due to their stance on climate change.

“We’d like to see the science standard gridlock end so they can move forward on deciding what’s going to happen,” McCray said.

Rep. David Northrup, R-Powell, who serves on the House Education Committee, referred to House Bill 23, which would repeal the footnote and allow the State Board of Education to consider the standards.

That doesn’t mean the standards would immediately take effect, but rather, that they can be put before the state board, Northrup said.

Education standards — particularly Common Core State Standards in language arts and math — have come under scrutiny in recent years. Local school leaders asked whether legislators planned to make changes to state standards.

“We’re concerned that there might be an attempt to review some standards that have been reviewed in the past and take them out of this cycle, and we don’t think that’s appropriate,” said Kevin Mitchell, superintendent of Powell schools.

Northrup asked if “everybody’s all right with Common Core or are we going to something else?”

“Those standards were adopted in a five-year cycle, and we’re about two and a half years in,” Mitchell said. “Let’s not adopt any more — they’ll be reviewed in a couple years anyway.”

School districts have put a lot of work into adopting new standards, and turmoil in the system causes stress for employees, Mitchell said.

“We can’t continue to put people through that work of redoing curriculum,” he said. “It just tears the system apart when we have all this inconsistency.”

Sen. Ray Peterson, R-Cowley, and Sen. Coe said they haven’t heard of any new legislative proposals to change current standards.

School leaders also said it’s important to have assessments aligned to state standards. 

“It’s most difficult for us with the constant changes within the mechanism ... it would be nice if we had a quality assessment that aligned to our standards, and if there was consistency,” said Stefanie Bell, treasurer of the Cody school board.

School leaders also agreed test results need to be provided in a more timely way.

In recent years, the Proficiency Assessments for Wyoming Students (PAWS) has undergone numerous changes. School leaders discussed different test options and whether legislators want to compare Wyoming students to those in other states versus an assessment comparing school districts within Wyoming. 

“What we ought to be considering is, what do we want the assessment to do? And what is the purpose behind it?” Mitchell said. “It should be to determine how our students are performing on Wyoming state standards.”

The ACT test — designed as a college readiness test — is given to high school students to measure proficiency, even though it’s not aligned to state standards, Mitchell said.

“Assessment in itself is a very complicated issue,” he said.

McCray added they don’t want to add more assessments for students.

Coe said the Legislature is “very aware of the burdens we’ve put out there because of assessments.”

“I can tell you we’re going to do our utmost to pull it back and work with everybody,” Coe said. “The people in the classroom are concerned about it, and we’re concerned about it, too.”

Another concern legislators are looking at is school security.

Coe said there’s a “genuine interest at the legislative level to do more for school resource officers and school security.”

Last year, lawmakers considered a bill that would have allowed school district employees to have firearms on campuses. The measure failed.

Meeteetse Superintendent Jay Curtis said he was one of the few superintendents who supported legislation allowing teachers to carry guns.

He asked what happens if a gunman enters a school building in rural areas such as Meeteetse, which may be 30 to 45 minutes away from additional law enforcement.

“When you talk about Sandy Hook, that shooter was only in the building for a few minutes, and [26] lives were lost,” Curtis said. “You think 30 to 45 minutes — what happens in Meeteetse?”

Coe said legislators have discussed the security needs of rural, isolated schools. School leaders and legislators agreed flexibility is important.

“Our needs are very different than Powell’s needs, and Powell’s needs are vastly different from Natrona County’s needs,” Curtis said. “Think about the little guys, the middle guys and the big guys — we’re all going to need something different.”

Leaders also talked about a proposed increase for Hathaway Scholarship funding to keep pace with college tuition and fees.

The Hathaway funding is generated from an endowment. Coe said a 10-percent increase was discussed, then it was decided to do 5 percent. Considering the increase last year, Coe said he doesn’t expect to see another increase to Hathaway funding this year.

Peterson said legislators don’t want to see an escalation where Wyoming colleges and the university increase their tuition whenever Hathaway funding is increased.

“It’s a never-ending cycle,” Peterson said. He added that the Hathaway wasn’t intended to be a full-ride scholarship, but to provide financial help with the cost of a college education.

“It’s still a fantastic deal, and an incentive to keep kids in Wyoming instead of going out of state,” Peterson said.

McCray said he’s thankful to live in a state where education is valued. He noted that Park County had two of the three National Blue Ribbon Schools in Wyoming in 2014 — Southside Elementary in Powell and Livingston Elementary in Cody.

Peterson thanked teachers, administrators and school board members. He said he has opportunities to be a guest teacher to talk about state government at area schools. The experience helps  him better appreciate what teachers do, Peterson said.

“It’s a tough profession, and it’s one we appreciate,” he said. “Our funding, I hope, is evidence of that, and the schools that we sit in. ... Our schools are second to none, and we’re going to continue that.”