Park County School District 1 Assistant Superintendent Jason Sleep may have been a bit braggadocious at last week’s school board meeting. 

For most of his nearly 25-minute presentation to the trustees he bragged — talking about how more than 94% of Powell High School seniors graduated last year, how the school exceeded a composite ACT score of 20 for the first time ever last year, and of how the Blue-Ribbon winning middle school suffers on some state testing categories simply because when you already excel, it’s a bit harder to show the same level of growth year after year as if you don’t. 

Most importantly, he said that while the district will abide with the changes handed down from the state in the wake of the recent legislative session, staff will not compromise what has made Park 1 such an incredible school system. 

This parent of two kids in the district was happy to hear it. 

As I’ve said previously in my editorials, while I understand the purpose behind a number of the changes legislators made in the recent legislative session and applaud efforts to provide more funding for school functions most closely connected with students (such as raising teacher salaries), I hope the state is mindful to not be too dogmatic with schools that are already doing a great job teaching our children. 

Is the Powell district perfect? No, and Sleep and other administrators will be the first to say so — he said he was thrilled to hear of middle school staff already gearing up to reach the small group of kids who have struggled in areas despite best efforts. But for years now the district has been one of the top in the state academically while continuously reevaluating and expanding classes and connections with the college and local businesses to provide an education that not only looks good on paper, but works in the real world. 

As Sleep said April 14, it’s not the stats but the stories of success from students that truly show the success of the district, whether it’s the state winning speech and debate team members talking about how much the skills they’ve learned will help them in the future, a high school student talking about the incredible lessons learned at a high school band and choir trip to Italy, or the stories of all of the Parkside Elementary School kids who have found a love of music and drama thanks to the work of music teacher Michael Jaycox, the North Big Horn Basin Music Teacher of the Year. 

Those were examples from just the most recent school board meeting — go to a few and you’ll hear all about the incredible work being done in the schools … you might do some bragging on the schools yourself.