Having the opportunity to serve in a citizen Legislature, on a local board or council is one of the key facets of what it means to live in the United States of America’s constitutional republic. 

Yet, as Park County School District 1 School Board Trustee Beau Fulton acknowledged last week at a meeting, it’s often people such as himself who work for themselves — he’s a local farmer — or those who are at least semi-retired who have the ability to serve, especially when it comes to the state Legislature. 

After all, it’s tough for someone to be able to leave their job for 20 or 40 days each year — not to mention committee meetings sprinkled throughout the rest of the year — especially when it’s a typical 9-5, salary or hourly situation. 

So, I applaud the school district for beginning the work to create a policy to explicitly allow such service and lay out the conditions needed to ensure it works as well as possible for both the employee and the district, and especially the students who would be affected by a lengthy absence. 

I appreciate, too, that Superintendent Jay Curtis, who will be taking a Campbell County policy as his starting point, will be tweaking it to open it up to all employees, not just teachers as is laid out in the Gillette policy. 

As he said, the rules should apply to everyone — everyone deserves a chance to serve. 

Curtis did acknowledge that a teacher leaving the classroom and being replaced by a long sub for a few months will impact those students. As he said, even the best long term subs come in without the same type of connections with students the teacher has already engendered. 

But, this also happens multiple times per year for three-month maternity leave, and Curtis noted he’s explicitly encouraged teachers to have kids and take advantage of the leave to bond with a new baby. 

After all, just like serving in local politics, starting families is a privilege that should be denied to no one. 

For instance, Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, has managed to be a teacher, football coach and a longtime legislator, and he's not the only one who's managed to have a career in the schools and in the capitol.  

Obviously not all jobs can allow for employees to leave for a month or two stretch to serve in the state Legislature and still be able to pay them. But if it’s feasible, it ought to be allowed. The district plan contemplates having any future state Legislature employees to hand over their legislator salary to compensate the district having to pay for a sub, while the employee will still receive their normal salary while in Cheyenne. 

It’s actions like this that could make our state Legislature even more reflective of our citizenry.