The Park County School District 1 board will be supporting a number of issues at the Wyoming School Boards Association conference this week in Casper, including one to provide an alternative diploma to special education students who complete their studies.

At a school board meeting Nov. 8 trustees chose items presented by districts all over the state to support for Wyoming School Board Association advocacy.

During the WSBA conference in Casper on Wednesday-Friday, which is open to all board members, including newly elected trustees Dustin Paul and Beau Fulton, trustee Lillian Brazelton will serve as the delegate to the WSBA delegate assembly. Fellow trustee Tracy Morris will also attend.

Board chair Kim Dillivan said the delegate assembly will take place during the conference and Brazelton will have two votes. The items approved by the delegates “establishes the official position of the WSBA.” 

One item on the advocacy agenda Powell is supporting is whether or not to count special education graduation in the district graduation rate through an alternative diploma. The WSBA is not taking a stand on this item, but it will be discussed by the delegates for approval. The item in its original form proposed that special education students receive a graduation diploma. While special education students do not meet all the requirements of a graduation diploma, they are currently counted as dropouts, when they have in fact completed an alternative set of requirements.

“I like the words that they’re using, that it is an alternative diploma,” Superintendent Jay Curtis said. “I don’t think anyone’s suggesting that we should have a diploma, or we should give a diploma to a student that has not met the requirements that the board and the state has set forward to earn a diploma. However, they also shouldn’t be counted as a dropout they’re not. They’re a completer.”

Special Services Director Ginger Sleep added that the students should be recognized for their hard work as well as the staff.

“When they’re counted as a non-graduate, it’s disheartening, it can be discouraging,” Sleep said. “Our goal is to help promote them as independent, young adults, and we want them to feel like they have a successful future ahead of them.”

All items will be supported by the PCSD1 board at the WSBA convention.

During the assembly there will be both a consent agenda and an advocacy agenda. Items on the consent agenda for the delegate assembly include Board of Cooperative Educational Services acting as a local education agency, which will allow the organization to get grants and other funding sources that will help smaller districts be able to better afford its services. 

Remaining items for discussion included compulsory attendance and early intervention for fourth grade students and elimination of corporal punishment in Wyoming schools. 

Other items on the agenda included the annual update from Powell Middle School, approval on the third and final reading of administrative regulations/operational procedures regarding field trips and excursions and student retention. The next school board meeting is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 21.