By David Peck

It’s full-steam ahead for the Rocky Mountain 6-12 school facility in Cowley following action by the Wyoming School Facilities Commission in Cheyenne Tuesday.
Calling from the road Tuesday, Supt. of Schools Shon Hocker reported that the SFC granted School District No. 1’s request to use accumulated state major maintenance money for capital construction to make up a shortfall in state funding for the project.
“We’re proceeding forward with the bidding process,” Hocker said.
District Facilities Director Michael Simmons explained during an interview Friday that the school district is facing a funding shortfall for the planned new 6-12 school facility in Cowley due to delays in the project.
The SFC appropriated $19,586,501 for the school out of 2004-05 capital construction money from the state, but as planning and negotiating has continued since then, the project cost estimate has risen to a range of $22.5 million to $23.5 million, the lower figure reached if the district takes a hoped-for auxiliary gym out of the funding picture.
Simmons noted that a second (auxiliary) gym does not exist in the current SFC guidelines, but the district had been hoping at one time to at least get the facility partially paid for by the SFC.
Tuesday, the SFC voted to allow the district to use $2.1 million in major maintenance money for the project, Hocker said. Simmons said the district has $2.6 million in its major maintenance account, so there will be some $500,000 left for maintenance projects.
The problem is, Simmons said, that tapping the major maintenance fund could leave the district short for projects to acquire a district administration facility and provide space for ancillary support services like special education, transportation, technology and maintenance, which are currently housed in buildings scheduled to be demolished or sold. The district will be getting more major maintenance money in the future, Simmons added.
During the regular August meeting of the board on Thursday, Aug. 14, in Cowley, board members wrestled with the funding numbers before them for the 6-12 facility as they attempted to give Hocker and Simmons direction ahead of Tuesday’s SFC meeting.
The board made it clear that the SFC has no interest in the auxiliary gym and that the gym should be taken out of the district’s request in any way, shape or form.
“We need to pound it into their heads that this presentation has nothing to do with that auxiliary gym,” board member Dave Monk said.
In other business Thursday, District Technology Director Mick Esquivel said he met with Craig Sorenson of the new Deaver-Frannie Fire District about the fire district using space on the school district’s telecommunications tower for a repeater for the fire department.
Esquivel said he could free up enough space on the tower to add the repeater, and the board voted to allow him to proceed.
The board discussed a policy to increase the reimbursement for bus driver annual physicals from $25 to $75 to better reflect current costs. Board chairman Bryan Lee said the $25 reimbursement was based on doctor fees 25 years ago. The board voted to amend the reimbursement policy on first reading.
Up for consideration on second and final reading was a policy change to update the district’s professional staff time schedules. The change, approved by the board Thursday, moves the policy in line with current practice, with teachers now leaving at 3:45 p.m. on Fridays rather than the 12:30 p.m. stated in the policy.
In other board business Thursday:
• Supt. Shon Hocker reported that the district met Adequate Yearly Progress benchmarks for all schools for the 2007-08 school year as assessed by the PAWS test.
• Hocker reported that the district received a TANF grant to continue the pre-school program through the 2009-10 school year.
• Hocker told the board that 100 percent of the district teachers are highly qualified under state and national guidelines.
• The board voted to approve a list of out-of-district students who want to attend school in District One.
• The board voted to appoint Koleen Sponsel as the district’s delegate to the Wyoming School Boards Association.
• The board voted to approve a list of extra-duty assignments for staff members. New positions include Carol McMillin as Rocky Mountain Middle School athletic director, Ryan Boettcher as an assistant high school football coach at RMHS, Heather Wagner as an assistant volleyball coach at RMHS, Shilo Christman as the RMHS FFA advisor, John Samuels as the RMHS newspaper advisor and as the National Honor Society sponsor, and Julie Michaels as the head teacher at Burlington Elementary School.
• The board voted to hire Lindsey Sponsel as the Rocky Mountain middle school and elementary school counselor.