Superintendent Matt Erickson with Lincoln County School District #2 stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Tuesday, October 28 for his monthly report. Superintendent Erickson discussed the accreditation process that is going on this week and recapped the public work session that took place earlier this month in regards to the future of the school calendar. The LCSD#2 School Board will make a decision on the calendar in their November 12 board meeting.

(0:00) Heading into this hour’s guest interview segment and joining me in studio today for his monthly (0:04) report from Lincoln County School District Number Two, that’s Superintendent Matt Erickson today. (0:09) Superintendent, good morning. How are you today? Good morning, Duke.

Doing well. Thanks. Appreciate (0:13) your time as always and thanks for stepping in studio.

It’s a busy, busy week at the District (0:19) Accreditation going on actually right now as we speak, right? You’re correct, Duke. It is an (0:24) extremely busy week and we’re hosting a team, have several team members in for the next few days (0:31) doing an on-site peer review for our accreditation. They’re all around the state so we’re happy to (0:37) host them and we’re off to a good start so far.

Walk us through what the process is like this (0:42) week and what actually takes place while they’re in town. Okay, so today we started earlier this (0:49) morning but the school board and I will do introduction here at 8 45 and then we’ll roll (0:57) into there’s 14 standards and Mr. Horsley, Jason Horsley is in charge of our accreditation and (1:05) and we’ve got 14 standards or elements, if you will, that we’ll be presenting on today (1:12) and then tomorrow the team will be out and about in the buildings doing classroom (1:19) observations in the morning and then they’ll meet tomorrow late afternoon (1:25) with the admin team and the school board again and give us our preliminary report or findings (1:31) and then we’ll get the official word probably in a month or so. Okay.

Super important obviously (1:37) without being accredited then you can’t offer diplomas or high school credit so super important (1:44) it’s a it’s a K-12 effort it takes all 271 support staff members and 239 certified staff (1:55) members to pull this off so we very much appreciate our our staff. And I’m sure 100% stress-free, (2:02) correct? It’s yeah yeah we’re gonna go with that. Well superintendent appreciate your time this (2:08) morning.

Earlier this month since we last spoke we we talked about the the school calendar (2:14) conversation that’s been going on earlier this month you had the the the work session maybe (2:19) tell us about that and and how things went there. Okay so in the state of Wyoming there’s 175 days (2:26) of student instruction that are expected by the state or you can choose to go to an alternate (2:32) calendar and if you choose to go to an alternate calendar then there’s hour requirements which are (2:37) a thousand hours of seat time which is in front of a certified teacher for high school students (2:46) 950 hours for middle school or junior highs and then for elementary kids it’s 900 hours (2:53) so obviously in Star Valley we’ve been on a 4-5 hybrid for several years now and on an alternate (2:59) calendar so the school board felt it was necessary and and very supportive of looking at all of our (3:08) different options is the 4-5 hybrid serving us well right now do we need to make some tweaks and (3:14) and so the work session and and other means of communicating with the board the public and (3:21) stakeholders and and staff have had ample opportunity to to voice their opinions and (3:27) and whatnot and then the board will be making a decision in our November meeting as to if we’re (3:34) going to be on a four day in Star Valley or a five day or stay on a 4-5 hybrid calendar so (3:42) from the admin level we’re willing and and feel positioned to support any of the three options (3:48) that the board so chooses there’ll be some operational adjustments obviously if the board (3:55) chooses to go to a straight four day or back to a straight five day but we can make those things (4:03) happen and and we’re we’re eager to get to work after the board makes a decision and and this is (4:09) going to be a five plus year commitment and then if we’re on an alternate calendar which is anything (4:18) less than 175 days or a true five day week then we found out that we can submit application to the (4:27) state and get two years approved so I think that’d be very nice for families if the board chooses to (4:33) go with a straight four or with a four or five hybrid okay and you mentioned the three options (4:40) and that’s that’s basically what it is the four day five day or the hybrid as it currently is (4:45) anything else within those that is worth mentioning or does it does it stay pretty (4:49) cut and dry as is but within those changes so obviously there’s some there’s some little areas (4:56) that you can tweak within them you know obviously if the board chooses to go to a straight four day (5:01) in Star Valley then we’re going to have to expand the day or we’re going to have to expand the (5:06) school year to get the required hours if we choose to if the board chooses to go to a straight five (5:12) day then we could potentially reduce the length of the day and still be in within the framework so (5:19) yeah there’s some little things but as we know busing or transportation with our district being (5:26) 125 miles long you know from the Utah border to the to the Idaho border north of Alpine (5:35) and going over a million miles a year with routes that’s a significant thing and that (5:41) plays a major role with times and all of that just routes that doesn’t include the activities (5:46) that’s just routes I believe uh last year just on routes in our district we were a million (5:52) sixty-eight thousand and change that’s a good amount yeah that’s a healthy amount yeah well (5:57) superintendent Matt Erickson in studio uh superintendent anything else happening in (6:01) the district you want to mention today I believe that uh we’re in good shape right now and again (6:07) just going to get through this accreditation and we would put a plug in that first part of next (6:12) month on the 11th obviously it’s veterans day and we’re going to have assemblies at all of our (6:19) buildings all of our campuses and we look forward to that that’s a great thing to teach our kids (6:25) and practice patriotism and and those are always some some special assemblies so I’m glad you (6:31) mentioned that glad you mentioned that uh in fact the full schedule was just released if I’m not (6:35) mistaken so we’ll have that in the newspaper when we get closer to uh to veterans day and on (6:39) our website of course and those are up open to the community right people can can attend those (6:43) absolutely yeah we appreciate people being uh there it makes it well worth it so and then Duke (6:49) obviously we’re in fall culminating uh activity season and congratulations Colton Cranny on his (6:57) individual championship in in cross country and and obviously the men’s and women’s team both did (7:03) very very well coach Draney does an amazing job with that program uh Kelly Fulmer does an amazing (7:10) job with her golf program they had a great they had great seasons and and uh we know that uh (7:17) Cokeville and Star Valley Volleyball do well as well as both football teams so great time of year (7:23) wishing the very very best at superintendent Matt Erickson LCSD number two it’s the weekday (7:27) wake up this morning on SVI radio