Superintendent Matt Erickson and Shelley Balls, the new Food Services Director, stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Tuesday, August 25 for the monthly report from Lincoln County School District #2.

The following transcript is AI generated. Minor spelling errors are expected.

(0:00) And the monthly report from Lincoln County School District number two, (0:04) Superintendent Matt Erickson in studio and the new Food Services Director Shelley Balls (0:08) also in studio today. Superintendent Shelley, good morning. How are you guys doing today? (0:13) Doing well.

Good morning, Duke. (0:15) Good morning. (0:16) Appreciate your time.

Well, Superintendent, school’s off, rolling. You finally got (0:20) Cokeville back in yesterday, those Panthers. But so far, so good, seems like, huh? (0:26) We’re off to a smooth start.

Appreciate it, Duke. And yes, this is Star Valley’s fourth (0:32) day with students and Cokeville’s second. So the only complaint that we’ve got so far is (0:38) it’s a little warm in some of the classrooms.

I was out in Cokeville yesterday and some of (0:43) the classrooms are 82, 83 degrees, but short sacrifice. We love our weather, so. (0:50) Could be worse.

(0:52) Absolutely. (0:52) Could be worse. (0:54) So much to celebrate.

(0:55) Well, we appreciate you both stopping in studio. Superintendent, I’ll let you introduce Shelley (0:59) as the new Food Services Director and what her role is, and then we’ll jump right in with her. (1:04) So, Duke, we’re super excited.

We hit the gooey train with Shelley Balls as our new (1:09) Food Service Director, and she has such a huge role in our district and such a vital role, (1:15) keeping kids with balanced meals and their bellies full and so that they’re able to learn. And like (1:22) you say, we were able to attract and recruit Shelley away from many other jobs and feel very (1:29) blessed and fortunate to have her. I know there’s 2,950 kids and several staff members that will (1:37) be the beneficiaries for several years to come of Shelley being our Food Service Director.

(1:42) Absolutely. Well, Shelley, let’s talk about your background. Tell us what you were doing (1:47) prior to this that kind of led up to you being able to take this position.

(1:51) Yeah, I had quite a few different part-time jobs actually, and so it’s been nice to kind of just (1:57) focus on one full-time job. But in the past, so I went to Utah State and got both my Bachelor’s (2:03) and my Master’s in Dietetic Administration. And so I got that Master’s kind of with this (2:11) job in mind when that happened.

And I have had experience in the kitchens with a few jobs that (2:20) I’ve had. One is a research kitchen in Logan. When I was going to college, I worked in the (2:25) polyphenol study making food for that group of participants.

And then I also recently worked at (2:33) the Kemmerer Hospital doing their kitchen audits and then their long-term care, reviewing their (2:39) menus, making sure they were following along those guidelines as well. So it sounds like this is (2:43) something you’ve wanted to do for a while. Why is that? What led you into this kind of industry (2:47) and career? Yeah, it was actually my freshman year in college.

I was always into nutrition, (2:54) and I actually didn’t know there was a profession of nutrition, dietetics. And one of my friends (3:01) in college was like, hey, why don’t you go into this? You’re into nutrition. You’re into food.

(3:06) You love food. Why don’t you go into this? And I was like, oh, perfect. Yep, sign me up.

So I (3:10) entered the program after that. Shelley Ball is in the studio this morning and Food Services (3:14) Director for LCSD No. 2. All right, Shelley, I have a hard time when I’m in charge of dinner (3:19) at home, and I have to feed five other people other than myself.

As we heard from Superintendent, (3:25) you have thousands of bellies to feed and do it in a nutritious and appropriate way. So (3:31) how does that all happen? How does it all work? Yeah. Sue did a lot of groundwork.

She has a lot (3:39) of menus already in the system that we use called Link. And so just looking at those nutrition (3:45) nutritions, we have specific requirements that we have to meet on saturated fats and sodium and (3:53) calories in the day. And so just it’s kind of like Jenga, you got to like, or Sudoku, you got to make (3:58) it fit just right each week.

And Sue’s done an amazing job in the past. And I’ve mostly copied (4:05) over those same menus to start off. And then as the year goes on, we have tighter nutrition (4:11) requirements coming down the road.

So I’ll have to make some tweaks to fit those requirements too. (4:16) Sure. And you got to meet those requirements and also make it so that the kids eat it, right? (4:20) Exactly.

That’s the tricky part. So how do you balance all that? (4:24) Yeah. Number one is just make sure that we do sample the products before, you know, (4:30) before we go crazy and make them eat products that they’re never going to eat and our school (4:35) lunch numbers go down.

So it’s really just a juggling act there. (4:39) Shelly, I’m assuming your role also, you kind of oversee personnel in the kitchens, right? And so (4:45) staffing wise, how are things looking for you right now across all the schools? (4:49) Yeah, we’ve got an amazing group in the food service team. These ladies are (4:55) perfect.

They love being around the kids. They love being in the kitchen and (4:59) their job is so important. And it’s awesome to see that team and (5:05) kind of just their huge role in this whole system.

(5:08) So absolutely. Are you still looking for, I mean, especially subs and that kind of thing? (5:13) Yeah, we’re always open for subs. So if you’re ever interested, we’d love to have you.

We currently (5:20) have filled all of our positions actually right before school started on the 19th, (5:24) we filled our last one. So that was really nice to have. But yeah, if you’re ever interested, (5:29) if you want to, you know, a couple hours a day, we’d love to have you as a sub.

(5:32) Excellent. Anything else about your role as food services director that you’d like to mention today? (5:37) Yeah, I just want to say thanks to Stu for setting me up for success and (5:43) kind of handing the baton over so nicely. (5:46) Excellent.

Shelley Ball is the new food services director at Lincoln County School District number (5:50) two. Superintendent, you’ve mentioned this about all the different moving parts within a school (5:54) district, where the whole thing is supposed to work together to benefit the student and help (6:00) the student learn and what Shelley does is just part of that. (6:03) Absolutely.

And we’re so appreciative to have her and she’s doing great things. She hit the (6:08) ground running and we just feel super blessed that we could attract her away from Diamond (6:13) II plumbing. And, you know, Gavin agreed to let her come on board and she’s got a young (6:19) family.

So she’s doing a juggling act, but doing a very nice job. We look forward to Shelley (6:24) serving Lincoln II for several decades to come. (6:28) Excellent, excellent.

Well, Shelley, thank you for stepping in studio today. Appreciate it and (6:32) look forward to those lunches. Absolutely.

Superintendent, a couple other things. The (6:37) school board filing period ended yesterday. And there were a number of seats open in district (6:43) two that are going to be up for election in the general election.

(6:47) Yeah, so we’re looking forward to the general election. And as you mentioned, Duke, there’s (6:51) several areas and one at large up for election in the general election, November 3rd, I believe (6:59) it is. So you may have to help me here.

But in area one, Tim Tiger did not refile, but (7:07) we had two people file. Len Johnson and Spencer England. (7:12) Correct, correct.

And then in area two, which is currently held by Len Call, Len did refile, (7:19) which we’re appreciative of. And then there was two other candidates that filed in area two, (7:24) Connie Lancaster and Val Nelson. And then in area five, Dave Jenkins area currently, (7:33) and he did not refile.

Paige Wolfley-Adams filed in that area. So we’re appreciative that (7:39) Paige would be interested and she’s running uncontested. And then at large, which is currently (7:46) held by Connie Day.

Connie, after 12 years of serving on the board has decided to pursue (7:53) other things and step into the next chapter of her life. I believe that she’s been associated (8:00) with Star Valley Schools for 50 something years as a student and as a teacher and then as a (8:07) board member. So we’re very appreciative of the legacy that Connie leaves behind.

But (8:12) we had to file, which we’re grateful. Lanny Draney and Eileen Merritt are candidates for the at large. (8:20) So, so all those positions going to be looked at at the general election.

In addition to that, (8:25) of course, area four, which is currently Jake Long, well, he’s he’s off to be county commissioner (8:30) now after the primary election. So yeah, so you’re looking at a likely appointed position (8:34) at that point, right? Correct. So we’re sad to see Commissioner Long now move on.

But (8:40) yeah, legally, he can’t have two elected positions like that. So sometime between now and, (8:47) and when he’s sworn in the first part of January, Jake will step aside and the board will appoint. (8:55) And that’ll be a two year appointment at that position, similar to area one being a two year, (9:04) because it was short cycled within the resignation and appointment this year.

(9:07) So all in all, there’s going to be some movement to the school board over the next few months and (9:12) heading into the 2026 seven calendar year, right? Yeah. So we feel very fortunate that Dr. Simpson, (9:20) our chairman, sticking around, obviously, and Jed Johnson, as well as our vice chair. So (9:29) then we’ll see what happens.

Yeah. But again, we’ve strongly encouraged and we’re grateful (9:34) that people are willing to step up and serve the pay is extremely high. The (9:40) conflict is low and but chewings are few and far between.

So So no, it’s, we appreciate our school (9:48) board members, people don’t realize the number of hours that they put in not only in training, (9:53) but in meetings and, and having kids best interest in mind and staff second. So we’re (9:59) very appreciative of our community members that are willing to serve. Superintendent Matt Erickson, (10:03) number two, anything else, Superintendent, while we have you just there’s a I love this time of (10:09) year because of the excitement and then the chatter that’s going on and, and a lot of great (10:15) things happening.

I’ve been in, I would say, easily 100 classrooms over the last four days. (10:22) And you know, just for a minute or two checking in on teachers making sure they’ve got what they (10:26) need. And, and boy, there’s a lot of smiles and high levels of engagement.

So we’re very (10:31) appreciative of our staff and students being back. And a little bit jealous of you, Duke, (10:39) you get to go to Alaska this next day or two. I was going to bring it up in a previous life (10:44) of yours.

You spent a lot of time on the football sidelines. And a lot of trips to Lander. But, (10:50) you know, that exotic trips to Lander, but no, no.

So dot in Alaska, trips during your (10:56) there, huh? No, we never got to leave the greater metropolitan of southeast Idaho and (11:02) southwest Wyoming. Yeah, yeah, we went to Shelly. We’re like, whoa, right? Yeah, right.

Or Powell. (11:09) Yeah, yeah. Got to go through the park.

That’s right. Absolutely. Superintendent Matt Erickson (11:14) in studio LCSD number two and Shelly Balls, food services director.

Shelly, congrats. And (11:18) thank you again for your time. Thank you.

It’s all part of the weekday wake up this (11:21) morning on the SVI radio network.