Dear Superintendents,

This week I had the opportunity to present to a U.S. Senate Caucus on Career and Technical Education and after school opportunities. Attendance at the panel was standing room only and caucus members heard clearly about how the work they’ve done to create flexibility in both Perkins and ESSA creates more opportunities for students to achieve education goals. It was exciting to share how, through grant funding (Title IV-B and Wyoming Trust Fund), we were able to create alignment between accountability, CTE, computer science, and after school programs. Thank you for your innovation–it’s always an honor to represent the great work happening in Wyoming schools.

Superintendent Balow stands with other presenters to the U.S. Senate Caucus in the congressional room where the meeting took place. A presentation screen reads, "CTE and Afterschool Update: Youth Career Pathways Succeed with Partners."

Presenters from across the nation share experiences and policy

EVENTS

Wyoming’s First Ever Hackathon was a Success! (take a look at #6!)

  1. Overstock.com committed to opening a new office for blockchain software developers in Wyoming.
  2. ActiveAether announced it is relocating from New York City to Jackson.
  3. ActiveAether announced a donation of compute capacity worth $20k in fogcoins to UW’s Computer Science Dept.
  4. 27 teams competed—comprised of developers from Switzerland, Egypt, Slovakia, China, Kenya, Canada and all over Wyoming and the US.
  5. All 3 candidates for governor of Wyoming (D, L, R) judged the “Best for Wyoming” category and pitched to participants to stay in Wyoming.
  6. A teacher and his 3 teenaged students from Shoshoni were awarded several thousand dollars in prize value by Decent, a Swiss company whose engineers traveled from Switzerland and Slovakia to attend and they mentored the Shoshoni students.

Latina Conference

In years past, many schools have sent young women to the Wyoming Latina Youth Conference and I would like to, once again, extend an invitation for students and teachers in your district to attend. With “Power of Choice” as a theme, there are inspirational speakers throughout the event. Please share this link with anyone who might be interested: http://www.wyominglatinayouthconference.com/

UW President Laurie Nichols and Community College Executive Director Sandy Caldwell meet with State Superintendent Jillian Balow in her office at the Wyoming Department of Education.

Community College Exec Director Sandy Caldwell, UW President Laurie Nichols, and State Superintendent Jillian Balow meet regularly to align goals and practice.

Memos to be released on Monday, September 24, 2018:

Jillian