Dear Superintendents,

Tis the season to plan to attend the Superintendent’s Summit (S5S) in January. Last year’s summit was a huge success and we are gearing up for an even better second year! Please mark your calendars and assemble your team for S5S in Cheyenne on January 12-13. Here are a few highlights:

  • Interact with legislators at a hosted reception
  • UW President Nichols, and ECS’s Jeremy Anderson give keynotes exlusive to Wyoming’s opportunity to forge ahead
  • Tour the Wyoming Judicial Learning Center (opens on January 9)
  • Vegas Break
  • Continued and new conversations with colleagues and experts
  • Coincides with State Board meeting

Registration for a team of four is free of charge-there is an add-on fee if you want to bring additional participants. A room block at Little America is now open. We suggest your team of four include:

  1. Superintendent or district administrator
  2. Board chair or designee
  3. Teacher of the Year or outstanding teacher
  4. Principal of the Year or outstanding principal

REGISTER BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW

S5S 2017. 2017 Wyoming State Superintendent's Policy Summit. Register at edu.wyoming.gov/s5s

2016 LEGISLATURE

Both the Joint Appropriations and Joint Education committees meet in December to discuss school finance. Many superintendents are planning to attend the meetings and I look forward to more in-depth discussions with you.

To reiterate my message, which is the same as last year, our state’s fiscal situation requires austerity. Education must remain a priority for our state. We must work together to make the necessary cuts and find savings so that essential education programs and opportunities for students do not deteriorate.

Also, next week the Joint Health and Labor Committee meets to discuss three Medicaid recommendations made by the National Council on State Legislatures (NCSL). One recommendation is to seek reimbursement for special education services for students who are on Medicaid. We are the only state that has not implemented this practice. To be clear, I support continued 100% reimbursement for Special Education with Medicaid recoupment as an “extra” for the state, of which part should be returned to schools. WDE leaders will be on hand to answer questions and offer comments at next week’s meeting.

Leadership and committee assignments for the new legislature were finalized recently. Many of the new members will be in the audience at upcoming meetings. Here are members of the 2017-18 House and Senate Education Committees:

House: David Northrup-Chair, Debbie Bovee, Landon Brown, Jamie Flitner, John Freeman, Hans Hunt, Mark Kinner, Jerry Paxton, Garry Piiparinen

Senate: Hank Coe-Chair, Affie Ellis, Stephan Pappas, Chris Rothfuss, Jeff Wasserburger

More information about the upcoming legislative session can be found at: http://legisweb.state.wy.us/LSOWEB/Default.aspx

A classroom of 4th grade students each sit at a laptop participating in an online program that teaches coding.

4th graders coding during Computer Science Education Week

Governor Mead and Superintendent Balow pose with a group of WDE staff and other stakeholders at the Governor's Office.

Governor Mead signs a proclamation for Computer Science Education Week-a first for Wyoming

Superintendent Balow with Rita Watson at the WDE All-Staff Meeting.

Rita Watson has been andexecutive assistant at WDE for 47 years

Memos to be released Monday, December 12:

Jillian

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