WORLAND – The Washakie County School District No. 1 met Monday night 7:30 p.m. to discuss various agenda items including the resolution for the Worland Aquatic Center (WAC) endowment, staff changes and resignations.

Washakie County Commissioner Terry Wolf was in attendance and asked the board to appoint two school members to the Worland Aquatic Center Joint Powers Board working group to explore options and solutions for the aquatic center and use of endowment funds. The Worland City Council appointed two members earlier in the month.

School Board Chairman Don Bryant said he hopes the group can come with solutions to both problems. One problem is the cash flow problem at the WAC (needing about $15,000 to $20,000), and the other problem is protecting the endowment, Bryant said.

Washakie County voters approved a one-cent sales tax in 2010 for a $3.7 million endowment for the WAC. The tax collected more money than originally anticipated, and there is an extra $750,000 for maintenance and operation purposes.

“I think we can come up with a cash advance to the aquatic center (and come up with an amount, whether it’s $20,000 to $25,000) and have a cash advance … that way it would suffice this year’s problem,” Bryant said.

“A cash advance would solve our problems now, but still protects the endowment,” Bryant said.

Bryant said he likes the idea of a cash advance because it takes away the word “interest” that everyone was getting hung up on.

The school board and Joint Powers Board had approached the commissioners and council with a no-interest loan proposal to take care of the cash flow problem, but both the commissioners and council voted down the loan proposal at their respective meetings Jan. 5.

The board is still open to alternative ideas to help with the cash flow problem at the aquatic center, Bryant said.

A motion was carried to “approve a resolution authorizing the aquatic center to seek remedies for funding for the aquatic center without spending any of the $4.5 million endowment, with us [school board] recommending to entertain the advance of interest payment to the aquatic center to ease the cash flow.”

Another motion was carried to appoint Duane Whitlock and David Tommerup funding working group. Wolf said the earliest meeting time for the working group would be sometime next week.

The cash advance would come straight out of the endowment, Bryant said.

Staff changes

In other business at Monday’s meeting, the board made several motions to approve resignations, retirements and new hires.

Sandra Bishop, the school’s technology facilitator, and Ed Wise, the school’s vocational teacher, are retiring effective at the end of the school year, and Margo King, who teaches third grade, is resigning and moving to another school at the end of the school year.

New certified staff are on their way, and the board approved several motions to hire Catherine Mortimer as special education case manager, Amanda Hamblen as the full-time custodial position, Tracey Wiley as the girls head track coach and Brianna Shefferly as the assistant soccer coach.

Other Business

Before the meeting, fifth grader, Amelia Klingler entertained the board by singing Phantom of the Opera. The meeting was called into order with the Pledge of Allegiance by the Worland Boy Scouts Troop 225 working to earn the community merit badge.

In other business on the agenda was the recognition of the Million Word Readers Award. The Million Word Readers is an award for fifth graders who have read over 1 million words from the start of the school year until now. Clint Jeffries led the pack with a total of 3,173,990 words read to date.