TEN SLEEP – During the Ten Sleep School Board monthly meeting Monday evening the board discussed the WSBA (Wyoming School Board Association) resolutions that will be addressed during the WSBA conference in Casper Nov. 16 – 18. The resolutions, if passed will be lobbied for with Congress to become law.

One resolution that generated much discussion was the resolution that would require students to stay in school until 18 or graduation. Ten Sleep School Board member Jane Thurston expressed concern about how schools would be able to handle more students that didn’t want to be there and resulting possible behavioral issues and how some parents are going to be able to ‘force’ their children to stay in school.

Ten Sleep School Board member Terril Mills explained that the same question, along with many others arose when the state decided to make the age 16. “It’s age 16 now, I think it used to be less than that, and when they moved it up to 16, some of those things were said and it would probably take a while, but the expectation being there, to be in school until graduation or 18 may take a little bit of adjustment but a lot of people feel strongly that that is a step towards getting those kids to finish,” he stated. This revolves around the graduation rate, trying to help increase that graduation rate. Ten Sleep doesn’t really have the problem but with larger schools, their graduation rate is not as high. So the WSBA is trying to put a little more teeth into keeping kids in school and doing what’s good for the kids to be able to graduate, he added.

Also during the conference Mills will be honored for being selected to the All Wyoming School Board. “Each year the WASA (Wyoming Association of School Administrators), which is the superintendents’ state association, selects five school board members from across the state to be honored as the All Wyoming School Board and this year Mr. Terril Mills has been selected to the All Wyoming School Board. He will be presented with the award on Thursday night at the Wyoming School Board Association convention in Casper. It’s a very big honor and I’m very proud of his selection,” Ten Sleep Superintendent Jimmy Phelps stated.