GREEN RIVER — The Sweetwater County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees clashed with Wyoming House of Representatives District 60 candidate Marlene Brady Tuesday night over several policy revisions regarding school board operations.

The policy revisions that were up for consideration on first reading included Policy BB- School Board Legal Status, BBA- School Board Powers and Responsibility, BBAA- Board Member Authority, BBE- Unexpired Term Fulfillment, BBFA- Board Member Conflict of Interest, Policy BDC- Executive Sessions, BDDF- Voting Method, BEDDH (also KDA)- Public Participation at Board Meetings, BFE (also CHD)- Administration in Policy Absence, and BH/BHA- New Board Member Orientation/Board Member Development Opportunities. New policies up for consideration on first reading were BA- Board Operational Goals, BBBC- Board Member Resignations, and BCA-R- Code of Ethics. Additionally, a simple amendment to Policy BBF-E Code of Ethics for School Board Members was up for consideration on first and only reading.

Superintendent Craig Barringer said the school district is auditing all of their policies, and they are moving through them in alphabetical order, which has the policies for board governance and operation next in line for revision and board approval, as they all start with B.

However, Brady questioned why the board was revising these policies now as there is an active school board race taking place. She said the policies would become effective during the transition time between the old and new board members.

“What is the rush to address all the school board policies at this particular time? …The newly elected school board members should have a vested interest in the formation and development of the board’s operations, as they will be the ones implementing them,” Brady said.

Barringer and the school board corrected Brady, however, informing her that the new school board members will be sworn into office on Dec. 1 and will therefore be the ones considering the policies on third and final reading.

“The board comes in in December. If they do not like those on the third reading, they can table it and look at them,” Barringer said. “But this is an overall audit that this district has done to update our policies, it just happens to be these policies.”

Barringer also asked Brady if she’s read the policies, which she claimed she had read them more than once.

“If you’ve read them, there is very little change,” Barringer said.

Brady pointed out that some of these policies are from the 1970s making them over 50 years old, so she perceived the revisions as “rushed” and suggested tabling the revisions to allow the newly elected board members to take action on them. Barringer said because some of the policies are up to 50 years old they should have already been updated 20 or 30 years ago.

“But to say we’re doing this on a rush is really a misstatement,” he said.

Chairman Steve Core asked Brady if she believes they should be lame duck board members, and said the board is being accused of trying to rush unfinished business before the new board members take office.

“Marlene, you’re not sworn into the legislature until January 1 but the legislature is doing all this committee work right now. Are you saying they shouldn’t be doing that before you take the oath of office?” Core said. “We should be lame duck school board members?”

Brady said that was not her point, but Core said that was the point he got from her comments.

“The point is [the policies are] all dealing with school board, and perhaps, if some of these are 50 years old…why so many? And they all happen to deal with school board and there’s a race going on right now,” she said. Watch a portion of the interaction between Brady, Barringer, and Core below.

Prior to the board’s votes on the policies, Core again said that comments are the board rushing to push these policies through are not true.

“All of that is not true. I was elected to be a board member through the 30th of November, 2024, and I’m going to do my job,” Core said. “This stuff is so basic, there should absolutely be nothing controversial in any of these policies.”

The board unanimously approved all the policies on first reading, and approved Policy BBF-E Code of Ethics for School Board Members on its first and only reading.