ROCK SPRINGS — The Sweetwater County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees are going to have some tough decisions to make in the near future with regard to its budget.

The board held a workshop Monday afternoon prior to its regularly scheduled monthly meeting in an effort to address some of those choices.

Board chairwoman Carol Jelaco said the district has reached a point where no more fat can be cut from the budget. She said the district is now facing decisions where staff and students may soon be impacted.

A common topic of discussion at Monday’s workshop focused on classroom sizes. The district currently averages roughly 18 students per classroom K-12. Increasing classroom sizes beyond 20 students usually results in negative impacts on student behavior and performance, Jelaco said.

Large class sizes can also impact teacher recruitment and retention, said trustee Andrea Summers. The board collectively agreed that increasing class sizes would be a last resort. Current district policy caps classroom sizes in grades 4-12 at 27 students.

But several elementary schools in the district currently have empty classrooms, and the topic of closing schools was discussed at the workshop. Jelaco said closing schools is always a difficult subject, “but it’s the situation that we might find ourselves in.”

There’s a good possibility that we’re going to have to look at maximizing the use in some buildings, while not using other buildings.

SCSD No. 1 Board Chairwoman Carl Jelaco

Jelaco did not specify which school or how many might close and added that is something she does not want to do.

“But more than likely, I see that as a necessary step,” she added.

Jelaco said that schools may not be completely shut down, but rather “mothballed” where utilities stay on for three years in the hopes of reopening when the economy improves.

Other items that were discussed were athletics and activities, and special education funding.

Cutting funds for special education was also unanimously dismissed by the board. Trustee Stephanie Thompson said “you start messing with that and you’re going to have lawsuits.”

Satellite High School

Part of the student body will begin attending the new satellite high school in the fall and eventually the facility on Stagecoach Boulevard will be the only high school in Rock Springs.

Thompson, who along with Jelaco lobbied the state legislature for funding on that project, warned that failing to complete the school would mark the district permanently.

“We will not get funding from the state again to do another school like that. We will get blacklisted,” Thompson said. “We didn’t know when we were pursuing it that we would end up in a huge economic crisis, but we can’t disregard the project at this point. We already have the funding.”

Jelaco said the current high school has capacity issues, and the satellite high school will help solve that issue.

The board did not make any decisions during the workshop. Jelaco reminded her fellow trustees that the Wyoming State Legislature’s funding model is “not an expense model,” and the board will consider all its decisions in the best interest of the students.