Board Approves WSBA Contract to Conduct Culture and Climate Survey This Fall

The Laramie School District Board of Trustees approved a contract with the Wyoming School Boards Association (WSBA) to administer a culture-and-climate survey this fall. Superintendent Dr. Goldhart said WSBA’s consultant, Dr. Julie Kosarek, has experience with validated survey question banks and would help the district build a survey that staff can compare to previous results. Dr. Goldhart and trustees discussed timing and urged maintaining comparable wording so the district can track trends across survey rounds. Trustees and staff discussed participation strategies; officials said the district previously achieved high participation by administering surveys in class (middle and high schools) and by repeated communication. Dr. Goldhart said the district would meet with the consultant promptly after board approval to finalize question banks and logistics and aimed to conduct the survey in October to maximize response rates. Trustees asked for confidential handling of staff responses to reduce fear of repercussions; administration said past surveys were run confidentially and that the vendor’s systems do not record identifying information beyond preventing duplicate responses from the same device. Trustees approved the WSBA contract and asked administration to coordinate with principals and the consultant so results can be compared with prior surveys and returned to the board for review.