Laramie County School District #1 warned recalibration bill could shrink local budget and reshuffle staff

Janet, a district presenter, told the Laramie County School District #1 board that proposed changes to Wyoming’s school-funding model could materially alter the district’s budget, staffing and benefit structure if enacted this year.

Janet said the state’s consultant produced an evidence-based funding recommendation (presented in this briefing as “just shy of $1,900,000” in the slide deck), a separate current-law baseline remains in place if the legislature does nothing, and the Legislature’s recalibration committee has produced a third model that narrows the gap between consultant and statute. “That difference was about $88,000,000,” she said, summarizing earlier committee actions, “and revisions brought that to about $51,600,000” compared with the evidence-based model.

Why it matters: the recalibrated model changes how the state counts students, how many model-generated teaching positions a district receives, and how salaries and benefits are modeled. Those changes together can shift hundreds of FTEs, constrain local flexibility on how certain funds are used and alter the district’s revenue picture ahead of next year’s budget.

Major points from the presentation

• Teacher pay benchmark: The state consultant recommended a statewide average teacher salary of $70,560. Janet explained the consultant adjusted comparable professional wages to account for shorter teacher contract days (a 79% adjustment), and that the district’s regional adjustment produces a district-calculated average shown in the presentation of about $71,007.60. “The funding model’s base salary is about $44,000 a year,” she said, and the new model starts at a weighted average instead of a base-plus adjustments approach.

• Class-size and staffing: The consultant’s model initially recommended smaller early-grade ratios (presented as K–3 15:1 and grades 4–12 at 25:1). A committee amendment discussed in the presentation altered the bands and increased some ratios (presentation materials cited K–4 at 16:1, 4–8 at 22:1 and 9–12 at 25:1), reducing the number of model-generated teacher positions for many districts and shifting FTE allocations among classified and certified roles.

• Net model effect and restrictions: Janet said the recalibration model, as amended, would produce a modeled decrease of roughly 143 FTE for the district (earlier estimates approached 157 before the most recent amendment). She summarized one scenario where funding-model increases of about $7.7 million are offset by off-model reductions (retirement and health-insurance reimbursement changes and other adjustments) of nearly $14 million, resulting in a net decrease of roughly $6.2 million under the assumptions shown.

• Benefits and health insurance: The presentation flagged a select-committee directive that would require school districts to join the state employee group health plan effective July 1, 2027. Janet said the change would affect the district’s bargaining leverage, employee premiums and retiree coverage; she gave an illustrative revenue-side decrease of about $8.6 million in one comparison and cautioned the actuarial impact is uncertain until full enrollment and benefit details are determined. “There are some huge actuarial calculations that would need to be done,” she said.

• Other fiscal changes: The presentation described multiple off-model adjustments: removal of a three-year rolling ADM (average daily membership) calculation in favor of prior-year ADM with a 5% floor (Janet modeled a $2.9 million effect for Laramie County School District #1), moving certain retirement reimbursements outside the block grant (about $1.2 million reduction in one estimate), a proposal to split local investment earnings with the state (presentation cited a proposed 50/50 split), and a one-time proposed statewide true-up that would repay about $2.8 million in outstanding bus receivables to the district.

Trustees asked about timing and next steps. Janet confirmed most provisions in the draft would take effect July 1 of this year, with the state-plan health-insurance transition delayed until July 1, 2027. She also said the Legislative Service Office was updating model projections to reflect committee amendments and that districts statewide are waiting on those numbers to refine local estimates.

Quotes and attribution

• “Everything as far as the cost assumptions and estimates are are just that. They’re estimates at this point in time,” Janet said at the start of the presentation, urging caution about early numbers.

• On teacher pay: “We recommended a statewide average teacher salary of $70,560,” Janet said, describing the consultant’s benchmark used in model calculations.

• On the health-plan transition: Janet said joining the state plan could change employee costs materially and that the district lacks enough information to quantify all impacts at this time.

Uncertainties and limitations

The presentation repeatedly stressed that the numbers are preliminary and that granular line-item, model-generated counts from the Legislative Service Office are pending. Several figures in the slide deck and Q&A were illustrative or rounded; where the presentation or trustee questions left numbers unspecified, the district said it would wait for updated LSO projections and final bill text to firm up local budget decisions.

What’s next

Janet recommended the board prepare contingencies for April bargaining and contract deadlines and for multiple budget scenarios this spring. The recalibration work will continue in committee and through interim study on several topics (mental-health staffing, technology 1:1 ratios, nutrition programs and the health-insurance transition). Trustees were told a public version of updated LSO model projections should be available in the coming weeks.

The board did not take formal votes on the recalibration bill during this presentation; the session ended with trustees thanking the presenter and moving on to other agenda business.