Hedberg vs District Suit,
New School Counselor,
MS/HS Principal Announced
Superintendent Search Begins

by Laura Vass
The June 3 Custer County School District C-1 Regular School Board Meeting began on time. After the Pledge of  Allegiance and roll call, they approved the amended agenda.
There was a Public Hearing scheduled for the Board to hear any further public comment on the School District 2025-6
Budget. There were no comments.
Under Staff and Student recognition, Board President Reggie Foster announced that a prior school nurse, Toria Cruz Johnson, passed away on the previous Saturday after a battle with cancer. She asked attendees to hold a moment of silence in her honor.
Under CORRESPONDENCE TO THE BOARD, a letter to the board from Tracy Tarrell was read. The letter expressed that the Board,
discouraged emotional social media responses from the community, and should likewise not issue emotional responses. She referred back to the May 13 meeting when several board members read a statement after the decision to terminate the Superintendent based on the investigation.
She felt that the statements read were emotional and contained too much information on current staff complaints that should be confidential. (We printed those statements with the last school board coverage article. You be the judge.)
CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS passes. These included approval of May 13 meeting minutes, and three new hires, Kelly Klinger, MS/HS Counselor, Angela Ditto, Elementary Teacher, and Aundrea
McCormick who moves into new positions of Athletic Director and Teacher.
The acting superintendent, Walt Cooper, also introduced the new MS/HS Principal, Wren Olsen. Wren will begin immediately and the acting principal, Lorie Cooper, said she’ll be there as support through June 26 and available/accessible after that.
The board then went into Executive Session ) for the purpose of receiving legal advice regarding the School District’s response to Hedberg v. Custer County School District, a complaint filed by Mr. Hedberg against the School District alleging that the Board of Education violated the Colorado Open Meetings Act.
After reconvening the regular meeting, Under ACTION ITEMS, the board voted 4-0 to proceed with defense against the claim. In discussion, Directors Fiore, Brown, Kreigh and Foster expressed that lawsuit claims are not true.
Regarding Board of Education Vacancy Appointment- On recommendation of the acting Superintendent Walt Cooper, the date was set for the 18th interview the one person interested, John Tillotson, for school board opening.
Regarding Designation of Critical Shortage in Accordance with PERA Rules and C.R.S. 24-51-1101(1.9) the board approved to include on the Critical Shortage list, the positions of Superintendent, School Principal, Math Teacher, and
Special Ed Teacher. This improves how retired teachers that reenter the workforce have their PERA benefits effected.
Action Item, “Regarding Superintendent Search Activities and Timelines” was next. The acting Superintendent had a viable set of dates worked out that meet all the legal deadlines. The board approved the dates as follows: a June 18 deadline for naming finalists and June 30, July 1 and July 2 for public interviews.
The board approved three of the policy revisions the committee has worked on. These relate to home schooled kids or charter schooled kids who want to participate in the district and set the open enrollment deadlines, and how a student is enrolled- ie ½ time.
The policies are for fall semester in order to meet funding allocation deadlines (although this was not discussed.) Bottom line, enrollment deadlines for the school year is in the fall, just as in the past, but policy says students cannot be enrolled in more than one school district. Policy IHBG-Home Schooling, Policy JFBA-Intra-District Choice/Open Enrollment and Policy JBGA-Intra-District Choice/Open Enrollment passed as adjusted.
The next Regular Board meeting is  scheduled for Tuesday, June 24, 2025, at 4:30 p.m. in the School Library.