Sweetwater County Parents Blast School District Over Vacancies, Superintendent Raise

A growing number of parents are expressing frustration over a Wyoming school district they say is failing to address serious concerns and staff vacancies while lacking transparency when making decisions — including the quiet approval of a pay raise for the superintendent.

The Sweetwater County School District No. 1, which oversees multiple schools in Rock Springs, Wamsutter and Farson, is facing numerous questions regarding accountability and leadership culture, according to recent school board meetings and public comments. 

“Parents are saying, ‘You’re not hearing us,’” Kelsey Hibbs, a parent who pulled her children from the school district last year after she said policies were not followed to address bullying.

Parents at Tuesday’s regularly scheduled school board meeting questioned the district’s high staff vacancy rate and lack of response from the district to public comments.

Accountability at the district level is multifaceted, Hibbs told Cowboy State Daily. 

“I hear from a lot of parents who are struggling,” she said.

Employment Vacancies

Cole Seppie, a parent and former school board member who resigned in October, asked the school board to account for 39 certified positions to be filled. 

He compared staff vacancy rates of other large districts in Wyoming and said the Sweetwater County School District’s rate is well above elsewhere in the state. 

“I’m here asking at what point as a board do you start to question leadership,” Seppie said. “There’s a reason why we have 39 available open positions when the 10 other large districts in the state combine for a total of 23.

“There is a climate issue within this district. At what point do we start to question that and hold administrative individuals accountable? When do we hold the district board accountable?”

At the August school board meeting, Human Resources Director Tiffany Gunter reported 44 resignations for the 2024-2025 school year and seven retirements. 

In July 2024, the district had 27 open positions. A year later, there were 49 open positions. 

One reason why there were so many more open positions in July 2025 is because the district has intentionally created new positions to reduce class sizes, Gunter said. 

Gunter also said in August that many of the vacancies were being filled by long-term substitute teachers. The district employed 27 long-term substitute teachers in open positions as of Aug. 11.

Some of them have served in the role for several years, Gunter said, adding that some are retired teachers.

Seppie brought up the resignation numbers again at Tuesday’s meeting, saying, “There has never once been an open discussion as to where these people have gone or why we are losing them.”

No one on the board responded. The board doesn't respond to comments made at public meetings until the following meeting, typically held a month later. 

Lack Of Response To Public Comments

Hibbs said her public comments and emails to the board continue to go unaddressed. 

“They don’t respond publicly. They don’t respond privately,” Hibbs later told Cowboy State Daily.

Kari Cochran, a parent who lost her 18-year-old son to suicide in 2023 and has been trying to retrieve his records from the school district since, agreed. 

“We send emails upon emails with no communication from the board,” she told Cowboy State Daily.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, Hibbs spoke again, saying she has filed two internal complaints to the school board in the past 30 days. One received no response. The other was marked “resolved” without communication, she said. 

“You have asked us to do things differently,” Hibbs said, referring to the district’s recent update to the school board’s public comment policy. “It’s not working.”

At its August 2025 meeting, the school board implemented changes related to public comment. 

While comments related to district operations, policy or programming are welcome, Board Chairman Cole Wright said at that meeting that “comments regarding employment or performance of individual staff members cannot be addressed publicly by the board due to privacy protections under the Wyoming Public Records Act and due process rights under the Wyoming Teacher Appointment Law.”

Hibbs said she feels as though she is “being viewed as an obstacle or an inconvenience” at board meetings. 

“It’s kind of like public comment has become a formality,” she said.

The Wyoming Department of Education acknowledged this week that it had received formal complaints about the Sweetwater school district.

An email statement shared with Cowboy State Daily from Chief Communications Officer Linda Finnerty reads, "We have been made aware of stakeholder concerns related to activity in Sweetwater County School District #1. 

"Each concern is taken seriously by the WDE and investigated within our jurisdiction,” she adds. "Superintendent (Megan) Degenfelder will personally follow up with parents and district leadership. 

"She will not allow legitimate concerns raised by families to be ignored or dismissed in our Wyoming schools."

Superintendent Contract

Critics also say the board’s agreement in June to amend Superintendent Joseph Libby’s contract wasn’t publicly stated.

According to contract documents viewed by Cowboy State Daily, Libby was hired for the 2024-2025 school year with an approved annual salary of $178,000, for both the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years.

An amendment to the contract, effective July 1, 2025, extended his employment contract through June 30, 2028. The amended contract also raised Libby’s salary to $195,000, effective July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, with increases each year thereafter. 

According to the amended contract, he will be paid $205,000 for the 2027-2028 school year. 

The amended contract also includes an amount equal to 5% of Libby’s base salary to be paid into an existing retirement plan. 

That amount will increase to 7% of his base salary for the 2026-2027 school year and 9% for the 2027-2028 school year. 

The amendment further increased Libby's car allowance to $1,500 per month, from $800 per month as laid out in the original contract.

District parent Cherell O’Driscoll learned about the amended contract when she discovered a file marked “Confidential” that she said had been uploaded to the public Board Docs website by mistake. 

The school district publishes its meeting agendas and minutes on the site, though the last meeting with information to be shared there is dated Oct. 13, 2025. 

The document, one page labeled “Executive Session Minutes,” is dated June 9, 2025, and references “Personnel discussion was held to discuss The Superintendent’s Contract.”

At the end of the public meeting on June 9, Wright announced that the board would move into an executive session and said he expected no action would be taken afterward.

He reported two months later, at the Aug. 11 regularly scheduled school board meeting, that action had, in fact, been taken in executive session on June 9.

“I want to begin my message with transparency and accountability,” he said at the beginning of the August meeting. “At the June 9 board meeting, I stated I do not anticipate any action upon our return regarding the executive session. That statement turned out to be incorrect. When the board reconvened, we did take action. 

"All trustees present voted to extend Dr. Libby’s contract. I recognize the confusion this caused and I take full responsibility for that miscommunication.”

Still, no mention of the amended contract — or Libby’s raise — was publicly brought to light.

Orange wristband

Nothing more has been mentioned by school district leadership about an orange wristband that was brought up at the December school board meeting. 

Parents and community members on social media accused a Rock Springs High School administrator of wearing an orange wristband that says, “Follow Policy + FAFO + GFY.” 

Superintendent Libby acknowledged the accusation in an email to Cowboy State Daily in December, saying, “At this time, the district is in the process of reviewing the matter and attempting to substantiate the claims that have been raised. 

"As with any concern involving students or staff, we are committed to following established policies and procedures, gathering accurate information, and ensuring fairness to all individuals involved before drawing conclusions or taking any action,” he said.

“Because this review is ongoing, and because it involves personnel and student-related matters, it would not be appropriate to comment on specific allegations, individuals, or circulating images at this time. We also want to be careful not to speculate or respond to claims that have not yet been verified.”

Repeated calls and emails to Libby asking whether the claims have yet been verified have gone unanswered.

District’s Response

When given the opportunity at Tuesday’s school board meeting to respond to issues raised in December public comments, Libby said:

“I think several of the public comments that were given last month were actually directed toward the board. And there was one that was personnel (matter), and we reached out individually for that. So, I don’t have a response for any of the public comments.”

To that, Cochran said, “I was just irritated and alarmed. In the past, our board superintendent and board chair would respond. They would have answered to you in the moment.

“To have no comment, to not respond to the members of the public and acknowledge receipt, to not show any type of engagement with the community, is really alarming,” she said.

Wright, the board chairman, responded to Cowboy State Daily’s questions after Tuesday’s meeting in an email, saying the board is “reviewing the matters raised.

“To be clear, my response here is not that we won’t respond but that the District does not respond to Board-level matters on compressed timelines,” he wrote. “We will continue reviewing matters brought up during last night’s board meeting and via Cowboy State's outreach and we will respond when our review is complete. 

“The District is not failing to respond or avoiding a response,” he said. “We are being prudent to look into these matters further and will respond with facts when we have the answers and clarification we need.”

Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.