Administrators at Wyoming’s largest school district in Cheyenne make key compensation and spending decisions each spring as they develop a preliminary budget.  Right now, however, they don’t feel confident doing so, according to Laramie County School District 1 Chief Financial Officer Jed C icarelli. That’s because the Wyoming Legislature just passed a school funding bill that represents a significant overhaul in how the state pays for public education. It has implications for everything from health insurance benefits to teacher pay, and creates new restrictions on what resources can be spent where.  The Wyoming Department of Education is working to develop guidance for school districts, but it could be weeks until that’s finalized. In the meantime, Cicarelli said, it feels premature to commit to spending decisions that could put the district at risk of noncompliance. “The whole funding change is a pretty complex overhaul,” Cicarelli said, “and there’s a very short amount of time for school districts to make these decisions on how we’re going to incorporate the changes.”  Uncertainty and a short timeline are two of the pressure points school districts from Gillette to Kemmerer are feeling as they work to implement the bill, “K-12 public school finance-2.” Education officials are also concerned about how the bill strips local control from Wyoming’s 48 districts, said Wyoming Education Association President Kim Amen. The previous model, known as a block-grant model, allowed districts a lot of flexibility, she said. The new model, which relies on what is called “silo” funding, is much more prescriptive.  Casper’s Southridge Elementary Principal Sonya Tuttle speaks with teachers during a teacher development day in August 2021. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile) That siloing was the result of a good-faith effort to increase teacher pay in Wyoming, Amen said. But in doing that, lawmakers “unfortunately have put districts in a difficult position.”  The recalibration bill is sprawling and complex, and education leaders are celebrating many facets of it, such as that pay raise for teachers. They also hope outstanding concerns will be addressed in the legislative offseason, when lawmakers are anticipated to convene again to work on the state’s school funding model.  But for now, uncertainty reigns, said Lincoln County School District 1 Superintendent Teresa Chaulk.  “Everyone is just kind of like, ‘Wow, what do we do? How do we move forward with this bill?’” she said. “We need more guidance. We need the rules.” Recalibration 101 The Legislature is constitutionally required to fund its public schools and is tasked every five years with a “recalibration” process. The exhaustive task involves assessing the state’s school funding model and making necessary updates based on current cost models. Despite the mandate and previous attempts, Wyoming last passed a recalibration bill in 2010.  The latest process also came in the shadow of a 2025 court decision that Wyoming was unconstitutionally underfunding its public schools and must remedy that. Wyoming is appealing that decision, which came after the Wyoming Education Association sued the state.  The Legislature’s Select Committee on School Finance Recalibration worked for months to come up with legislation with help from consultants and hours of public testimony. Though educators and members of the public expressed strong opposition to parts of it, the committee voted unanimously to advance its draft bill to the recent budget session. Gov. Mark Gordon chats with Parkside Elementary School students in Powell in May 2025. (Office of Gov. Mark Gordon) As it advanced through the Legislature, the bill was subject to lengthy testimony and debate; legislators mulled more than two dozen amendments. They abandoned a mandate that would have required all teachers to join the state’s health insurance plan. They ultimately added funding, tacking on more than $250 million in education funding to be spread over two years. They also kept a teacher pay raise — from the model’s previous weighted average of under $60,000 up to roughly $70,000 — which was widely supported.  When it landed on Gov. Mark Gordon’s desk, he allowed it to go into law without his signature — a gesture that indicates reluctance.  In a letter to Senate President Bo Biteman, Gordon lauded the hard work that went into passing the bill. However, he warned that the benefit of the teacher pay raise comes “at the expense of local flexibility and authority.” Gordon was referring to the restriction of funding for instructional purposes, the so-called “instructional silo.” While well-intentioned, he wrote, it fails to consider how all the non-instructional expenses related to things like transportation, activities and nutrition could suffer from being outside of the silo.  “My concern is that the instructional silo as currently contemplated may so unreasonably restrict school districts that they will be forced into an untenable position of either running the operational aspect of the district at a deficit or severely diminishing the operations,” he wrote. “Both can compromise the instructional benefit of better-compensated teachers.” “It’s like there’s no trust to let school boards do their job. It’s almost like the Wyoming Legislature decided to be one big school board.”Teresa Chaulk As an example of how Cicarelli believes the new model could negatively impact Laramie County School District 1, he is anticipating the district will lose about $500,000 in funding for student activities and athletics. “Where I might have been able to redirect resources … to help backfill in that need, we just don’t have that tool at our disposal now, so we have to find different ways of doing that.” The state has been allocating district funding via a “block grant model” — which allowed districts wider discretion in funding decisions — for more than 20 years, Chaulk said. The new silo model removes “all flexibility for districts to operate in a fashion that the school board feels meets the needs of their staff, students and constituents.”  “It’s like there’s no trust to let school boards do their job,” she continued. “It’s almost like the Wyoming Legislature decided to be one big school board.” What’s next Chaulk’s district also faces a tight implementation deadline, with a preliminary district budget expected in May. But until state guidance is issued, she is also hesitant to go too far down that road.  “We need to wait till the dust settles and we have better guidance on exactly what the bill means and how we will implement it,” she said.  The education department is completing its review and certification of the new funding model, according to agency spokesperson Linda Finnerty. She did not give an exact timeline for release, but said a meeting with district business managers will take place at the end of March to further inform the efforts.  Cicarelli looks forward to clarity on how the bill will impact funding things like utilities, health insurance and nutrition services.  He also praises “great policy changes” in the bill regarding aspects like special education reimbursement and teacher pay, but says factors like the silo’s restrictions and compliance navigation will complicate things.  The Select Committee on Recalibration will reconvene this summer. Amen of the Wyoming Education Association hopes it’ll improve on what she sees as an enormously important — if still imperfect — bill.    “We would hope that we would get some clarification on how this model is really supposed to look in practice, and also continuing to work towards making sure that all the components that are constitutionally required are funded,” she said. 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