JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Keith Gingery filed paperwork yesterday to run for a second term on the Teton County School Board.
Gingery has served for the past four years on the local school board. Previous to serving on the school board, Gingery served five terms in the Wyoming House of Representatives representing Teton County. He also served as the House Judiciary Chairman as the Speaker Pro Tem of the House of Representatives.
Gingery believes the school board has accomplished quite a bit during his term and wants to continue to help lead the school district in implementing many of the goals formulated by the board through its strategic planning process.
“I have been amazed with how far this school district has come in just the few years I have been on the board. I have worked hard to help improve our meeting structure to make sure our meetings are run efficiently and the public feel welcome to come and engage with the school board on a myriad of issues,” Gingery said. “I feel as though the public feels very comfortable coming and talking to the school board and from their interactions getting results to make our schools even better. I have also been excited with all of the work that has gone into re-writing our policies, creating a strategic plan, and setting objective goals for our schools. All of that work is laying the groundwork for increasing the achievement scores of our students and preparing them to be ready for life outside of school.”
In the past few months, Gingery has been working to get funding for three new START bus stops to serve the High School, Middle School and Colter Elementary School.
“There are many students that utilize the START bus system because they stay after school for sports or other after school activities, and in inclement weather those students are just standing around a dilapidated old sign that marks where the START bus will pick them up,” Gingery added. “We were able to get students to design the new bus shelters and then the students lobbied the state to get the funding. Hopefully we will have these new bus shelters up later this fall. A key to improving ridership on START is to make it more convenient and new bus shelters will help with that.”
Gingery has also been working this summer on the “One Book, One Community” program to engage with those in the community that may not have children in the schools or had children in the schools many years ago. The 5th and 6th graders are reading a book this fall and many in the community are reading the same book and then having discussions with the students.
“I am very excited about the level of engagement the community has already started on this fun project. The partnership between the School District, the County Library, and the Library Foundation has been amazing,” Gingery said.
