Members of the Sublette

County School District No. 1 Board of

Trustees and the press received a demonstration

of the new Raptor Visitor Management

System following the regular school

board meeting on Jan. 10. District Superintendent

Jay Harnack announced during the

meeting that the district was in the “initial

stages” of installing the program.

The Raptor System uses a set of selfservice

computer kiosks that will screen

all visitors, contractors and volunteers with

a “national database of registered sex offenders,”

a district press release stated. The

kiosks can scan driver’s licenses and other

forms of U.S. government-issued identifications.

If a visitor or parent lacks a driver’s

license or government I.D., they can present

any other form of I.D., and information can

be entered manually.

During the demonstration after the school

board meeting, a driver’s license was placed

into the digital scanner. Within seconds,

the information on the driver’s license was

checked against the national sex offender

registry. Once cleared through the system,

the visitor can key in the location in the

school they will visit. The system can therefore

track where visitors are in the building.

The visitor receives a name badge that

is automatically printed from the computer

if he or she passes the screening. Once a

visitor passes the initial screening, they are

then permanently entered into the system

and only have to scan their driver’s license

or I.D. into the kiosk when they visit again.

The entire procedure took about a minute.

The district is “beta testing” the system at

all of the schools in Pinedale, Harnack said

in an email to the Roundup . The district is in

the process of setting up the self-service kiosks

and ordering additional touch screens,

and Harnack estimated that the system will

be up and running in about two weeks.

The self-service kiosks will be located

near the front entrances of the administration

building and the schools in Pinedale.

Bondurant Elementary School will not be

part of the system.

“Due to its small size and remote location,

we actively discourage visitors other

than parents,” Harnack said. He added that

parents who are regular visitors are required

to apply as volunteers and go through a

criminal background check.

“We continually evaluate ways to make

our schools safer for everyone,” Harnack

said. “As technology continues to evolve,

we will work to take advantage of those opportunities.”

In other news from the school board

meeting:

• Blake Coble of Wind River Media and

SVI Media spoke during the public comment

period about concerns that he was not

contacted to attend a special school board

meeting on Dec. 21. The meeting was convened

to approve companies that will be

allowed to live-stream events on district

property. Two companies were approved

to live-stream events: SVI Media and KPIN

Radio, Harnack said in an email following

the meeting. Coble wondered why Wind

River was “banned” during the meeting

when the company was never approved in

the first place. Coble stated that the board

did not properly “gather information and

facts” and did not contact people concerned

by the decision about the meeting.

The school board did not reply to Coble

and did not further address the issue at the

meeting.

• The board passed a motion to approve

the financial formula for a stipend for a new

“cheer sponsor” for the cheerleading pro-

Robert Galbreath photo

A Raptor System kiosk, computer and I.D. scanner is already set up to

pilot the program in the School District No. 1 Administration Building.

Wyoming provides show

of total lunar eclipse Jan. 20

SUBLETTE COUNTY  – Remote areas

of Sublette County, with minimal light pollution,

will be a perfect area to view the

total lunar eclipse Sunday, Jan. 20, from

9:45 to 10:45 p.m.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when the full

moon moves behind and into the shadow

of the Earth. Because the light from the

sun passes through the Earth’s atmosphere,

the moon appears red during a total lunar

eclipse, leading to the name “Blood Moon.”

“Lunar eclipses are pretty rare, but not as

rare as seeing a total solar eclipse like the

one we saw in August 2017,” says Samantha

Ogden, coordinator of the UW Harry C.

Vaughan Planetarium, which is hosting the

event. “The Earth’s shadow is much larger

than the moon’s shadow, which means that

gram approved at the Dec. 13 board meeting.

The cheer sponsor stipend will be 12

percent of base salary, paid out twice a year

during the fall season and winter season.

• The board approved a second reading of

Revised Policy BBB to change how school

board members are elected. Zeigler stated at

the meeting that the revision will eliminate

separate district seats so that all members of

the school board will be elected “at large.”

• The board passed a motion to approve

an early retirement incentive schedule. The

approval provides an application window

for eligible employees to apply for the

early retirement incentive from Jan. 15 to

Feb. 25.

• The board passed a motion to adopt a

worker’s compensation discount program

through the Wyoming Department of Workforce

Services. Harnack said at the meeting

that the worker’s compensation