School board tackles tech overhaul, budget, AI and celebrates year-end successes

The Eureka County School District board tackled a comprehensive agenda on May 20 as the academic year draws to a close, highlighted by the approval of a significantly revamped technology plan—the first in five years—addressing everything from cybersecurity to the integration of Artificial Intelligence. Alongside this crucial update, board members approved a tentative budget while navigating state financial uncertainties, realigned a school calendar, and received uplifting reports on student academic growth and vibrant year-end activities from district principals, painting a picture of a district actively preparing for the future while celebrating current successes.

District overhauls technology plan 

It has been five years since the Eureka County School District Technology Plan was updated. Elmer Porter, technology director/systems engineer, related there have been substantial changes to the previous plan. “Last fall Kelly [Miller] and I got together and started putting together the revisions,” Porter said. “We knew we wanted to get something done before school starts next August.”

The major changes include network security and acceptable-use policies, POOL PAC’s multi-factor authentication procedure, along with replication. If a teacher or staff member leaves, procedures are outlined for removing them from the system. A cybersecurity incident response plan and technology security are included, as well as guidance on how to use AI in schools. Porter included integrating view boards because every teacher uses a view board. “In case someone wants to see our tech plan,” Porter said, “we want to let them know this is what we do.”

Porter said there is very little on-premise storage; most is stored on the cloud, including applications and data. He said there need to be standards for vendors, as “we need to see what they have as far as a policy for our data so everything’s secure.” Every few years POOL PAC does an unannounced visit to schools to assess the network, “put together a plan and give you a grade and some places they saw vulnerabilities you should look at or fix.” The most recent POOL PAC summary is in the plan as well.

They have been working extensively on the AI plan and on how to teach teachers to teach AI. Kelly Miller, technology systems specialist, said there is a training scheduled for all teachers next year in Microsoft Teams. Miller said right now they have a content filter and all of Chat GPT and Black Box are blocked. Using Teams Classroom, teachers will be able to track students’ AI use and know what percentage of work was AI-written.

Congress just passed a law called the Take it Down Act for illicit material posted on social media. Porter said a 15-year-old spoke on how AI took her face and made explicit pictures and “there was nothing she could do to fight back or protect her…” Miller said, “We have to put it into the acceptable-use policy as a little blurb of how to use AI with morals. So, if students are caught using it to cheat, it’s just built into our student handbook now that it’s not something that they can do.” “It’s a great platform that’s already built into what we have currently. We just need to get teachers using it effectively,” Miller said.

Superintendent Tate Else said last month every teacher in the district created a Kagan lesson using Co-Pilot. “Some teachers really pushed back at first,” Else said. “Definitely, the world is changing.” Miller said, “We want our teachers to be at least one step ahead of our students.” Microsoft will be doing a training on how to use Co-Pilot and Accelerated Programs on Aug. 13. There will be more in-depth exploration of topics Aug. 14. “We’ll bring back Microsoft when we think we need them,” Porter said. “These accelerators are amazing, what you can do with those if you do them the right way.” “Instead of going in and creating a Word document and emailing it to a teacher,” students will “go in the classroom portal and submit things through a classroom portal,” Miller said. Porter said, “We’re working on our end to try to make that transition as smooth as possible.” The board approved the ECSD Technology Plan.

Crescent Valley Elementary calendar aligned with Lander County

It then considered the 2026-2027 Crescent Valley Elementary school calendar’s alignment with Lander County’s calendar since Crescent Valley students attend middle and high school in Battle Mountain. Lander County takes a full week off for Thanksgiving, as will Crescent Valley. Crescent Valley will go two extra days to get 144 days, while Eureka will end two days earlier.

Tentative budget approved amidst state funding uncertainties

In considering the 2025-2026 Tentative Budget, Superintendent Else noted, “[Finance director] Rhonda [Wilker] has done an outstanding job on this guiding document.” Else related they continue to receive changes at a state level. He said, “The governor’s legislatively approved budget is not approved yet. Within that budget, there’s some interpretation as far as what the allocations for our school district look like…Senate Bill 500 also has some proposed different numbers out there,” so, “depending on which bill or budget is passed in this session, our revenues that we use to create this budget will change. That’s not uncommon, but it could be more of an adjustment than we’ve ever had. I just want that to be known. When we audit the budget in December, certainly it’s going to look a lot different.”

“We say this is a planning and guiding document that is subject to change,” Else said. “I’d say that more so now than we ever have before.” Else said Wilker has had to make changes “every day for the past two or three weeks” based on new information being received. Wilker said since the budget workshop and follow-up meeting, “The expenditures on here are the same. The revenues have changed a little bit.” The document shows anticipated enrollment of 300, but they think it will be closer to 286. Else said, “The entire education fund budget” at a state level is based on a lower number that “reset everything down to a lower level.” The board approved the Tentative Budget.

Eureka High School highlights

Eureka High School principal John Glover reported it’s been a busy month at EHS, with the spring band concert held April 22 at the Opera House and the FFA Soils Team competing in the national competition in Oklahoma. Teacher Appreciation Week was May 5-8, and the FFA concluded their year with a banquet at the Opera House on May 7. Move Up Day was May 14, and students got to meet the new sixth graders. Baccalaureate was held May 20 at the Opera House. Seniors traveled to Lagoon in Farmington, Utah on May 21.

Finals for underclassmen finished May 22. With the seniors’ academic school year over, they headed to the elementary school in their caps and gowns on May 22. The alumnae dinner was May 24 at the Opera House, and May 29 was Senior Awards Night. The high school band performed at the Memorial Day celebration May 26. Eighth-grade promotion is May 30 at 2 p.m., and the high school graduation is the same day at 7 p.m.

Spring sports season just finished and was celebrated at the Spring Sports Awards Ceremony, May 19. Glover noted both the track and softball teams had great seasons. The boys’ track team finished fourth in the state, and the girls’ track team are the 1A State Champions. Glover said, “These girls have a hugely bright future.”

Elementary schools roundup 

Elementary schools principal Lisa Hutchison related the Crescent Valley Elementary school students went on a field trip May 13 to Fossil Hill. “It was a little bit wet, so we were a little nervous” about getting the bus up there, she said. The Crescent Valley sixth-grade students went to Battle Mountain on May 14 to tour Battle Mountain Junior High, which they’ll be attending next year. Annual Field Day was held May 19, and the last school day is Friday, May 30, with the awards ceremony and sixth-grade promotion.

Eureka Elementary fourth graders took a walking field trip through Eureka on May 14, and the fifth graders went to Lehman Caves on May 15. The fourth graders went to the California Trails Center May 20, while the fifth graders went to the courthouse to do their mock trial. The sixth graders headed to Ely to the Railroad Museum on May 20. Kindergarten graduation was held May 21 at 5 p.m. All the elementary students wrote a letter or card for graduating seniors to be given during the graduation walk on Thursday, May 22. That was also the last day of pre-K. Annual Field Day for Eureka Elementary was May 28, and the final day of the school year was Thursday, May 29, with students dismissed at 12:15 after an awards ceremony at 8:30 a.m. Crescent Valley and Eureka Elementary students are receiving a summer book pack provided from a Nevada Gold Mines grant.

District celebrates strong gains in math

Else reported that while he doesn’t have complete data back from the Math Pilot, he was really pleased with the schools’ math scores, especially with 100 percent proficiency for Crescent Valley kindergarteners in both math and reading. “Our middle school math score, which has traditionally been a very, very challenging area since forever,” was “awesome,” with some children showing 30+ points of growth. Several grades at Eureka Elementary showed over 70 percent proficiency. Principal Hutchison concurred, saying she received data showing 21 percent growth in math at Eureka Elementary and 5 percent in ELA. Crescent Valley grew 3 percent in math but saw a 17 percent decline in ELA, which “is an area we’ll focus on this next year and provide supports with the new ELA program as needed, but great growth overall.” Else said, “It’s been a wonderful year” with “so many things to celebrate.”