Cecilia Aragón appointed to school board
Aragón joins the board amid an ongoing budget crunch. Taking over the remainder of a two-year term, she will have to run in the 2024 election to keep her seat.
Cecilia Aragón, a University of Wyoming professor who teaches in both the Latino/a Studies Department and the Department of Theatre and Dance, has joined the Albany County School Board.
During a public interview with three other candidates Wednesday, Aragón touted her experience with nonprofits and other community-oriented projects, which has involved both balancing budgets and bringing marginalized communities into the fold.
Aragón teaches on various topics, from children’s theatre and theatre for young audiences to courses on Latino/a culture, folklore and dance.
She also serves as executive director for the Wyoming Latina Youth Conference — an annual event dating back to 2000. The conference invites hundreds of girls from across the state — 375 girls during its latest iteration — to explore science and gain the skills they need to succeed academically and professionally.
“It was an initiative to target specifically young Latinas and educate them in a variety of areas — culture, ethnicity, leadership skills, suicide prevention,” Aragón told the Laramie Boomerang in 2017. “It’s important because it creates a network and cultural connection among young Latinas throughout the state of Wyoming.”
But the conference faces an impending budget cut that could severely restrict what it’s able to accomplish. Many young Latinas attend the conference only with the help of a scholarship.
“This year, we're faced with budget cuts, and we have to reevaluate,” Aragón told the school board during her interview. “Of course we would love to increase our enrollment to 400. But … we're almost having to cut our budget in half. And that may mean that the young participants may not get the swag that they want, or it may mean that we have to cut enrollment to 200 and that we don't have scholarships.”
In her new role as a school board trustee, Aragón will be grappling with similarly difficult decisions. The district faces a severe budget deficit and made several big cuts this summer, from reducing field trips to nixing lawn maintenance to eliminating sports teams.
The board will have to cut out even more from its budget next year; trustees say those cuts will likely include layoffs.
During the interview, Aragón told the board she was ready to take part in that process.
“Facing budget cuts is always very challenging and really difficult — especially when it means human resources, right? You have to cut teachers or you have to cut positions,” Aragón said. “But I'd like to take this in a positive spin and think about (how) this is a way to reset — reset our priorities, think about our values, and evaluate what our current situation is.”
This mirrors the thinking of some other trustees, who have started talking about separating the district’s “needs” from its “nice-to-haves.”
Aragón has also been involved with KOCA, the bilingual radio station, and various other nonprofits in both volunteer and leadership roles.
The school board was left with a vacant seat following the resignation of Mary Alice Bruce earlier this month. Bruce told the Laramie Reporter she had been excited to serve out her term, but is leaving the state to help with “personal family issues.”
Bruce’s departure kicked off the school board’s third vacancy appointment process in less than two years. The school board consists of nine members who serve staggered terms. Taking on the rest of Bruce’s term, Aragón will serve through the end of 2024 and will have to stand in the general election next year if she wishes to keep the seat beyond then.
Aragón was one of four final candidates, the others being Abigail Fournier, Lynne Ipiña, and Tom Witkop. Those final four candidates came from a larger pool of 11 applicants; those applicants included Sandi Rees, who ran for school board in 2022 alongside a slate of other right-wing candidates, and Dan Bleak, who also ran for school board but was not affiliated with that slate.