Mary Alice Bruce resigns from school board
During her tenure, the district hired a new superintendent, opened the new Slade Elementary and approved some significant budget cuts. The district is now looking for Bruce’s replacement.
The Albany County School Board is seeking a new member following Trustee Mary Alice Bruce’s resignation earlier this month.
A former teacher and counselor, Bruce trained future counselors in the University of Wyoming’s College of Education for three decades, retiring in 2019. She was appointed to the school board in Jan. 2022, and stood for election later that year, winning a special two-year term that would have seen her serve through 2024.
Bruce said she is stepping down reluctantly.
“My one big regret is I’m leaving now,” she said. “But I have some personal family issues to take care of, and so I'm moving out of state.”
Bruce said she was “proud and honored” to have served on the board for the year and a half she did.
“Education has been my life and a focus for me — as a mother, as a math and chemistry teacher, as a school counselor, and then as a professor here at UW,” she said. “Everything's been about really supporting our youth and families and just making the world a better place.”
Bruce said she got to continue that work on the board. During her tenure, the district started fixing its financial accounting, hired a new superintendent and delivered the first of what will probably be two rounds of significant budget cuts.
Just last month, the board reduced field trips and cut several programs — including 5th grade band and orchestra and B teams across various schools — to make back some of a $2.1 million deficit. At the last minute, the board spared its alpine ski team and its school resource officer program, despite those programs costing the district $30,000 and $75,000 respectively.
It was a bumpy road and the board found itself apologizing to angry parents for considering the closure of two rural schools — a move that would not have saved the district any money but would have added considerable stress for the families who send their children there, as those families were quick to point out.
Throughout this time, Bruce served on the board’s finance committee, meeting with other trustees outside of the full board’s monthly meetings to hammer out the necessary cuts.
“Just being in on the discussions and contemplating what kinds of things would be best for the community and the students and still supporting the teachers? Yeah, it's a big responsibility,” she said.
The board, beyond Bruce’s departure, will continue to look at budget cuts. Trustees have been frank that the cuts will be more intense than this year’s and are likely to include layoffs. Bruce said that won’t be easy for anyone in the district, but it could be better in the long run.
“There’s going to be a couple years of pain,” she said. “But at the same time, we don't have as many students here anymore. And so we really need to look at how to rightsize the district so that (with) the staff that we have left, we can pay them what they deserve, and give more attention to them as they deserve.”
The board will have to get better about communicating with the public, Bruce said, especially with such “heartbreaking” decisions coming down the pipeline.
“I think that communication will be crucial,” she said.
For the third time in less than two years, the school board will seek to replace a resigning trustee. Candidates must reside in “Area A,” which is most of the area inside Laramie city limits.
Interested candidates need to submit a letter of interest to the email address boardofeducation@acsd1.org by 4 p.m. on Aug. 18.
The board will host a special meeting for candidate selection and question approval at 7 p.m. on Aug. 21. Candidate interviews and the board’s appointment vote will start at 5 p.m. on Aug. 23.