Bleak runs for School Board

The 48-year-old vice president of underwriting and operations at Mountain West Farm Bureau Insurance is one of seven contenders for the three open School Board seats in Area A, representing the city of Laramie. Two other candidates are competing for an at-large seat on the board.

Before joining Mountain West in 2001, Bleak was a high school math teacher for 10 years, including seven years at Laramie High School, where he was also the Junior Varsity Boys basketball coach.

He has lived in Laramie for 27 years and has three degrees from the University of Wyoming: a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in math education and a master’s in business administration. He was also a member of the initial new LHS building committee.

Bleak views the School Board as an entity whose role should be selecting quality administrators and holding them accountable for creating “cultures of success” and hiring quality teachers. He said he feels good about the work the current board has done.

His goal, he said, is to see ACSD No. 1 become the best school district in the state.

“When you get down to it, the success kids are going to experience in their education, most of that is going to stem from their interactions with their teachers,” he said. “And so, if we can have the highest quality teachers possible, there’s a good chance our kids are going to have some of the best education possible.”

When it comes to addressing state budget cuts, Bleak said he would wait to see the recommendations from Superintendent Jubal Yennie and his staff.

“You want to get teachers’ input into the budget,” Bleak said. “You want to get building administrators’ input into the budget. Certainly, you want to get parents’ and students.’ So, I think a board member that comes in with a preconceived notion of how they should reduce the budget or constrain it, I think that’s a dangerous thing, because I don’t have all the facts right now.”

Bleak supports the School Board’s decision to hold off on implementing a policy for transgender and gender-nonconforming students until the board receives more direction at the national level. He said he thinks the district is capable of coming up with policies and procedures that look out for the safety of all students while respecting the needs of the few.

“I think they were prudent, because there was a lot of things happening nationally with that same policy, and for them to establish a policy before it had been decided at the federal level — or, more importantly, before it had been decided legally in the courts — then there’s a good chance whatever policy they put in place was going to be contested anyway,” he said.

He also thinks school facilities upgrades should be a district priority, depending on the state funding that’s available.

“There’s ingredients that are necessary for a kid to have a quality education,” he said. “You’ve got to have the right people. You’ve got to give them the right tools to teach kids, and they’ve got to be able to do it in a safe environment. And by safe, that’s one that’s going to facilitate the student’s learning, that’s one where you’re not fighting overcrowding, and just the condition of the school has to be safe. The old high school — I loved that building, but it had seen its time.”