CASPER, Wyo. – In May 2014, voters in the Natrona County school district rejected a $33 million bond issue to raise money for school improvements.

It’s hard to say why school millage elections pass or fail in different districts around the nation.

But Wyoming is a conservative state where taxpayers tend to keep a close eye on how government is spending their money.

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Perhaps some voters checked out the district’s travel spending in the 2013-14 school year – $415,826 – and decided if there was enough money for so many pricey hotels and jet transportation, there must be enough money for school improvements.

According to school records, the Natrona County district spent at least $145,886 on hotels and other forms of lodging in 2013-14 and $253,525 on airline flights.

Records show a total of 228 transactions at 94 different hotels for school staff in that year. Forty different vendors collected at least $1,000 from the district. The top recipient, Doubletree by Hilton Portland, took in $12,694 from the district.

Some of the school staff hotel tabs were pretty pricey.

There were 13 district transactions at the Doubletree by Hilton Portland on June 12, 2014, for a total of $9,314. There were five prepayments to the Hilton San Diego Bayfront on Jan. 2, 2014 totaling $4,706.

The district spent $6,290 on May 29, 2014 at the Holiday Inn Express in Boston. Another $6,416 went to the Hyatt Regency San Antonio Riverwalk in Oct. 7, 2013.

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You get the picture.

Records also show the Natrona district making 144 transactions for air fare in 2013-14.

Most of the staff hotel stays and air travel involved attending various professional conventions or conferences. But online professional development is becoming more common and inexpensive, particularly compared to the costs of convention hotels and air fare.

Sometimes the trips are funded with federal grant dollars. But if the feds are going to give schools that kind of money, shouldn’t the schools have the flexibility to use it where it’s most needed, which may not necessarily be for professional travel?

District records also show $158,934 spent on lodging for students in the same fiscal year. There were roughly 80 hotels and other vendors that collected district money for student lodging, with about 46 of them collecting at least $1,000.

It’s possible that some or all of the student travel money was paid by students themselves, and was simply transferred to and distributed through a school account.

But with the student tab added in, the Natrona district’s travel total for 2013-14 came to $574,780.