After Cheyenne’s school board voted to stop using eight of its elementary schools while rebuilding or expanding others, resulting in potentially more students per classrooms, some parents want a re-vote.
One board member described the decision as a “massive overhaul” of the district.
The Laramie County School District No. 1 board voted unanimously, but reluctantly, on Monday to stop using eight elementary schools for education. The move is to trigger the release of $83.4 million the Wyoming Legislature has set aside to rebuild an elementary school and build another school.
State law requires the acceptance of a most cost-effective remedy (MCER) study before the money for the new school and the rebuilding can be put to use.
“My heart is so torn because as a mom I get it. I totally get it,” said Trustee Brooke Humphrey at the meeting. “But also as a community member I get it — and our community has been waiting and waiting and waiting for answers on the south side.
“Plenty of you have said our hands are tied. … None of us want to have to make this decision.”
Vice-Chair Christy Klaassen voiced frustration with what she characterized as a lack of timely help from the Wyoming Legislature in past years, and with “a former leader of our school district” displacing one of the schools without board approval, forcing this whole situation into play.
Arp Elementary School in the south part of the district, call the south triad, is now shut down, with its students attending Eagle Ridge Elementary School in the meantime.
Under the state's MCER the board accepted Monday, Arp would be rebuilt by 2028.
Hebard, Bain, Fairview, Lebhart, Jessup, Miller, Deming and Henderson elementary schools all are be scheduled to close in the coming years under the plan.
They may be repurposed, shuttered or demolished.
Cole Elementary would be slated for a rebuild, with a funding request in 2030 and completion in 2034. Hobbs Elementary would be scheduled for a rebuild by 2030.
Coyote Ridge would see an addition, scheduled for 2035.
Many schools would see enrollment increases to compensate for the closures.
Meadowlark Elementary, for example, would swell from its current enrollment of 485 to about 724.
The plan proposes fewer, more centralized schools with higher populations, rather than the more neighborhood-style schools now in the district.
Parents Shocked
Many parents are frustrated with the plan.
Some told Cowboy State Daily that even the south triad, which stands to benefit the most from the plan, will see the closure of four schools and with them, less neighborhood access, including for summer free-lunch programs.
Jessup, in the central triad, is known as high-quality school. Some parents discussed how they'd moved to their current neighborhoods so their children could attend it, or waiting in front of it all night to register their children there.
But more than the neighborhood access, the possible property devaluation if any of these buildings are left abandoned, and other concerns – parents were most offended that they only heard of the plan last week or last weekend.
“The board should not concur,” said Franz Fuchs, a parent in the district. “Direct a comprehensive, transparent, public and well-noticed process by which the public can come and talk about what they’d like; what are the benefits important to parents; what are the benefits important to teachers.”
The MCER study appeared to have no community involvement, he said, adding that that’s a poor way to conduct government business.
Other parents became tearful during their turn to speak.
“Even big cities like St. Louis, Missouri, don’t have these big giant schools and lack of community schools,” said Lindsay Woznick, an attorney and parent in town. “We’re going to gut our community.”
On The South
A parent from the south triad, Samantha Van Riper, countered, saying the conditions at Arp and other south triad schools have been dismal for years.
“My son and 329 other students have been passed over for what seems like decades,” she said. “Something as small as temperature control and working sewer lines where the toilets flush is very big on the learning environment.”
Teachers from Arp voiced similar sentiments, casting the issue as an “equal opportunity” problem.
State Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that while the MCER's issues seem new and unexpected to many, the district has actually been headed toward these closures since the early 2000s.
The district opted in 2013 to start reconfiguring school buildings to serve grades kindergarten through four in one building, five and six in another, seven and eight in another and nine through 12 in another.
It hasn't been able to implement that configuration in the south triad yet. But that decision also served to push the district toward this MCER, Shelby Carlson of the School Facilities Division, told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.
In November
The Wyoming Schools Facilities Commission meets Nov. 6-7, at which it will have the chance to approve the MCER study to release the money for the district’s rebuilds.
Ten parents signed a petition asking the board to take another look at its other options before then.
“Specifically, Remedy 1b, as outlined in the MCER study but discarded before refinement, is actually the most cost-effective remedy, in that it provides the greatest benefit per dollar spent,” says the petition.
Remedy 1b would allow the district to fully fund the construction of Arp, would renovate Miller and Sunrise, and replace Hobbs and Jessup, the petition adds.
Carlson said that remedy 1b would address individual site upgrades, rather than contemplate an overhaul.
The parents’ petition says this approach carries more benefit per dollar, making it overall more cost-effective.
“This would meet the most pressing capital construction needs of the District without destroying the neighborhood schools in the Central Triad, and at a lower total cost,” says the petition, calling it a win for parents and taxpayers.
School board members did not respond by publication time Thursday to requests for comment on the vote and petition.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.