Cheyenne schools overhaul could close eight elementaries

The school district in Cheyenne advanced a massive overhaul of its school model this month. The proposal must still be approved by the state School Facilities Commission before any demolition or construction can occur.

The overhaul is meant to address school conditions and a projected enrollment decline, but it would entail closing eight elementary schools and building, replacing or reconfiguring at least 12 other elementary and middle schools. This would all be accomplished in the next decade.

Under the new model, schools for kindergarten through fourth grade would feed into larger, more centralized schools for fifth and sixth graders.

The changes touch all three of the district’s “triads” — south, central and east — but the largest changes are in the south triad, where the plan calls for closing four elementaries, replacing two others and constructing a new middle school.

“We have got to do something about our schools in the south triad,” Trustee Alicia Smith said during a Laramie County School District No. 1 board meeting Oct. 7. “We have to. We have needed to for years and years, and those kids and those teachers and those administrators in those buildings deserve so much more than what they’ve had to deal with.”

Dozens of parents spoke against the proposal during that meeting, saying the plan was developed and selected without public input and that it would rob the south triad of its neighborhood schools.

“You know in your heart this is not what’s best for our community,” said Lindsay Woznick, a district parent and local attorney.

The school board ultimately approved the plan with a unanimous vote, but many of the trustees said they were conflicted and felt like their hands were tied. Trustee Brooke Humphrey said the district had to do something about its aging schools.

“My heart is so torn, because as a mom, I get it, I totally get it,” Humphrey said. “But also as a community member, I get it … None of us want to have to make this decision, but we have to look at it as an all-or-nothing, because that’s how it’s currently being presented to us.”

Technically, the school board only approved a study about the most cost-effective solutions. That study (produced by a private firm for the Wyoming State Construction Department) evaluated various proposals and highlighted one plan as its preference — the plan that involves closing eight elementaries.

But approving the study was a big step toward putting the overhaul into action. The state School Facilities Commission will have to weigh in on the study next month.

A coalition of parents is still attempting to save the eight schools now on the chopping block. They’ve circulated a petition asking district, city and state leaders to consider one of the other proposals outlined in the study. While organizers say the petition garnered 673 signatures in its first 10 days, school board trustees decided not to reconsider their earlier vote.

Some of those same parents are also lobbying the School Facilities Commission to reject the current proposal or otherwise reevaluate the way the study was conducted.

Laramie County School District No. 1 declined to comment for this story.