Wyoming
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.
Wyoming
Measles confirmed in Teton County, Wyoming, as summer crowds flock to parks – East Idaho News
JACKSON, Wyo. (WyoFile) — After confirming a case of measles in an unvaccinated adult in Teton County, Wyoming, health officials are warning the public about possible exposure at locations in Grand Teton National Park and Jackson.
The news comes as summer crowds flood the region with tourists from around the world.
The public may have been exposed between June 17-25 at several locations in Teton County, according to the Wyoming Health Department. They include restaurants in Grand Teton National Park’s Colter Bay Village on June 17-18; a Colter Bay convenience store on June 20 and the Target in Jackson on June 25.
“We are asking people who may have been exposed to watch for measles symptoms for 21 days past the exposure date and consider avoiding crowded public places and high-risk settings such as daycare centers,” State Health Officer Alexia Harrist said in a press release.
Monitoring is especially critical for people who have not been vaccinated with the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, according to the health department.
It marks Wyoming’s second confirmed case of the highly contagious infection in 2026. Wyoming went 15 years without a confirmed case of measles until last year.
Resurgence
Health officials confirmed Wyoming’s first 2026 case in May. An adult patient in Fremont County who did not have a confirmed vaccination status caught the disease, according to the Wyoming Department of Health.
Measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 — indicating no endemic transmission for 12 months or more. But it re-emerged in recent years primarily due to declining vaccination rates and increased public health skepticism. Those trends spawned during the COVID-19 pandemic and have persisted during the second Trump administration.
The neighboring state of Utah is one of America’s 2026 measles hotspots, with 499 cases reported so far this year.
RELATED | Anguished parents. Doctors in tears. Utah’s long measles outbreak takes a toll
A vaccination rate of 95% is necessary for community immunity to prevent measles outbreaks, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
In 2025, Wyoming’s proportion of kindergarten students who had completed the MMR vaccine was 93.6%, the CDC reports. That rate is higher than Colorado, Utah and Montana for the same year.
However, it’s declined overall since 2012-13, when Wyoming’s kindergarten vaccination rate was above 97%. It fell to 90.2% in 2020-21 before inching back up to the current 93.6%.
A measles case had not been reported in the state since 2010 until July 2025, when the health department confirmed measles in an unvaccinated child from Natrona County. By year’s end, 13 more cases were confirmed. The majority involved unvaccinated children and adults.
Along with being extremely contagious, measles can cause severe complications like pneumonia and brain swelling and can leave lasting impacts on the immune system. One to three out of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die from complications, according to the CDC.
RELATED | The US is on the verge of losing its measles elimination status. Here’s why that matters
RELATED | Measles is not the only disease on the rise. Mumps also may be making a comeback
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GILLETTE, Wyo. — As the Aug. 18 primary election approaches, County 17 is introducing candidate questionnaires to help voters make informed decisions at the ballot box.
Every candidate in the primary field was sent the same three questions and given a limit of 500 words, which could be distributed among their answers as they saw fit. To ensure a fair and direct line to the community, all responses are published exactly as submitted, without edits or alterations.
Candidates were asked:
- What are the most crucial challenges your constituents are facing?
- If elected, how will you address these challenges?
- What qualities or qualifications do you possess that have prepared you to meet these challenges?
Questionnaires are being published on a rolling basis online through Aug. 11. They will be accessible via the County 17 Election Tracker.
Scott Smith (R), Wyoming state treasurer
What are the most crucial challenges your constituents are facing?
Everywhere I go many Wyoming citizens are concerned that our government is selling out our state lands to the highest bidder for crony capitalism. Some are concerned about Data Centers, Commercial Wind Generators, or nuclear waste storage. The biggest concern is the resources these outfits are taking, secondly, they are concerned about health issues related to living nearby, and lastly they are concerned with cost associated with these projects being passed onto the taxpayer.
If elected, how will you address these challenges?
One of the things that many people don’t know is that the State Treasurer sits on the State Land and Investment Board. (SLIB) The same issues that concern our citizens are the same reasons that I have decided to run for this office. The SLIB has voted to lease state lands to a hydrogen plant in Converse County that would take eight gallons of our valuable water to produce one gallon of hydrogen jet fuel using wind and solar generation to power the plant. These same elected officials have sold off $100 million of our state lands to the federal government. I believe that some things are not for sale. As Treasurer you can count on me to count the cost and listen to the people in the public testimony. If we are going to accept some of these projects the citizens need to have the benefit, like lower utility costs.
What qualities/qualifications do you possess that have prepared you to meet these challenges?
My bachelor’s degree is in Business Administration with an emphasis in management and marketing. I will be a leader in the state treasurer’s office that creates a positive work environment that will allow our investment team to create higher returns on the people’s money that the state invests. I would like to work with the legislature to use these interest earnings to buy down the people’s property taxes to alleviate part of the burden inflation has caused on the average citizen. My day job, I work as a bookkeeper and work with numbers day in and day out and have corrected some inefficiencies to help small businesses become more profitable. I plan to do that within the state office and make those profits available to the legislature to reduce the tax burden for the people. I have also served in the Wyoming House of Representatives for Goshen County and I have served on the Appropriations Committee and I am familiar with the massive state budget.
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