State lawmakers requested testimony about the future of the University of Wyoming Lab School at a recent interim education committee meeting. Last summer UW gave the K-8 school one more year to vacate the campus premises.
A bipartisan delegation of Albany County representatives and senators signed a letter to the University of Wyoming (UW) and the county’s school district, arguing that Wyoming needs to save the school since it functions as the state’s teacher incubator. Until recently, the UW Lab School trained teachers through a project-based and outdoor-focused curriculum.
“I mean, it's been here for over a hundred years,” said Rep. Karlee Provenza (D-Laramie). “Historically, the school has provided a job training program for teachers across the state and we're at an all time low of people who are applying to be teachers.”
But UW Board of Trustees Chair Kermit Brown said since the pandemic, the education department hasn’t used the Lab School to train teachers as much.
“The problem is that that school has now just become another school in the Albany County School District system,” Brown said. “It's not really a laboratory anymore. We don't need it for teaching. We have the internet.”
Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie) disagreed, saying experiential learning is part of the university’s mission.
“Real experiential learning is the priority of the university right now, one of the pillars of the university's teacher training,” Rothfuss said. “So I'm gonna need to understand how the alternatives are better than direct, firsthand experiential learning.”
But Brown also said there are new security issues in keeping the school where it is within the College of Education.
“Now we have the added complexity of the dorms that we're building next door,” Brown said. “They're conjoined with this school, and we feel that is not a really good idea. We're going to have 900-some students in there, and you have this Lab School right next to it.”
Albany County School Board Chair Beth Bear expressed frustration with lawmakers for usurping the decision making process. She said her school district is still working to gather input from the community about whether they want to keep the school and, if so, where it should be housed.
“This is a public county school that should rest with us. We’ve been elected by our county to make decisions for our school district,” Bear said.
But Rothfuss said the state is getting involved because it isn’t clear that the university or the school district is doing their due diligence to evaluate the costs of giving up on the school and figuring out how to expand the district’s capacity to accommodate the 162 children currently attending the Lab School.
“From the district's perspective, I understand that it does not cost you any more money. It can save you money – makes perfect sense,” Rothfuss said. “This is one of the issues why the state has some say, because it's a state funding model. From our perspective, at a minimum, for the major maintenance standpoint, it's an increased bottom line to the school foundation program.”
Meredith McLaughlin taught at the Lab School for years before the district imposed curriculum changes and UW started training teachers in other schools as well. She said she’d like to see the Lab School revitalized to what it once was.
“American public education is in an unprecedented time for both teachers and students, fleeing the system that seems to be failing us. We have to find autonomy, freedom and maybe even spaces where teaching and learning can be joyful again,” McLaughlin said.
She said it’s not easy to start a school of choice and it’s a waste to let this one go.
“States around the country are adding laboratory schools by legislative mandate. Florida, Texas, North Carolina and others all have legislated lab schools whose purpose is this kind of innovative system – to reimagine the structure of schooling to be more flexible, more adaptable and more attractive to new teachers,” McLaughlin said.
Going forward, lawmakers said they plan to draft legislation to “establish a clear statutory framework for the UW Lab School’s operation within the University of Wyoming.”
