A massive overhaul of Cheyenne schools is moving forward now that it's been approved by the state's School Facilities Commission.
The school board in Cheyenne plans to close eight elementaries and build, replace or alter 12 other schools over the next decade to address aging facilities and a projected decline in enrollment.
Some parents, like Samantha Van Riper, said the overhaul will provide students in the district's south triad with more equitable facilities.
"We do feel like we have been overlooked for quite some time, and we are so very, very thankful," Van Riper told the commission. "I believe that your choice today is giving our children the educational benefits in the future that other kids in this district have been receiving up until this point."
But other parents, like Katie Dijkstal, have been fighting to save those elementary schools. She argued the overhaul was "stealing from one to give to another" by shutting down neighborhood schools, especially on the south side. Dijkstal said demolishing schools rather than updating them will be costly and displace students, disrupting their learning.
"I just want you all to be aware that when you leave here today, how much this is hurting children, how much this is hurting families," Dijkstal said. "The district doesn't care. The construction department clearly doesn't care."
Dijkstal and the other parents fighting the overhaul organized themselves under the banner of the Cheyenne Parent Alliance. They circulated a petition, which garnered nearly 700 signatures, advocating for an alternate plan that would keep the south side elementary schools open.
That alternate plan had been disregarded earlier in the process as a contracted firm developed the Most Cost Effective Remedy study currently guiding the district overhaul.
But Wyoming School Facilities Division Administrator Shelby Carlson told the commission she had reviewed the suggestion and found it wanting.
"When you really look at logistically deploying this option, it gets very difficult to execute it," she said.
Carlson said a major renovation can be more disruptive than building a new school.
"You've got to move those kids twice if you renovate that building," Carlson said. "You got to move them out. You renovate. You've got to move them back in … If we can replace on another site, then they just move once."
She added there are financial and safety concerns that made the suggested alternative plan unworkable, and that keeping the current slate of schools doesn't conform to the educational model the district has been advancing for more than a decade. Cheyenne schools have been shifting toward a new set-up that will eliminate traditional elementaries and see K-4 schools feed into larger, more centralized 5-6 schools.
"[The alternate plan] is incompatible with the educational model that the district's using," Carlson said. "It's an educational model that has been deployed. It's been in action for 11 years."
Echoing the school board's earlier unanimous vote, the state commission approved the overhaul, unlocking state funds for the first of many construction projects.
