Wyoming legislators hear about need for new K-12 schools

Dec. 20—CHEYENNE — On the final day of their two weeks of budget hearings, members of the Wyoming Legislature's Joint Appropriations Committee on Wednesday reviewed a $347.6 million bill draft that requested funds for K-12 school construction projects.

Lawmakers decided to postpone a decision on the draft bill until the 2024 budget session so they could visit with their constituents about school facility concerns.

Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, who co-chairs the Select Committee on School Facilities, said the biggest challenge that faced lawmakers was the need to build three new high schools in the next five to seven years.

The estimated cost to build the high schools is approximately $750 million, Brown told his colleagues.

"As the chairman, I would encourage the (Joint Appropriations Committee), as well as the Legislature as a whole, to spend a significant amount of time working on a solution to find funding for these types of projects," Brown said.

There is currently nothing in savings for these projects, and Brown said this would be one of his biggest priorities when the select committee heads into the 2024 interim session.

All three high schools — one each in Sweetwater Campbell and Teton counties — are ranked high priority for capacity issues. Rock Springs High School in Sweetwater County, as well as the Campbell County high school, ranked high in terms of capacity needs in the 2016 assessment list of school facilities.

"I would highly encourage anybody who is interested or may disagree with the movement of these projects forward to definitely take a site visit to either one of these two high schools," Brown said.

The high school in Teton County is currently struggling with capacity issues, as well, and is in desperate need of replacement, Brown said.

"It's our obligation as a state to take care of these students and the schools 100% of the way through," Brown said.

There is no funding for the Teton County high school in the current budget request, but Brown said this school will likely show up in next year's budget request.

"The longer we push out these projects ... the longer we are going to delay the inevitable," he said.

RSHS: A years-long request

The select committee's bill allocates $9.9 million for the design of a new Rock Springs High School in July 2025. Representatives from Sweetwater County School District 1 asked for the money to be immediately available, should it be approved.

Carol Jelaco, the board chair for Sweetwater County School District 1, said she was thankful for the $9.9 million allocation.

"However, we feel that there is an urgent need for the replacement of the high school now," Jelaco said.

The small high school design from the 1950s and '60s doesn't adequately meet modern school standards, she said. The building also doesn't properly facilitate the needs of high school students.

Board vice chair Stephanie Thompson said the school district has pursued the replacement of this high school for a little over a decade.

"We have been, as a community and a board, pretty patient with the whole process. However, it's coming to a head where we're very concerned about our current facility," Thompson said.

Rep. Tom Walters, R-Casper, said the realistic timeline for designing and building a new high school is five to six years.

"If we gave you the money today, it's going to take that long," Walters said.

Component funds for a backflow preventer project for the school were moved by the committee to fund the design of a new school in 2025. Should the backflow preventer fail, which it hasn't yet, the school would have to be evacuated.

"Yours is a small portion of a very large budget request," said JAC co-Chair Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, noting it could take until March for the district to know the end result of the bill. "Patience is important."

Messy year for school facilities

Brown relayed to lawmakers the challenges of the past two years faced by both the State Construction Department and School Facilities Commission in developing this year's budget request.

A school facility condition assessments (FCA) list is traditionally generated every four years to update the state on the current conditions and capacities of its school buildings. However, the Legislature failed to fund an FCA assessment in 2020, which put school construction projects severely behind schedule.

"Over the past two years, we have not had (an updated FCA) list to work from," Brown said.

The data pulled from the last FCA assessment in 2016 was not "what we should have been using," Brown said. Out of the $95 million appropriated by the Legislature in the supplemental budget last year, money was pulled to conduct an updated FCA list in 2023.

However, a new contractor, Bureau Veritas, was hired to conduct the new FCA assessment, which completely flipped the list of projects that were prioritized in 2016. This hurt some schools that were at the top of the list, including elementary schools in Laramie County School District 1.

There is currently a Most Cost Effective Remedy (MCER) study scheduled for LCSD1, which will determine future school projects in the state's largest K-12 district. LCSD1 officials have yet to announce whether these construction plans include replacing Arp Elementary and plan to wait until the MCER results come in.

No timeline has been given as to when a completed MCER study will determine the replacement of elementary schools in LCSD1, but officials are hopeful it will be finished before the School Facilities Commission's first quarterly meeting in March.

Hannah Shields is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's state government reporter. She can be reached at 307-633-3167 or hshields@wyomingnews.com. You can follow her on X @happyfeet004.