SFC pulls the plug on plans to construct Goshen County school

by Carol Crump
Tuesday, May 6, 2008 2:04 PM MDT

Goshen County School District #1 had approval in 2006 from the Wyoming School Facilities Commission (SFC) for a new Lingle-Fort Laramie elementary school.

A suitability study in September 2006 recommended that the building no longer was suitable, and issues such as ADA accessibility, structure and narrow hallways could cost more to renovate than to replace, Superintendent Ray Schulte said.

Two years later, the SFC’s latest evaluation puts the new school lower on the priority list, and the funding has gone elsewhere.

The district, which serves approximately 1,900 children in seven schools from Lingle, Yoder, Fort Laramie, LaGrange and Torrington, is left with 80 percent of a design, but no new school.

In a letter, the SFC told Schulte to halt the design process, and re-evaluate what the community wants to see in the school.

Schulte shared his frustration with the SFC’s progress for the Goshen district at the SFC’s meeting in Casper on April 21.

”We’ve already spent $325,000 to design,” he said. “We’ve already had multiple community meetings and had sufficient conversations. An elementary building for 150 students, seven classrooms -- how much creativity can go into a small, $6 million building?”

Schulte’s request to the SFC to let the Torrington district spend another $480,000-$500,000 to finish the design and include construction money for the school in a supplemental request to the Legislature appeared to fall on deaf ears, at least for the foreseeable future.

According to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jim McBride, a member of the SFC, the Goshen County district isn’t the only one that has fallen to the bottom of the list for funding since letters to proceed were sent out two years ago.

“Four, five, six districts are in the exact same shoes,” McBride told Schulte. “We now have a process in place that everyone seems to have bought into. The next funding cycle, you’ll probably get a new school.”

Changing the rules

In July 2006, SFC Director Bubba Shivler said, “Our mission is to go out and build.” The Wyoming Supreme Court mandated that all school facilities in the state be brought up to standards by the SFC.

Among the guidelines are standards for such things as acreage of a school site, classroom space, energy efficiency and safety.

Each existing school was evaluated for consistency with the guidelines, and a 50 percent cutoff mark directed renovating or building new schools.

Each district prepared a five-year plan to get the job done. Current SFC Director Ken Daraie said the five-year plans approved at the time had a price tag of $640 million, and only a small fraction of the projects were funded by the Legislature.

In Natrona County, the local district’s initial $200 million request to the SFC would have replaced all but eight of the district’s schools within the next 5-10 years, starting with seven schools in 2007 and 2008.

The projected cost of $113 million from the state’s biennium budget to start the process was approved in October by the SFC. In late December, the commission changed its mind, and cut the district’s request back to $40 million.

Daraie pointed out that the process has changed from when the Legislature initially asked the state’s school districts to come up with a list of facility needs.

The unanticipated $640 million needs list was addresses by a legislative allocation of $240 million, but “there was no way to figure out whose project came first,” Daraie said.

Initially, the SFC hired a Colorado company to assess the condition of all the school buildings with a process that gave each building a point value. Assessments now are being updated to include technology, educational suitability and capacity.

“What happened to our school?”

Capacity may be an issue with Lingle Elementary’s design once the new prison opens in Torrington.

“Soon, you’ll have a new prison. What complexion of the community will change? Where will the guards and their kids live?” McBride asked Schulte.

The SFC will be completing new condition assessments for all 380 of the state’s school buildings over the summer, a process that Daraie said will provide “much greater clarity a year from now.”

But it may be too late for Lingle Elementary, said Goshen County School District representative Brent Kaufman.

“A bad school needs to be redone,” he said. “Community members are asking, ‘What happened to our school?”

One of the Goshen County community members asking questions is Republican State Rep. Matt Teeters. He’ll try to convince the next legislative session to codify the SFC’s process.

“One hundred-plus schools were thrown out of priority,” Teeters said. “They’re not following through on their word. Codify the process so a new board and a new director doesn’t change things.”

E-mail Carol Crump at carol.crump@casperjournal.com.

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