Latest news with #SenateFile126
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House votes not to keep University of Wyoming Lab School open
CHEYENNE — Wyoming's House of Representatives has opted against passing legislation to keep the University of Wyoming Lab School open, killing a bill that has sparked hours of debate in the Capitol. With 41 pieces of legislation scheduled for debate before a Friday night deadline, acting chairman Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, noted that representatives spent an hour and 18 minutes debating Senate File 126, 'Establishment of a K-8 public lab school.' Ultimately, the measure failed in a 32-24 vote. Some lawmakers gave impassioned pleas to keep the school, which has been a part of Wyoming's history for more than 125 years, open. Others argued that passing SF 126 would be overstepping the bounds of state government, wading into a local issue that Albany County School District 1 Board of Trustees and University of Wyoming Board of Trustees have already decided. Rep. Tom Kelly, R-Sheridan (2025) Rep. Tom Kelly, R-Sheridan 'When this came into the (House Education) Committee, I was somebody who was on the fence about it,' Rep. Tom Kelly, R-Sheridan, said. 'When I voted yes on it, it was because this is exactly the type of discussion this issue deserved.' Kelly ended up casting another vote in favor of SF 126 Friday, but it was not enough. 'We are having trouble categorizing this, because the school is unique,' Kelly said. 'But we are seeking to restore that historical and cultural gem to Wyoming. Is it the right thing to do? Absolutely.' The Legislature was the last stop in a long effort to reestablish the UW Lab School as it once was, after an announcement last year from both managing educational institutions that this academic year would be the last for the lab school. For over 130 years, the lab school operated as a K-8 public school, many of those offering practicum and observational experiences for pre-service teachers and other UW students on campus. For around a decade, the school has been guided by a memorandum of understanding between the ACSD1 and the university, but the two educational bodies could not agree on a process to move forward while also meeting objectives both said they had for the school. Argument in favor: 'Decision makers have failed' House Education Committee Chairman Rep. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie, said the bill was not about saving a school, but promoting a Wyoming legacy. Rep. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie (2025) Rep. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie 'In recent years, decision makers have failed the very people they were entrusted to serve. Many feel the decision to unilaterally close the Lab School was made behind closed doors, without transparency and without input from parents, students and the Wyoming public,' Andrew said. Rep. Tomi Strock, R-Douglas, urged her fellow lawmakers not to look at the decision as if it were about a 'normal school in a school district,' because, in fact, the issue is one of school choice. Rep. Tomi Strock, R-Douglas (2025) Rep. Tomi Strock, R-Douglas 'I want to remind everyone that this is not the same kind of setup … as in the school district,' Strock said. 'Please quit looking at it as the same as all the other school districts, and as if we are taking over some local control.' Rep. Ken Chestek, D-Laramie, said he believes there were 'no bad actors' that led the Lab School to where it is today. However, the issue has been 'divisive, and it has been tearing apart the community,' Chestek said. He respects both the ACSD1 and UW trustees, but said he had to support keeping the school open. Rep. Ken Chestek, D-Laramie (2025) Rep. Ken Chestek, D-Laramie 'It breaks my heart to see these two entities, good institutions, at loggerheads, not agreeing on something that I think the community loves,' Chestek said. 'This is tearing us up.' Argument against: 'Not the role of the state Legislature' Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland, said she could not support the Lab School bill, although she empathized with parents, teachers and students who desperately wanted to save the school. 'It is simply not the role of the state Legislature to come into a situation like this and make themselves, sort of, a court of last resort,' Lawley said. 'A place for people to come when they are unhappy or dissatisfied with what has happened at the local level, and want us to enter into a space that includes a school district, our university and somehow be the arbiter of that.' Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland (2025) Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland Rep. Art Washut, R-Casper, said he felt the bill was asking lawmakers to 'micromanage a local school,' and that he could not support SF 126. Rep. McKay Erickson, R-Afton, said he had not found a person at the university or on the school board who wanted to continue the Lab School. 'It is, folks, tough to close schools for any district,' Erickson said. 'But this would be getting into the weeds big time, if we go above their decision to close the school. … That seems to just be clouded, extremely.'
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
University of Wyoming Lab School bill passes Senate, heads to the House
CHEYENNE — A bill to keep open the Lab School on the University of Wyoming campus has passed the Wyoming Senate. The Senate advanced Senate File 126, 'Establishment of a K-8 public lab school' on third reading Monday morning in a 18-12 vote. The Lab School has been a part of UW for 137 years, according to Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie. For the past 25 years, it has also been a part of Albany County School District 1. That transition took place when the state's school foundation program came into existence, meaning the district was the appropriate avenue for funding the school. Under a memorandum of understanding, the lab school existed for two decades as a joint venture between the university and ACSD1. Operating in a cooperative manner, the school carried out the university's mission to offer educational opportunities for its students and educators, while at the same time meeting the district's mission to educate its students. Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie (2025) Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie 'But over the last five years, things broke down,' Rothfuss said during committee of the whole debate on the Senate floor on Thursday. ACSD1 was 'no longer interested in this school being a school of choice, as it has been for so many years, with its own independent curriculum, its own independent education program,' Rothfuss said. 'So they started to constrict and tighten down on how the school operated,' he said. 'At the same time, as a result of that, the university saw less return, because they didn't have an independent school. They had a school district school on campus, and so they started to pull away.' Last summer, both agencies announced they would cease operating the lab school in its current form and conditions on campus. 'We tried to get them to sit down, work it out, and return it back to its strong form of the past, where it was serving the educational mission of the state. ... But we were unsuccessful,' Rothfuss said. SF 126 would create, in statute, a K-8 public lab school that would promote 'developmentally appropriate instruction' while serving as a teacher educational institution. The school would continue as a coordinated effort between UW and ACSD1, operating as a school of choice, with its own governing board tasked with establishing school curriculum and teaching practices. The school would remain on the main UW campus. The lab school would also be required to make regular reports to the Joint Education Committee. 'That will provide an opportunity to elevate the mission of the lab school as a statewide institution,' Rothfuss said. To provide continuity for students currently enrolled in the lab school slated to close this spring, the school would open in the fall of 2025. School district and university officials testified against the bill in committee, but students and former teachers have advocated that the school stay open. On Thursday, Senate President Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, said he thought he'd known how he'd vote on the bill — indicating he may have voted no — but may be swayed by the school choice argument. 'Could this be thought of as actually school choice?' Salazar asked. Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper (2025) Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, said that it could. 'Yes, it is very close to a charter school, and it is (about) school of choice,' Scott, who sits on the Senate Education Committee and voted for SF 126 there, said. But fellow committee member Sen. Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne, questioned the measure, saying districts have a 'robust' pathway for establishing charter schools without legislative intervention. 'Those are our charter school laws,' Olsen said. 'Why, if this really is driven by the community, and the stakeholders involved — so set aside the school districts, set aside the university — if it's driven by parents and stakeholders, why should this not go through the traditional charter school pathway?' Scott replied that in the case of the UW Lab School, legislative oversight is necessary because the university is involved. Sen. Gary Crum, R-Laramie (2025) Sen. Gary Crum, R-Laramie Sen. Gary Crum, R-Laramie, said that he could not support SF 126, and was concerned the state would establish a precedent of overruling local decisions about school closures. 'You know, it breaks my heart every time a school closes,' Crum said, adding that in recent years, ACSD1 has closed nine schools, consolidated them into larger facilities. However, Crum said he'd received an estimated 206 emails, texts and phone calls in favor of SF 126, and 447 messages against it. 'I wonder if we are setting up a precedent that, every time we decide that we're going to close this school in this neighborhood that provides this special service, we are going to get to visit about that school (at the Legislature),' Crum said. 'We, as a Legislature, are going to step into local matters. 'The people who are in charge have said, no, they don't want this,' Crum added. But Scott said he was bothered that the arguments from both the university and the school district during committee meetings had 'nothing to do with the quality of education for the kids.' 'They were concerned about bureaucratic issues. Power. Money. We heard a lot about money,' Scott said. 'What I heard from the teachers and the kids convinced me that this was a wonderful school, and that it did an excellent job, as we would expect the choice school to do.' Schools like the lab school are 'precious,' Scott continued. 'Losing them because of a couple of bureaucracies that were caring only about their bureaucratic prerogatives, (and) simply chose to neglect the most important thing that was happening there, that appalled me.'
