Save the UW Lab School

02/24/2025

Thank you, Jeff, for the fair coverage! I want to reiterate my concerns about questions not being directly, clearly answered in public settings by ACSD1. This is ultimately why I ran for the Board of Trustees, and why I plan to do so again. This is a trend that goes beyond the Lab School, and it directly interferes with the district's understanding of the community they serve. This deficiency was expressed to me by virtually everyone I spoke with while campaigning, and I hope to see working with the public to address this need be more of a priority going forward!

As Senate File 126 heads to the House floor, local legislators, school district leaders and lab school community members debate online and off about the choice school’s funding and future.

02/22/2025

To continue the trend of speaking our truth, I would like to present the following points to the public. These are being left out of public information being provided by ACSD1, which means people only receiving ACSD1's perspective are not hearing a massive part of the story.

1. The original understanding was that the Lab School would transfer from joint UW/ACSD1 operation to exclusively ACSD1. There was no mention of the school being closed until December. We were led to believe they were going to move the school to the Beitel building unless and until a more suitable location was found. Their vote was a rug pull we had precisely seven days to counter, as we first heard about the possibility of closure at the ACSD1's board meeting the week before they voted. This was not enough time for us to build an effective case in favor of following their original plan.

2. The Lab School community (students, parents, teachers, and alumni) was excluded from this process the entire time. UW's decision was based on discussions held, primarily in private, between UW and ACSD1 administration. We have been trying to prevent, and now resolve, this tragedy for years, and every step of the way we have faced numerous roadblocks administrators chose to put in our path. Considering the profound impact schools have on the daily lives of our families, actively shutting us out of a process as serious as permanently closing a school of choice is incredibly unfair.

3. The Lab School is still an important part of the university's teacher training programs. Why? Because pre-practicum students (every student before their senior year practicum student teaching) spend a substantial amount of time in Lab School classrooms and receive mentorship and instruction from Lab School teachers as part of their College of Education program, starting in their freshman year. This has still been done in recent years, in spite of the one-sided mandates being enforced by ACSD1. If this is lost, preservice teachers will lose a major component of their education program.

4. Yes, there are problems making keeping the Lab School on the UW campus challenging. However, because of point 2, we were not given a chance to provide our ideas for solving them or collaborate with decisionmakers on coming up with solutions despite us repeatedly requesting opportunities to participate. Closing a historic institution with broad bipartisan support without making an effort to fix these solvable problems does everyone a disservice.

I am extremely disappointed in our district for making public statements that exclude information they see as detrimental to their cause. This is why we are fighting so hard to speak our truth and Save the UW Lab School. Our voices matter, and so far, they have been truly heard and taken into account only by the Wyoming legislature.

02/20/2025

This is one of many reasons the Lab School is worth saving! If you truly want to set children up for success in adulthood you have to ensure they have basic life skills, like public speaking and doing thorough research, and there is no better way to train teachers in creating projects such as this than allowing them to spend time in a school where they happen on a daily basis and learn from other teachers with years of experience in leading them.

02/08/2025

I made a tool that will allow you to contact everyone in the Wyoming House and Senate on their personal state emails, in just two clicks - one click for each legislative body! (Shoutout to the Lab School teacher who taught me how to do this. 💖)

Edit - a spreadsheet with legislator contact info has been added as backup!

02/08/2025

Written by a Lab School parent and shared with permission.

Albany County School District #1 has stated that SF0126 will result in a significant reduction in the General Fund budget. They have stated that will result in the inability to provide raises for teachers and staff and will result in an increase in insurance costs for employees. During the Senate Education Committee hearing on January 29th, Trystin Green, Chief Financial Officer for ACSD1, stated that SF0126 will take 2.5 million from the district's revenue. I would like ACSD1 to explain this. They chose to close UW Lab School. They chose to leave over a dozen teachers and staff without jobs or with the insecurity of not knowing IF they will have a job. They chose to displace 160 children. That 2.5 million was budgeted for those students and staff before the closure, correct? If that is correct, why would you state it will be lost revenue that would take away from the families of Albany County. UW Lab School students are also part of ACSD1. If the Lab School hadn't closed, and if ACSD1 hadn't fired many of UW Lab School's staff, they wouldn't have the 2.5 million in revenue to give raises anyway, correct? I think the tax-payers and residents of Albany County deserve to know that in order to give raises, many of their peers are losing their jobs, 160 of their children are losing their school. I think the residents of Albany County deserve to know where ACSD1 is getting their figures. I'd like to understand why it's ok to fire quality teachers and staff in order to give raises and lower insurance rates for the staff that did not have the pleasure of working at UW Lab School.

01/30/2025

I apologize for the lack of updates as of late. There was a major loss in the family, so I lost focus. There is a bill in the state legislature that will both keep the UW Lab School open and eliminate much of the restrictions and roadblocks put in place that led to this regrettable situation. The bill cleared the Senate Education Committee today and is planned to go before the full Senate THIS FRIDAY, January 31st. There is strong bipartisan support, but every voice our representatives hear in favor of keeping this historic institution open is critical!

Establishment of a K-8 public lab school.

12/18/2024

I was recently made aware of the perception that the Save the UW Lab School movement sometimes comes across as attacking the other schools in town. This is not intentional. We love all of Laramie's schools! Every one of them offers something unique and valuable to the community, and they are all necessary, equally important pieces of the puzzle. Albany County is truly blessed to have such a wide variety of schools to meet the needs of our diverse student population, and if any of them are compromised our K-12 ecosystem as a whole is compromised. We will stand with any and all of our schools during their time of need, and we thank you for doing the same for us!

12/14/2024

Our latest petition has reached 100 signatures after receiving twenty since the ACSD1 vote! This is the first comment change.org chose to highlight. Thank you for sharing your testimony, Sydnie! When I was campaigning for a seat on the board that decided to close our school, I heard this same sentiment echoed numerous times. People go out of their way to come to the University of Wyoming because of our on-campus Lab School, and no longer having this draw will be detrimental to the College of Education, as well as the university as a whole.