From Katie Klingsorn
After decades of teaching its students in a facility on the University of Wyoming campus, the K-8 Laboratory School in Laramie will now only be able to operate on the university campus for one more year.
The split came after college administrators and Albany County School District officials failed to secure a long-term lease for the school, which is currently housed in a roughly 75-year-old UW College of Education building.
The Lab School, as it is commonly called, is popular for its outdoor classes and, due to its location, is a popular choice for the children of university staff.
District officials, school staff and families had hoped to stay longer, said Albany County District Supervisor John Goldhardt, and many were saddened by the news. The outcome was not due to a lack of effort, he said.
Now the school’s staff are planning to end the Lab School’s activities on campus with a good result.
“We want to make this year something very special,” said Goldhardt.
The district will soon begin organizing meetings to gauge community interest in finding a new location for the school, Goldhardt said.
End of an era
The news marks the beginning of the end of a longstanding but peculiar arrangement; most schools in Wyoming operate in buildings owned by their respective districts rather than other entities.
However, most schools do not have such an extensive history.
The Lab School was originally founded in 1887 as a preparatory school for secondary students from districts without access to a high school, three years before Wyoming became a state. School officials believe it is the longest continuously operating school in the state.
In 1913, it became the Training Preparatory School, which was used by the College of Education at the University of Washington essentially as a learning laboratory to prepare university students for high school teaching.
In 1999, the private school – then located in its current building – entered into a partnership with the Albany County School District to become a public school. The Lab School serves as a “school of choice” in the district, meaning that any family in the district can enter a lottery to enroll their children, regardless of where they live.
College of Education students are still educated in the college’s classrooms, but now they are educated in classrooms throughout the district, state, and beyond.
The Lab School’s unique housing arrangement has benefited the school’s students by providing access to the university’s equipment and facilities, and the university has benefited from proximity to classrooms. However, it is unconventional for a public school to be housed in a building owned by the university.
UW and the school district have been working with a memorandum of understanding that sets out the lease terms. The original 2008 memorandum of understanding was renewed in 2013, 2016 and 2019, but efforts to renew that agreement again that began last year did not result in an updated agreement.
Instead, the school continued to use the building, and this spring the university announced it was seeking an extension only for the 2024-25 school year, meaning the school will have to find a new home if it wants to continue beyond that.
What went wrong?
When the parties began negotiating a new memorandum of understanding in 2023, talks stalled due to philosophical differences, Goldhardt said.
A major point of contention has been disagreement over who will pay for things like major maintenance on the aging building. Because the Lab School operates in a facility not owned by the school district, it doesn’t quite fit into the state’s funding and construction model for public schools.
UW President Ed Seidel informed the district of the one-year plan in May, Goldhardt said. The district had requested two years to allow more time for the transition, he said. However, UW trustees voted on July 18 to extend the agreement for one year, which appears to solidify the university’s decision.
“As previously mentioned, we have reached a stage where continuing the current relationship beyond one year would not be optimal for either the district or the university,” Seidel said in a press release.
Disputes over maintenance costs were not the only factor in the university’s decision, a UW spokesperson previously told WyoFile. The university reiterated those reasons in its recent announcement about the one-year extension.
These include: the fact that the Laboratory School “no longer serves a significant role in teacher education in the UW’s College of Education,” safety issues related to a school district-operated facility on university campuses, the Laboratory School’s lack of alignment with the state’s public funding model, and the fact that the school district “has excess capacity in its existing facilities to accommodate the current Laboratory School students.”
The move does not mean a severance of the relationship between the university and the district, Seidel added in the press release. “Moving away from a long-term future as a laboratory school on the UW campus does not diminish the university’s desire to work together on a stronger, broader partnership with the district to advance the interests of both parties and, most importantly, Wyoming’s students.”
The one-year extension was not what the district wanted or expected, Goldhardt said. District officials made several attempts to reach an agreement and the university rejected several proposals, he said.
The university, meanwhile, has assured that the district has “taken no action on a proposed extension,” which led to the one-year extension.
Next Steps
Goldhardt expects the district to sign the one-year extension during a special meeting on Wednesday.
The district will then begin holding meetings with Lab School families, as well as parents from the wider district, to gather opinions and assess whether the district should consider establishing another district-sponsored choice school, Goldhardt said.
The district maintains a positive relationship with the College of Education, he said, and is focused on providing a memorable senior year for the Lab School students and teachers. “We just hope we can make the transition positive.”
The university welcomes further discussions about the future, Seidel said in the press release, and is “committed to deepening the relationship between the school district and the UW.”
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent, nonprofit news organization focused on the people, places and politics of Wyoming.
