Our primary schools, while beloved and full of character, need important facility upgrades to improve accessibility and safety, and support our mission to provide innovative, student-centered educational opportunities that foster the academic growth and personal development of every student in our primary schools.

Our students and staff see these needs every day and our community has continued to identify improving our facilities as a priority over the past several years during focus group sessions during the 2019 Superintendent Search, 2019-2020 Superintendent Listening Sessions, and 2021-2022 Strategic Plan Feedback Sessions.

In March 2021:

The Facilities Committee was formed to:

• Increase knowledge of the facilities footprint of Wyoming City Schools
• Review historical facility improvements, including funding sources
• Use data to build permanent improvement plan to meet future facility needs
• Prioritize resources for future facility needs that impact the instructional goals of Wyoming City Schools

Committee members include two board members, superintendent, treasurer, and facilities supervisor. This committee provides a report at each regular meeting of the Wyoming City Schools Board of Education.

During the 2021-2022 school year: 

The Wyoming City Schools Board of Education put additional focus on our Wyoming Primary Schools (WPS) and tasked the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) with a Primary Facilities Study to research optimal elementary learning environments and examine current facility costs in comparison to future opportunities. This group returned with the following two recommendations:

• Improvements need to be made in all of our primary facilities in order to provide ALL of our students an optimal learning experience.
• Include stakeholders in the decision-making process.

At the start of the 2022-2023 school year: 

Wyoming City Schools partnered with VSWC Architects and formed the Primary Facilities Committee to build upon the work of the CAC. In the fall, members of this group worked to:

1. GATHER information (site plans, building usage, school capacities, etc.)

2. ASSESS our primary buildings (physical conditions, operational costs, educational adequacy)

3. EVALUATE enrollment (current and projected)

In November 2022: 

The Wyoming Primary Schools staff was surveyed to gather their feedback: 

WPS Staff feedback can be found here.

VSWC and the Primary Facilities Committee continued the work through the winter and spring to:

4. ENVISION education that supports student needs now and in the future through the lens of the Wyoming City Schools Strategic Plan and connect this information to future facility needs specific to primary-age students.

5. DEVELOP plans based on the information learned and feedback received throughout the process.

In December 2022: 

Visioning sessions were held with the goal of understanding the Wyoming Community’s vision for education that supports student needs now and in the future through the lens of the Wyoming City Schools Strategic Plan, and connecting that vision to future facility needs specific to primary-age students.

Feedback from the Envision Education Sessions can be found here.

January-March 2023: 

Primary Facilities Committee members worked to fulfill their mission to develop Wyoming Primary School facility options that:

• Provide excellent educational opportunities for all Wyoming primary students.
• Support best instructional practices.
• Are fiscally responsible.

Please use the following links to learn more about some of the tools used by the committee:

Learning Environment Matrix

Grade Configuration Matrix

(More information about the work of the Primary Facilities Committee can be found through the additional documents linked on this page.)

The committee explored many options. Though the assumption had been that the committee’s work would result in a few options, the committee landed on one recommended plan: 

One New K-2 School & One New 3-5 School 

Estimated cost of $48 million

• Two schools with requested facility and instructional improvements:
• Vermont: New expanded K-2 building
• Hilltop: New expanded 3-5 building
• WMS: 6-8 building
• Elm: Retired due to limited space (would not house students, other uses being considered to address school and/or city needs or opportunities)

Please use the links below for more information:

Primary Facilities Committee: Recommended Plan

Options Explored

Building Information, Identified Needs/Opportunities, Some Reviewed Options, etc.

(More information about the work of the Primary Facilities Committee can be found through the Additional Documents linked to this page.)

Of Note: Any work to improve our primary facilities will require a Bond Issue for Wyoming taxpayers. A potential timeline for next steps regarding funding is below:

In April and May: 

In order to ENGAGE the broader community with the group’s work, members of the Primary Facilities Committee shared the work and recommendation of the committee through seven CommUNITY Conversations. Each conversation took place in one of the Wyoming primary school buildings and included an information session and discussion opportunity, and a feedback form was distributed and collected.

Feedback from the CommUNITY Conversations can be found here.

We received an incredible amount of feedback during this round of community engagement. We heard that our schools are the heart of our community and our primary schools, while beloved and full of character, need important facility upgrades to:

• improve accessibility and safety, and 
• support our mission to provide innovative, student-centered educational opportunities that foster the academic growth and personal development of every student in our primary schools.  

Thank you to our families and community members for taking the time to listen to the initial work and challenging us to do better. We are committed to partnering with the entire community on a process that results in excellent primary schools for our youngest learners. We heard that we must include the following important themes and ideas in our work in order to move forward together. We heard that:

• Our neighborhood schools promote an important sense of community.
• Walkability is a valued family experience.
• Adding more diverse voices to the work is essential.
• Expanding communication to broader constituencies is necessary.

We are incorporating these themes and the other feedback we received into our next round of work and are building a revised process that moves us forward together.

This summer:

We will work to expand our communication tools to include broader constituencies:

• If you reside in Wyoming and do not have a child enrolled in Wyoming City Schools, please send your name and email address to info@wyomingcityschools.org to be added to our Cowboy Club database. Cowboy Club members receive monthly Superintendent Updates and information about community engagement opportunities.

We will publish the following on our website:

• Our process to date (shared here)
• Written feedback received during our community engagement opportunities (shared here)
• Ways to be connected
• Updates on next steps (will be shared here as they develop)

We will alert stakeholders to the published information through:

• Direct emails to Wyoming City Schools Staff and Families and members of the Cowboy Club and Golden Cowboy Club
• Submissions to the City of Wyoming electronic newsletters
• Postcard mailed to every Wyoming household
• Printed district calendar mailed to every Wyoming household
• Flyers in Wyoming businesses and library

We will initiate the request for proposal process to hire a partner specializing in facility/master planning and community engagement to take the process and feedback to date, engage the community further, develop options, and identify a facility plan with the greatest community support.