Posted: Friday, March 12, 2004 12:00 am
LARAMIE (AP) - Parents lost another bid to keep Thayer Elementary School open after forcing a second vote on the closure.
The school board voted 5-4 Wednesday night to close the school's doors at the end of this school year, prompting tears from some parents who protested the original decision.
They had asked the board to revisit the issue, using new data and new enrollment predictions. Parents worry the closing will mean crowded classrooms and less money for the district's other five grade schools.
Wednesday's bid to save the school would have kept it open another year to allow further evaluation of the district's budget.
The motion was made shortly after board members learned the district would only save $319,406 by closing Thayer and could lose $100,000 in small school adjustment funding from the state.
Some said that wasn't enough to warrant such a drastic measure.
"I just look at the dollars that we save by closing Thayer and look at our total fund balance, and it's a very small percentage, so I would support keeping Thayer open for one more year," board member Robin Coughlin said. "There are so many unknowns in making this decision, and I would like one more year to look at the unknowns."
The board in March 2003 voted to close the school, citing declining enrollment that threatened to plunge the district into financial problems.
"We know for a fact that we have lost 600 students. We know that the state has lost over 19,000," board member Jim Kyritsis said. "Some people are not going to be able to walk across the street to go to school, and that's unfortunate, but it's happening all over Wyoming."
Enrollment in the district has fallen from 3,808 in 2001-02 to 3,640 currently. The number is expected to plunge to 3,571 by 2005-06.
Laramie's six elementary schools lost 671 students, or 30 percent of their enrollment, from 1992 to 2002, although some parents argued most of that decrease occurred in the middle and high schools.