CHEYENNE -- School officials in Laramie County School District 2 have some hard decisions coming up over what to do with a renovated school annex in the hamlet of Albin.

Like other school districts in the state, Albin, located in eastern Laramie County, has too much room for its 53 elementary school students.

Faced with a tight budget, the School Facilities Commission wants the districts statewide to shrink 6.7 million excess square feet that cost the state $17 million per year to maintain.

In addition, the cost of operating the square footage, including utilities, insurance and custodians is $47 million per year.

"What the district is finding out is they can't afford their share of that $17 million. That's the issue here," Ken Daraie, director of the School Facilities Commission, said Friday.

The commission, which allocates money for school construction and maintenance to the state's 48 school districts, has notified Laramie County School District 2 that the state will not pay for maintenance of the school annex after June 30, the end of the current biennium.

Between now and then the district must decide whether to keep the annex, transfer it to the town of Albin or demolish it.

"Its up to the district and the community if they wish to keep it. The state is saying, 'Let us off the hook,'" Daraie said.

The Laramie County School District 2 board members and school officials will be meeting later with the commission to discuss the district's problem and some solutions.

"I think the district here is saying this isn't the one to walk way from," said Superintendent Jack Cozort. "Give us a little more opportunity to work on some things."

The commission, he added, has been trying to work with the district.

One question is whether the town can afford to pay for maintenance of the annex if the district relinquishes control of the building.

"Otherwise it becomes a dead building anyway," Cozort said. "That's what we're trying to work through. This is tough because I understand what the SFC is talking about."

One solution is to ask the Legislature to refrain from returning money allocated for demolition to the general fund at the end of the biennium.

This would give the district time to answer all the questions about the future of the building.

Otherwise, if the district decides much later the only answer is demolition, the distinct would have to pay the costs.

The commission spent about $500,000 to upgrade the annex, which is adjacent to Albin High School. The high school, which was built in the 1930s and closed several years ago, is slated for demolition.

Albin school students in grades 7-12 now bus to Pine Bluffs to attend school.

The renovation money for the annex, built in the 1960s, was intended to keep up the Albin building so it could continue to be used until the high school is razed.

Dariae said the investment won't be wasted because the routers and switches and other upgrades can be moved to Albin's 11-year-old K-6 elementary school across from the high school.

Maintaining the annex would cost the district about $120,000 per year, he said.

Albin Elementary School Principal Sue Stevens said she doubts the district can afford to spend that amount from its general fund.

The 1960s annex to the high school is in great shape and in use every school day, she said. It is used for physical education, music, art, as a library and a computer laboratory.

School population is up throughout the eastern Laramie County school district, Cozort said, but not in Albin.

"That little community is up there by itself. There's not much around Albin drawing population in there and it needs bodies to justify the square footage," he said.

Contact capital bureau reporter Joan Barron at 307-632-1244 or joan.barron@trib.com