Dear Editor,
The decision of where our new high school will be built has been made. The Wyoming School Facilities Commission requires that high school sites include “20 acres of useable area with an additional acre for each 100 students.” That requirement ruled out using the old high school site, as well as many other locations in the center of our community that have already been developed for housing and businesses.
Laramie is lucky to have neighborhood-based elementary schools that allow many families to walk or cycle with their young students to school. The idea that our high school is also neighborhood based is difficult when we have but one high school. The current Laramie High School is a community-based—not neighborhood-based—school, and many students live far enough away that they are driven to its doors; the same will be true of the new high school.
I have loved being able to walk or cycle to my kids’ elementary school and my son has been biking to the junior high when the roads are clear and the temperature is warm enough that we don’t worry about frostbite.
Increasing the cycling/walking mentality among our citizens—both young and old alike—is a great goal, but voting “no” on May 7th won’t accomplish that. Voting “no” on May 7th won’t change the new high school’s location, and it won’t change the number of kids who will be riding the bus to school. But defeating the bond measure will reduce the academic and athletic opportunities for our students, including those that keep students at school and promote physical fitness.
It is good to have so many residents of our county engaged in the discussion of education. Let’s make sure we are working to fix what we can and affecting this process in a positive way instead of throwing up roadblocks based on items that are beyond our control.
Amy Fluet
amyafluet@gmail.com
