By Noah Zahn
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE — As student enrollment continues to decline around the state, lawmakers met Tuesday to discuss volatile insurance markets and school facility funding formulas that impact education in Wyoming going forward.

The Wyoming Legislature’s Select Committee on School Facilities met to evaluate the state’s multibillion-dollar portfolio of K-12 buildings. Lawmakers wrestled with how to maintain “right-sized” schools in a “boom and bust state” while addressing growing frustrations over charter school leasing and local infrastructure demands that drive up construction costs.

 

Maintenance funding gap

The meeting opened with a look at outcomes from the Legislature’s 2026 budget session earlier this year.

While the Legislature appropriated $393.7 million for capital construction and major maintenance for the upcoming biennium, the failure of Senate File 37, which would have permanently increased the allowable square footage for maintenance funding from 115% to 135%, left many districts in a financial struggle.

Adam Ertman, maintenance director for Weston County School District 1, provided the committee with an example of the impact.

He noted that his district has roughly 68,000 square feet of “excess” space, for which it receives no funding.

“Taking that money away [the drop from 135% to 115%] cost us right at $200,000,” Ertman said. “So about a sixth of our budget disappeared when they did that.”

Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, expressed frustration with the current formula, which relies heavily on Average Daily Membership at a school.

“We build the right-sized school, and then enrollment actually drops when we thought it was going to go up, and now we underfund the major maintenance for a school that we just built to erode the value of that school. And that’s pretty irresponsible,” Rothfuss said, adding that he hopes to run a similar bill again next year.

 

Virtual students and ADM inequity

Lawmakers also discussed how virtual education students affect maintenance budgets. Currently, virtual students are included in a district’s ADM for funding calculations, increasing the allowable square footage, but are excluded when the State Construction Department assesses a building’s actual capacity.

Rothfuss noted that this appears to disproportionately advantage a handful of districts that host large statewide virtual programs.

“It does seem inappropriate that we’d be allocating more funds due to a growing virtual component that really doesn’t substantially affect those buildings,” Rothfuss said.

In response, the committee voted to request a bill draft that would permanently increase maintenance funding to the 135% level while simultaneously removing virtual students from the allowable square footage calculation.

 

Charter schools

Lawmakers also voiced alarm over the “blank check” nature of charter school facility leasing. Under current law, state-authorized charter schools can lease or build facilities with little SCD oversight, yet the state is constitutionally obligated to pay the lease costs.

“We need to do something about this blank check leasing, and the approach we have right now scares me,” Rothfuss said.

Chairman Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, was pointed in his critique of the approach.

“I’m not comfortable being the chairman of a school facilities committee when we’re building schools that we don’t have any input (in) whatsoever, but then we’re on the hook to pay the lease on them,” Landen said.

The discussion centered on a new charter school application in Riverton. Lawmakers questioned the logic of the state paying millions to demolish the aging Rendezvous Elementary to “right-size” the district while simultaneously potentially being on the hook for a new charter building nearby.

“Our school districts do not have the capacity to do what our charter schools are now able to do,” Rothfuss said.

 

Insurance concerns

Public comment shifted to a looming concern regarding insurance costs. 

Andy Knapp, executive director of support operations for Laramie County School District 1, informed the committee that deductibles for hail and wind damage, a frequent occurrence in Cheyenne, are skyrocketing.

“Our insurance deductibles and premiums have gone up to the point in less than 10 years … we’re looking at possibly having to hold a deductible of $3 million to $5 million” per event, Knapp said.

He noted that this amount represents nearly half of his district’s total major maintenance budget. Brian Farmer, executive director of the Wyoming School Boards Association, explained that 32 districts currently participate in a risk retention pool, but the rising cost of global reinsurance is driving prices up regardless.

Lawmakers directed staff to investigate the feasibility of the state expanding its own self-insured risk pool to include all 48 school districts in an attempt to simplify the process and lower costs.

 

Construction costs

The afternoon portion of the meeting focused on the hidden costs of school construction: local government infrastructure requirements. SCD Director Del McOmie detailed how municipal demands for expanded parking, specific landscaping and miles of offsite sewer lines often balloon project budgets.

McOmie cited the new Rock Springs High School as an example. The city is requesting massive parking lots to accommodate community graduations and athletic events — far beyond what is needed for daily school use.

“A million dollars here and $2 million there … [it] adds in there,” McOmie said, noting that these requirements often lead to expensive storm sewer upgrades.

“The school (district) is looked at as the developer, and we’re not,” McOmie told the committee. “… We happened to be the first ones going in … so we’ve got to run water lines, sewer lines, a bunch of this drainage stuff.”

To address this, the committee voted to draft legislation modeled after Utah statutes that would limit the ability of local governments to impose excessive aesthetic, landscaping or off-site infrastructure requirements on state-funded school projects.

 

Construction updates

Finally, the SCD provided progress reports on several major renovations and replacements:

• Campbell County High School: Site work is underway; the replacement building is at 60% design.
• Arp Elementary (LCSD1): Bids awarded within budget; construction begins in June.
• Most Cost-Effective Remedy studies: Ten studies are currently active, including major reviews of Douglas Intermediate and Lusk Elementary/ Middle School.
• Rawlins K-1: Design work is moving forward for a major renovation of the K-1 campus.

The committee will reconvene in Cheyenne on Aug. 24 to review the drafted bills and finalize its recommendations for the next legislative session.

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