Parent Speaks Out On Possible Albany County School Closures

An Albany County School District#1 parent is speaking out against a proposal to close a couple of rural elementary schools as the district struggles to balance the books for the upcoming fiscal year, which takes effect on July 1.

District Superintendent John Goldhardt gave a presentation to the district's Board of Trustees last week, in which he proposed what he said would be a temporary closing of Centennial and Harmony elementary schools as one of several possible steps to cut costs and help balance the district budget.

You can see last week's board meeting in this video. He specifically discusses the possible school closures at roughly the 18:30 mark of the meeting

According to his presentation, the students who attend the schools would be bused to schools in town. Goldhardt told the board that he envisions the closures as temporary, adding that the district would retain ownership of the buildings so the schools could re-open at some point in the future. In the meantime, the schools could be used as a storage area. Goldhardt told the board that closing the schools would likely require discussion as an agenda item at a future meeting.

The school closures would be only one of several possible steps to cut costs, along with such things as curbing field trips, cutting some district paraprofessional positions, and other measures

But parent Kathryn Klingenberg says she is opposed to closing the schools. She says it's not clear exactly how far the closures would go towards cutting the roughly $3 million shortfall and that it would create hardships for rural students and their families.

Klingenberg appeared on the ''Weekend In Wyoming" program on Saturday on KGAB radio to voice her concerns. You can hear that interview in the audio file below: