Gillette’s school board gave preliminary approval to a new, comprehensive high school in a vote Tuesday. And while the vote certainly has much more meaningful and important ramifications than those of the sporting kind, it’s the changes to the sporting scene that draw my attention right now.
One of the reasons why is because of the success of the Gillette high school athletic programs. The Camels have arguably the best sports programs in the state.
But the Gillette area is growing like crazy right now, and with the city’s largest kindergarten ever scheduled to enter the school system next fall — and with no signs of the growth stopping — the Campbell County School District is preparing for the influx that’s expected to bulge the limits what is already the state’s largest high school.
Tuesday’s decision guarantees nothing; it only was a vote to submit a plan to the School Facilities Commission, which oversees school construction in Wyoming. But, more than likely, Wyoming’s largest high school will be chopped in half sometime in the next 10 years, and we will see another full-on athletic program born in Wyoming, much like we are seeing now with Cheyenne South.
Even so, the average daily membership, the number the Wyoming High School Activities Association uses for reclassification, for each school will likely be close to — if not more than — 1,200 by the time the new high school opens.
It will be another Class 4A school. And it may mean time for massive reorganization of the conferences and classifications used by the WHSAA.
Maybe as massive as changing the number of schools in Class 4A.
Wyoming has been at 12 schools in Class 4A for all sports except football since about 1990, and although the schools in that mix have changed, the number 12 has remained fairly static.
Gillette’s new school, coupled with Cheyenne South’s entry into 4A in 2012, may prompt the WHSAA to do more than just shift the smallest school in the ADMs down to 3A. Right now, that means Green River, which would move from 12th to 13th with Gillette’s new school, gets bumped down to 3A.
Another option is 14 schools, which would most likely bring Star Valley back from 3A to 4A.
But, this time around, the WHSAA may need to look at something more dramatic: a 16-school Class 4A. Bring up Star Valley, Cody and Jackson. There is a beautiful natural break right now between what would be school 16, Jackson (ADM 654) and school 17, Lander (ADM 502).
The timetable on the opening of a new high school in Gillette is still five to 10 years, maybe more when you factor in design, budget and construction time.
Even so, for argument’s sake, here are the ADM figures used by the WHSAA for the 2012-13 senior class, with Gillette split in two, just to see what it looks like:
1. Natrona 2,036
2. East 1,457
3. Rock Springs 1,429
4. Kelly Walsh 1,400
5. Central 1,302
6. Gillette 1,119
7. Gillette new 1,119
8. South 1,086
9. Laramie 1,039
10. Sheridan 916
11. Evanston 898
12. Riverton 793
13. Green River 771
14. Star Valley 734
15. Cody 689
16. Jackson 654
Compounding the confusion in this is the news that the Natrona County school board support for its plan of adding a satellite campus to Natrona County and Kelly Walsh high schools rather than building a new, comprehensive school may be wavering.
If Casper can build a new high school, with the new school taking 1/3 of the students out of NC and 1/3 of the students out of KW, the ADM numbers might look something like this when Gillette’s new school is factored in:
1. East 1,457
2. Rock Springs 1,429
3. Natrona 1,357
4. Central 1,302
5. Casper new 1,146
6. Gillette 1,119
7. Gillette new 1,119
8. South 1,086
9. Laramie 1,039
10. Kelly Walsh 933
11. Sheridan 916
12. Evanston 898
And THEN, 12 makes sense because of the large gap between Evanston at 12 (898) and Riverton at 13 (793).
Of course, any decision the WHSAA makes is still, at minimum, five years away. Probably closer to 10 than five. And any decision the WHSAA makes will also take into consideration ramifications beyond 4A — how having 12, or 14, or 16, or 10 schools in 4A will affect 3A, 2A and 1A — and how regional alignments will be constructed.
Remember, too, that football uses different classification cutoffs than other sports. Will 10 schools still fit into 4A, with Evanston or possibly even Sheridan most likely making the move to 3A? Will 4A have to expand? Will other classifications have to change?
Cheyenne South’s entry, all in all, created just a few ripples to the structure of Wyoming’s sports scene.
The entry of Gillette’s new high school could end up being the impetus of a complete transformation.
–patrick
Patrick,
I totally agree with you in your first paragraph. In fact, when I first read about the new Gillette school, I thought that for all these years people have been complaining about the number of high school students they had when it was really the elementary numbers that forced this decision.
I also immediately thought about this in terms of sports classifications, mainly because of SV’s last four years in the 4A class, it’s definitely not far from the minds of the fans here. You always do the best job of analyzing the WHSAA numbers and tactics and that’s why I appreciate reading this blog. Here’s my two cents.
I do not see much traction for the 16-team model. I know it’s out there as a proposal, but it really doesn’t accomplish anything except bringing in a school like Jackson with 650 kids to compete against Natrona at over 2,000. The gap just gets wider and I know that the Jackson admin. will be very much against this and fight it tooth and nail. The 12-team 4A of the fiction/future that you have is what I was thinking about. When we first came to the 4A class, I want to say that Evanston had just over 1,100 students. No school in the state fluctuates as much in a short time as Evanston I think, which has to be tough. With oil, coal and other mineral jobs back on the upswing, I think their numbers will return closer to the 1,000 mark. If a Red Devil expert would like to refute or agree, I would appreciate it.
As for increased numbers in the next five years, I just don’t see it in Star Valley. In fact, I’m waiting for a new wash of foreclosures to hit the area this spring. I just don’t see our numbers pushing 800 like we once were.
You have already written that Casper building a third school would solve all the classification issues and I agree with it. If it should happen, then the WHSAA should thank their lucky stars that things worked out.
The 12-school model would likely be the most balanced league in a long time in the largest classification, with Riverton and Green River coming to 3A. That would allow for schools such as Mountain View, Lyman and Pinedale to go into 2A. That 3A class would have schools ranging from 400 to 700 in enrollment. Once again, just about as balanced as it has ever been.
I only hope that while all of this is settled, that there is a bit of long-range planning with these items in mind. The two-year reclassification window discussion needs to be re-evaluated in my opinion.
Keep up the great work Patrick, this is one of my favorite reads on the web.
2000+ Students in a high school is two many. Maybe the state legislature should require schools to cap their enrollments. Example if a school reaches 1300 students they would be required to build a new high school (650 students each). This would solve a lot of the disparity issue. Improve competitiveness and improve quality of education and opportunity for kids.
Good Morning Patrick,
Good articles, the only correction is on the WHSAA reclass numbers for Casper. They are not actual enrollment numbers. The WHSAA simply takes CYJH and DMJH and credits those enrollments to NCHS and uses Frontier and Centennial enrollment and credits those to KWHS. As you know in Casper we declare a school of choice and attend that school. Nearly 20% of DMJH attend KWHS. If you look at the most recent actual enrollment (150 day count) KWHS has 1629 students and NCHS has 1606.
Steve, what you say is all true. ADMs are not actual, students-in-the-building enrollment numbers. But for this discussion, the WHSAA doesn’t use actual students-in-the-building numbers for classification, so it seems extraneous to me to discuss students-in-the-building numbers in a discussion about (re)classification.
When I say school enrollment when discussing reclass, what I mean is ADM for the school. I think that’s understood, but thanks for keeping me honest and for clarifying what can be a confusing topic.
–patrick