School District 1 Looks Beyond State Planning Requirements

The state of Wyoming requires all school districts to have a facility plan, and Sheridan County School District 1 goes beyond state requirements in its planning.

District 1 Building Manager Jeremy Smith said the district looks five years ahead in its facility plan.

Smith said the state facilities commission looks only one to two years ahead. But he said the school district revises and extends the 5-year plan each year. The work includes meetings with building principals and the district’s maintenance team to discuss not only what’s going well in the buildings but also what issues might need to be addressed, and when.

The discussions include everything from floor plan layouts to health and safety concerns and environmental systems. As one example, Smith said, the district is currently working on conversion to LED lighting, which is more efficient in terms of energy use as well as longer lasting.

Smith said a lot of district personnel work for three or four months to develop a plan that’s then presented to the district’s board of trustees for review and approval. Trustees in fact approved this year’s five-year plan at their meeting last week.

Smith said the next step is for him and School District Superintendent Pete Kilbride to meet with representatives from the state school construction department. The representatives will then review the projects with an eye toward whether the district is addressing at the most needy projects first.