Ten Sleep gets community input on new school design

TEN SLEEP – After the Washakie County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees hiring

Arete Design Group out of Sheridan at a special meeting Oct. 25 to design the new school, the company came to town last week to visit with staff, students and community members.

The company has teamed up with Fielding International for the design phase, which has been funded by the Wyoming Legislature.The board formed committees to represent various components of the design – student services, support services, secondary classrooms, elementary classrooms, athletics and aesthetics.

During the firm’s final community meeting last Thursday night, Nov. 11 in the school cafeteria, representatives of Arete reported on some of the things they heard from the community as well as answered questions and got more ideas.

Some of the common themes are natural lighting, sound management, thoughtful storage and resources access as well as a variety of flexible spaces that align with learner needs.

One of the things they discussed the most was how the school is the heart of the community and how they are looking to incorporate that in with the new school.

Their main drivers are to maintain and build on the strong community pride and heritage, accelerate academic excellence with a variety of spaces to support all students, amplify access and support for athletics and recreation, establish a future-ready and student-centered learning environment to prepare for fluctuating class sizes, to ensure that the school is safe, secure and practical, to create a place to gather and celebrate, support Ten Sleep age groups (for the K-12 school), reach beyond Ten Sleep for inspiration and opportunity and to bring the outdoors in and the indoors out.