The Riverton School Board voted to move forward with the process of selling Ashgrove Elementary School this week.
The Wyoming School Facilities Commission will now consider approving the disposition of the building as well, Fremont County School District 25 (Riverton) Superintendent Jodi Ibach said Thursday.
If the SFC approves the sale, Ibach said FCSD 25 will “put a bid notice out with specifications and a date (the) bids are due.”
“The district will then review the bids and select the bid that meets the requirements of the specifications noted in the bid notice,” she said.
Boys and Girls Club
Several local residents spoke during this week’s board meeting to express their support for selling Ashgrove to the Boys and Girls Club of Riverton.
The BGC currently operates within Rendezvous Elementary School, offering after-school activities for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
If the organization is able to acquire its own building, it will be able to serve teenagers as well, Boys and Girls Club of Central Wyoming CEO Ashley Bright told the school board this week.
“It’ll be a game-changer for the programming that we do in the community,” Bright said.
Acquiring Ashgrove would also allow the Boys and Girls Club to accommodate the growth it has experienced since opening in 2021, BGC Foundation Board Member Kip Post said.
“Having our club in (Rendezvous) school right now is amazing,” Post said. “But we’ve grown so incredibly fast. … When we first started, we were talking 50-60 kids within the first year. (But) it was over 100 in the first several months.”
He attributed much of that growth to “the need” the community has for a program like the BGC.
“(This is) the opportunity for us to be able to have a standalone facility,” Post said.
Buying Ashgrove would give the organization an “amazing opportunity to help more kids,” BGC Board Member Kurt Galitz said, and “when the time comes, we’d love to have the consideration.”
Riverton School Board Member Bruce Berg said he was in favor of the Boys and Girls Club acquiring Ashgrove “as a place to make it more permanent,” and several other Board Members praised the organization for the work it has done in the community.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing,” School Board Member Jody Ray said. “I think it’s good for kids.”
School Board Member Lori Morrow called the Boys and Girls Club “an asset to our community.”
“I think that it’s really going to enrich the kids that are going to that program and give our parents a lot of peace of mind to know they don’t have to leave their kids home alone,” she said.
After the School Board voted to move forward with the sale process, Board Chair Lynette Jeffres said now “we’ll hold our breath and wait on the School Facilities Commission.”
For more information, call FCSD 25 at 856-9407.