Jerah Nix, a 33-year-old nurse and mother of four, had long been fed up with Chugwater School. With funding always an issue, the combined K-12 school struggled to hire and retain teachers. What’s more, it didn’t offer music or computer classes and had few sports offerings.

Over a decade ago, a private Christian college in Michigan began an effort to “revitalize” public education. Since 2010, Hillsdale College has helped launch and support dozens of new K-12 charter schools offering “an American Classical Education.”

A trio of new charter schools are opening in Wyoming this fall – and more could follow in the coming years after the Wyoming Legislature passed Senate File 174 in March. Sponsored by Sen. Ogden Driskill (R-Devil's Tower), the bill aims to streamline the application process for charter schools by creating a new board to approve and oversee them.

Today’s college students are likely to have spent part of their high school and college years learning virtually thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Two Wyoming college instructors say these students face social struggles and academic as a result.

Lisa Wille-Racine is a Spanish teacher who has taught at Torrington High School for the last seven years as part of her nearly 40-year career in Wyoming and Colorado. David Porter teaches 11th and 12th grade International Baccalaureate English language and literature at Teton Science Schools in Jackson. Both say high school students continue to grapple with a dependency on their phones, which intensified through social distancing and reliance on virtual gatherings during the pandemic. They say more time on social media has led to mental health issues and a stifling of in-person interactions.

Brittney Montgomery, Wyoming 2022 Teacher of the Year, has worked in Green River for 14 years and currently teaches first grade at Harrison Elementary. Cody Middle School sixth grade teacher Greg Eckley has been teaching for 29 years. Both turned to the old adage “It takes a village” when explaining what elementary and middle school students need to succeed after the uncertainties of COVID-19. Though most students have returned to school, these veteran educators say some have struggled with the transition back into a full-time classroom.

For many, it was the spring break that stretched into fall. For others, it was the first time they attended school on the couch in their pajamas. For everyone, it was an unprecedented time that found teachers juggling new technology to connect with their students, parents struggling to help their children with math methods they had never learned and children wondering if they would ever play with their friends again.