Wyoming’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder admonished the School Facilities Commission for laughing on-camera about a lawsuit parents recently filed against them.  The laughter came at the close of the commission’s Tuesday meeting, when Chair Jack Tartar told everyone to “have a Merry Christmas, and enjoy being sued.” His comment was met with chortling among commissioners and State Construction Department staff. “Ho ho ho!” someone responded, and another said he should have worn his Grinch tie.  The joke appeared to reference a lawsuit filed Dec. 6 in Laramie District Court against the commission and department over a controversial plan to close eight Laramie County elementary schools.  “I ran for State Superintendent because I was tired of the rights of parents being stifled,” Degenfelder said in a Friday statement. “Parents have a fundamental and constitutional right to direct their child’s education and we must stop treating the concerns of parents as a laughing matter.”  Plaintiff Katie Dijkstal was shocked and saddened to see commissioners and agency employees “openly laughing at our rights as parents to pursue this petition,” she said. “In Wyoming, we value parents’ rights in education and this behavior demonstrates a flippant disregard for those rights,” Dijkstal told WyoFile. “My small child permanently losing her school, along with hundreds of other children, is no laughing matter and neither are our legal procedures in Wyoming.”   The lawsuit The legal complaint followed the commission’s adoption of a plan recommended by the “Most Cost-Effective Remedy” study, known as a MCER, on Nov. 7. The study was commissioned to determine the most affordable way to address a mounting array of building-condition and capacity challenges facing Laramie County School District 1.  The study’s proposed remedy — known as remedy four — promises a significant overhaul of the district’s existing building makeup by closing more than a quarter of its elementary schools; expanding, replacing or constructing seven other buildings; and relying more on larger 5-6 grade schools. The shift would roll out in phases between 2025 and 2035. Eight Cheyenne elementary schools are slated for closure under a controversial “Most Cost-Effective Remedy” — or MCER — for addressing capacity and condition needs in Wyoming’s largest school district, Laramie County District 1. (Illustration using Google Maps by Tennessee Watson/WyoFile) The lawsuit brought by parents Dijkstal and Franz Fuchs alleges the commission’s selection of remedy four was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and unsupported by substantial evidence because the analysis on which SFC relied was statistically flawed, and SFC relied on irrelevant and inaccurate evidence that no reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support its conclusions.” Fuchs’ children would attend Deming Elementary School, while Dijkstal’s children attend or will attend Jessup Elementary School. Both schools are slated for closure under the plan, along with Miller, Hebard, Fairview, Bain, Lebhart and Henderson elementaries.  The study resulted from a routine, and legally mandated, statewide screening assessment for educational buildings deficient in either conditions or capacity. The School Facilities Division hired a third-party contractor to complete the work.  The lawsuit seeks judicial review and reversal of the MCER adoption.   “These Cheyenne parents are concerned because their neighborhood schools are being taken from them,” Degenfelder said in her statement. “They have every right to seek legal redress in court and should be taken seriously by state leaders. I am disappointed in the lack of professionalism and empathy displayed at the School Facilities Commission.” The School Facilities Commission is independent of the Wyoming Department of Education. Degenfelder sits on the commission but doesn’t vote; a staffer attended the Tuesday meeting virtually on her behalf.  WyoFile requested comments from Tartar and the construction department but did not hear back by press time.  The post Education chief chides state commissioners for joking about school closure lawsuit appeared first on WyoFile .