La Grange, WY questions - homeschools and other (Cheyenne, Laramie: sales, school districts)

[igloo]

Anyone out there familiar with the La Grange area? I know it's small. Any homeschoolers in the area or within 20 miles? Friendly to newcomers who don't want to change things? Wind, snow information from first hand knowledge, not just the city data pages. Thanks in advance.

[sunsprit]

Barren, flat, windswept, isolated, in tornado alley. Capable of delivering monster hailstorms which can wipe out farmer's crops, which are typically HRWW (hard red winter wheat). Can have serious snowstorms that howl for days and leave little snowfall on the ground except in drifts ... otherwise, the snow gets blown to NE.

Outside of a gas station and post office, there's not much there. You'll be heading to Torrington or south to Cheyenne for your shopping. And LaGrange is a few miles off Hwy 85, so it's not going to see much traffic through there unless somebody is looking for the "back way" into Nebraska and the highway up to Scottsbluff (which is another possible shopping trip). We drive through that way up to Scottsbluff because it's much more scenic and mellow going past all the hay farms and cattle ranches heading up to Scottsbluff (and quicker, though slower speed limits) than heading east on I-80 to Sidney and then north. It's an especially useful route when I'm bringing oversize equipment from Bridgeport (big farm equipment sales yards) back home at a lower speed and don't want to deal with freeway traffic density and speeds.

Home of LaGrange School of the Bible, which is a boarding school, very small. A cluster of white clapboard buildings along the main street of "town". Otherwise, main street has a few derelict old buildings that were the business district for a few blocks, now all closed up/shut down.

I don't know of any business up there except the farms and ranches. It's very sparsely populated, and I understand that a fair number of families up that way do "home school", although that information is second hand from my friends down here in SE Laramie county that home school ... or have tried. The largest group of what you'd consider alternative schooling here in the SE WY area is the Mennonites, who have a large enough group of school age kids that they built a schoolhouse for grades K-12 and hired some teachers in addition to the parents who teach various subjects.

FWIW, the public school districts here in SE Wyoming are well equipped and funded, with very low student-teacher ratios. In many respects, given the additional educational opportunites of 4-H or FFA, the kids get a better grasp of fundamentals while growing up here than many other prominent school districts across the country. We've seen a movement for charter schools, which I believe have a niche and following in the area, but LCSD#1 has been aggressively keeping that from happening ..... I don't know if Goshen county would have enough kids to attend to justify such a school.

This is an area where you'll be accepted on the basis of how you behave and treat others while not wanting to upset the local traditions and ways of doing things. The community is small enough that you'll be judged and known very quickly ... come in and be friendly and not challenging, get involved in the local activities, and you'll be fine.

[igloo]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

Barren, flat, windswept, isolated, in tornado alley. Capable of delivering monster hailstorms which can wipe out farmer's crops, which are typically HRWW (hard red winter wheat). Can have serious snowstorms that howl for days and leave little snowfall on the ground except in drifts ... otherwise, the snow gets blown to NE.

Outside of a gas station and post office, there's not much there. You'll be heading to Torrington or south to Cheyenne for your shopping. And LaGrange is a few miles off Hwy 85, so it's not going to see much traffic through there unless somebody is looking for the "back way" into Nebraska and the highway up to Scottsbluff (which is another possible shopping trip). We drive through that way up to Scottsbluff because it's much more scenic and mellow going past all the hay farms and cattle ranches heading up to Scottsbluff (and quicker, though slower speed limits) than heading east on I-80 to Sidney and then north. It's an especially useful route when I'm bringing oversize equipment from Bridgeport (big farm equipment sales yards) back home at a lower speed and don't want to deal with freeway traffic density and speeds.

Home of LaGrange School of the Bible, which is a boarding school, very small. A cluster of white clapboard buildings along the main street of "town". Otherwise, main street has a few derelict old buildings that were the business district for a few blocks, now all closed up/shut down.

I don't know of any business up there except the farms and ranches. It's very sparsely populated, and I understand that a fair number of families up that way do "home school", although that information is second hand from my friends down here in SE Laramie county that home school ... or have tried. The largest group of what you'd consider alternative schooling here in the SE WY area is the Mennonites, who have a large enough group of school age kids that they built a schoolhouse for grades K-12 and hired some teachers in addition to the parents who teach various subjects.

FWIW, the public school districts here in SE Wyoming are well equipped and funded, with very low student-teacher ratios. In many respects, given the additional educational opportunites of 4-H or FFA, the kids get a better grasp of fundamentals while growing up here than many other prominent school districts across the country. We've seen a movement for charter schools, which I believe have a niche and following in the area, but LCSD#1 has been aggressively keeping that from happening ..... I don't know if Goshen county would have enough kids to attend to justify such a school.

This is an area where you'll be accepted on the basis of how you behave and treat others while not wanting to upset the local traditions and ways of doing things. The community is small enough that you'll be judged and known very quickly ... come in and be friendly and not challenging, get involved in the local activities, and you'll be fine.

Thanks for the information, very helpful.

[ruggedindividual]

Not sure if you've already visited this site or not: Homeschoolers Of Wyoming

Are you looking into faith-based homeschooling, secular homeschooling, etc.? I imagine with the relatively close proximity to Cheyenne, there would be someone in the area. We have kids we will be homeschooling next year, but we're further north.

The public system is good in this state, no doubt, but there are still problems with it that led us to choose the homeschool option. There are several families homeschooling here, so we have a good support system. Good luck to you!