School District Wants Ideas From Public About Roosevelt-CAPS Scheduling

The Natrona County High School is preparing for the opening of the Roosevelt High School-Center for Advanced and Professional Studies (CAPS), and it wants the community's help, the school board chairman said Monday.

"Tonight we discussed schedule options and really an outreach to students and parents over the next month to get their feedback on how to best organize the schedule at CAPS," Dave Applegate said after the board's bimonthly meeting.

Suggestions can be made at the school district's website.

The new school, which is under construction on Casper's west side, will have about 500 students, as well as students from other high schools on a part-time basis.

CAPS will offer interdisciplinary courses to combine academic and vocational learning in communication, design, agriculture, architecture, manufacturing, health sciences, and human services.

This strategy offers multiple benefits, Applegate said.

"For example, you might take a construction class and math class that would be combined so you would doing woodworking and maybe learning how to build a house and you'd also understand the mathematics associated with that type of project," he said.

"So you'd be able to get a credit both in your career in technical education and you'd also get a math credit," Applegate said.

Groathouse Construction received the $23 million contract from the school district to build Roosevelt High School-CAPS. Construction began in April 2014.

The school originally was expected to open in early 2016, but the company's president Fred Bronnenberg told the school board in March that weather and changes to the project would delay that deadline by two months.

Monday, the district's director for business services Dennis Bay told the board

Dennis Bay, NCSD’s Executive Director for Business Services said the Roosevelt High School-CAPS building now is scheduled to be completed in May and the landscaping will be completed in late June or early July.