The Town of Mills will hold a special meeting Friday about the proposed closing of the Mountain View School, Mayor Seth Coleman said in a news release Thursday afternoon.

The meeting will be held at the Mills Town Hall council chambers, 704 Fourth St., at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

"We encourage any residents of the Town of Mills or any person (affected) by this closure of the school to attend the meeting," Coleman said.

Last week, the Natrona County School District announced a recommendation to close three elementary schools -- Mountain View, University Park and Willard -- and the Frontier Middle School.

A dramatic drop in student enrollment in recent years coupled with the crisis in state school funding, forced the district to look at consolidating schools to save money.

Rick Skatula, executive director for school improvement, cited Mountain View Elementary as an example of dealing with inefficiencies with some buildings.

Natrona County School District
Natrona County School District
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Mountain View with 138 students, yet it still needs many of the same personnel that larger schools do as well as similar costs in utilities, Skatula said. So the economies of scale favor closing Mountain View and transferring students to larger schools, he said.

The district's board of trustees will decide on the recommended closures at its Oct. 23 meeting. If that happens, district personnel will begin meeting with parents to advise them about options and enrollment.

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