Low enrollment and difficulties with staffing have become some of Wyoming’s most persistent education woes, but nowhere is the frontier more apparent than at Park County School District 16.

Going into the 2026-2027 school year, Meeteetse will have 24 students enrolled in the high school, compared to 41 students a decade prior during the 2016-2017 school year.

While the number of parents choosing to homeschool their children has contributed to the number, a lack of quality jobs in the area makes it difficult to attract new families, according to community members.

Much of the issue can be ascribed to Meeteetse’s changing population and demographics. Between 2010 and 2020, the population of the town fell from 327 to 309. As the entire state deals with issues related to housing, availability of decently paying jobs and year round access to infrastructure, it’s the smallest towns like Meeteetse that the squeeze can be felt the most.

What You Leave Behind

This low number of students is being especially felt in the athletics department, as the Meeteetse Longhorns high school football team has canceled their fall, 1A six-man season due to low turnout. The last time Meeteetse did not have a team was in 1943.

“It’s pretty tough, we have just six boys in the high school and it’s not for everybody of course.” Meeteetse Athletic Director Zeb Hagen said regarding the cancellation of the season. “It’s tough when you lose a sport, and of course I coach it too so it’s a little bit of a double hit for me.”

Meeteetse isn’t the only school struggling to put together a six man team as Kaycee, another small school in Meeteetse’s 1A conference, announced that it would be shutting down its season ahead of the school year. A similar fate has also befallen Shoshoni’s high school varsity nine-man football team.

Despite the setback, an agreement has been reached between Meeteetse and Riverside High School in Basin to allow at least two of Meeteetse’s players to have a chance to have a season. Riverside’s principal and athletic director, Matthew Jensen, previously acted as Meeteetse’s coach from 2013 to 2018.

“We’re going to keep positive with it and we’re going to keep doing things with the boys in terms of getting them in the weight room and keeping them active,” Hagen said. “We’re just got to look ahead and keep preparing. We’ve still got basketball and track and those are going to be the things that we’re going to focus on.”

The Search

Students and athletics aren’t the only shortages facing Meeteetse, as the school has yet to fill the vacancy for a school counselor. Park County School District 16 Superintendent Shane Ogden spoke about the administration’s experience going through a staffing service provider to find a guidance counselor, only for most of the potential candidates preferring to work virtually.

“We did a Zoom interview with a candidate, and let’s just say that after a half hour of conversation, we walked away saying ‘there’s no way that a virtual counselor is going to work for us,’” Ogden said. “If we had somebody that could provide virtual counseling, we could do that. But in order for us to have somebody on standby for a kid that is in crisis, we’d have to pay, in essence, a principal’s salary to a company to provide somebody to just sit by waiting for something to happen.”

To assist with the gap, Park County School District 6 in Cody and Big Horn School District 1 in Burlington have offered to provide their counselor if one is needed; however, the distance to both communities continues to lead to some worry.

“We’re still half an hour away, which means that we’re probably going to need to use some money and do some training for the office staff,” Ogden said.

The void filled by the vacancy has also left some concern as to who will assist in the non-counseling part of the job, specifically in assisting students with understanding the school and their requirements, enrolling in courses, conducting aid for Hathaway and scholarships and coordinating with Northwest College on dual enrolled classes. This has prompted discussion over the creation of a new part time position that would be funded through the silo system under the new funding model from the state as opposed to using general funding.

“If you look at the Wyoming School Board Association’s listings, there’s a lot of counselor vacancies around the state so it’s not just here. If you’re a counselor, you’re going to make more money in the private sector than in a public school. It’s just hard,” Ogden said.

Learning Curve

Despite the challenges, the staff of Meeteetse Schools continue to work proactively as the school continues to embrace project based learning, expanding greater access to career technical education and prioritizing individual education.

Ogden talked about the excitement he feels as the teachers are beginning to develop their plans for the school year and his role in lifting the barriers so that students can explore their projects as freely as possible.

“One of the complaints that we got last year was that every [teachers] project based learning method looked a little bit different, which it’s still going to look a little bit different this year, but the structure of all the PBL will be the same,” Ogden said. “We just want to make sure that the messaging that we are creating is going to be consistent, so that everyone is on the same page and parents aren’t trying to figure out from one class to another ‘what is this, how is my kid really doing?’”

The optimism extends to Hagen’s athletics department as well as they remain fully committed to the volleyball season.

“No matter what, it doesn’t matter if there’s five kids or a hundred kids, we’re going to treat each kid like they’re just as important as anyone else,” Hagen added. “We’re going to help them excel in whatever they want to do, that’s how it is with Meeteetse and what makes us special from everyone else.”

In an attempt to increase enrollment, Meeteetse schools has recently expanded its pool of potential students by offering transportation services to eligible families in Thermopolis and Cody.

For more information related to Meeteetse Schools, visit their website at pcsd16.com.