‘A safer environment for students’: Riverton City Council approves first-reading ordinance vacating public alley behind St. Margaret’s Elementary

(Riverton, WY) – The Riverton City Council approved an ordinance on first reading Tuesday vacating the alley behind St. Margaret’s Catholic Elementary School to allow for “a safer environment for students” there.

The ordinance will enable school officials to “enclose the alley with a fence” in order to “prohibit access by unauthorized members of the public,” city staff said in a memo to the council this week.

St. Margaret’s Principal Meagan Mosbrucker said the fence will be equipped with gates on both sides of the alley, which will “remain open outside of school hours for public access.”

During the school day, the gates will be closed, she said, with “a camera or doorbell system” in place to accommodate “access requests” from motorists.

“At least three school officials who are on campus on any typical day will have access to that access system, (which) ideally would be tied in to the new and effective access system that we’ve recently installed at our school,” Mosbrucker said. 

St. Margaret’s “has made rigorous efforts” over the past year and a half to “assess our vulnerabilities and to improve our security,” Mosbrucker explained, pointing to “the national focus on school safety” and “the public priority (to) provide a safe environment where all children can learn and play at school safely.”

The alleyway behind the school, which currently provides “public access to our students where they learn and play,” was included as one of the “vulnerabilities that was assessed” during that process, she said.

Later, community member Nicole Wagon, whose grandson is a student at St. Margaret’s, recalled a 2023 incident in which an individual with no ties to the school reportedly reached into a vehicle that was occupied by a mother and her child in the student pick-up area.

On another occasion, the school playground was vandalized, Wagon said, thanking the council for supporting the alley vacation “for the safety of the children.”

Councilmember Rebecca Pierson-Lewis – who works as a teacher in Riverton – agreed that “school safety” is a priority.

“Every single school needs to be as safe as we can possibly make it,” she said. “This is absolutely something we have to do. … We don’t want it to get to the point where we have any incidents. (So) I’m all for it. Let’s do it.”

Councilmember Karen Johnson thanked the school officials for “taking the necessary steps to keep our kids safe (and) the school property safe, in any measure possible or necessary.”

“Good job,” she said. “You guys have my full support.”

The ordinance will not affect access to existing utilities in the area, city staff said, and two-thirds of the property owners adjacent to St. Margaret’s have signed on to the petition for the alley vacation.

Mosbrucker said those affected property owners will be given a “custom code or button” that they can use to open the alley gates “for their personal use.”

When motorists exit the property, their “vehicle’s weight would trigger an automatic opening,” she noted.

The school will also accommodate emergency access to the alley, Mosbrucker said, and “St. Margaret’s (will) take responsibility for the maintenance of the alleyway to ensure proper upkeep of that property.”

After approving the alley vacation ordinance on first reading this week, the council requested a market analysis on the property being vacated in order to determine whether the city should request payment from the school.

For more information, call the City of Riverton at (307) 856-2227.