Parents, Southwest spar over future of laboratory school

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- State budget woes won't force Southwest Missouri State University to close its Greenwood Laboratory School, but parents and administrators are at odds over the school's future mission.

Greenwood, located on the university's campus and operated by its College of Education, was opened nearly a century ago to train teachers and develop new teaching techniques.

But an analyst and other observers say the state-funded school no longer fulfills that mission and is run like a private school for the area's wealthiest families.

There was a general sense that Greenwood wasn't as central to the mission of training teachers, said Jim Baker, Southwest Missouri's special assistant to the president who was part of a task force that examined Greenwood last year.

"The general perception was it was a private school for rich people," he said. "It can't act like a private school."

A five-year plan for the future of Greenwood will be released later this month. Part of the study that led to the plan says parents essentially run the school and are resistant to change.

Greenwood parents respond that their involvement in their children's education is necessary because the school has been largely abandoned by Southwest Missouri State's administrators.

Mark Thieme, who has three children at Greenwood and who attended himself, said the university hasn't properly used the school for years.

"It's a terrible waste. Now, suddenly, there's a great deal of interest in the school by SMS and people are going, 'Why?'" Thieme said.

Baker said Southwest Missouri State President John Keiser has been interested in focusing Greenwood's mission since he arrived nine years ago but other university needs took a higher priority.

With a tight state budget this year, "legislators were asking why they were paying for a private school. It seemed like the timing was right to get our arms around all of that," Baker said.

$1.6 million a year

Operating Greenwood costs about $1.6 million a year. About $950,000 of that comes from fees and tuition, with the university appropriating the remaining $700,000, primarily from state funds, said university Vice President for Finance Tom Allen.

In 2000, Southwest Missouri began a three-part review to develop a plan "to return Greenwood to its status as a laboratory school and evaluate the current leadership and make changes if warranted," Keiser said.

Some task force recommendations have already occurred. Tuition was raised to $3,000 last month and Gerald Moseman, the school's director, was reassigned to the university's department of educational administration in December.

A report by California laboratory school expert Don Glines supported the idea that the school was essentially run by parents.