Wyoming students ‘devastated’ after federal decree upends Riverton trade school

UPDATE: A judge has issued a temporary restraining order to stop the Trump administration from proceeding with its effort to eliminate Job Corps, according to news reports. The ruling orders the Labor Department to appear at a court hearing on June 17. -Ed.

RIVERTON—What began as a trickle soon turned into a flood of people streaming out of the Wind River Job Corps. More than 100 students and staff walked off the campus Wednesday afternoon to raise awareness of their plight: that Wyoming’s only Job Corps center will soon be shuttered by federal decree. 

The students were predominantly young men, and most had dropped out of high school. Some had made mistakes, finding themselves in trouble with the law. Others had gotten mixed up with drugs, lived on the streets and served prison time. Some, feeling aimless, just wanted to find purpose. 

All had found promise here at Wind River Job Corps, a trade school that offers paths to high school diplomas, driver’s licenses and certifications in fields like welding and truck driving. 

Igor Bool grew up in Ukraine and was adopted by a Gillette family when he was 13. As a teenager, he said, he made bad choices. Bool, now 17, came to Wind River Job Corps “to start a life and start making better choices … and find a career that could potentially lead me to a life of success.”

The center, which employs roughly 150 people and currently serves 178 students, was thrown into chaos when the U.S. Department of Labor announced last week it would pause operations at contractor-operated Job Corps centers nationwide. The decision aligns with President Donald Trump’s budget proposal and “reflects the Administration’s commitment to ensure federal workforce investments deliver meaningful results for both students and taxpayers,” the announcement read. 

For Wyoming’s only Job Corps center the news has disrupted career tracks and left employees and students reeling. Staff have spent the past week scrambling to prepare for an abrupt closure date of June 23, and fear the loss will leave many students to fend for themselves with zero resources. 

“Our kids are just devastated,” said Wind River Job Corps administrator Jerri Prejean. “It’s so sad.”

Bool just arrived at the center in April. He is nearly finished with the online high school program to earn his diploma but won’t be able to start his training in petroleum. Though disappointed by the news, Bool showed resilience beyond his years. 

“I was kind of disappointed because I have no place to go, so I thought they were just gonna put me back on the streets,” he said. “But it is what it is. I can only control myself and my choices and what I’m gonna do, I cannot control the situation because it’s out of my hands. So I just gotta stay positive.”

Not everyone was as upbeat. 

Jamie Maloid, 25, is one of the lucky ones. Having arrived at Job Corps in 2023, he just graduated after finishing his certifications in the petroleum program. He plans to move to Greeley and start a career. 

“For the other people that aren’t finished, I feel bad,” Maloid said. “I kind of feel like just taking that opportunity away from them that I was able to gain is heartbreaking.”

Incidents, budget

Job Corps is a 61-year-old federal program that offers free career training for low-income young adults. Funded by Congress, the program seeks to teach young people the academic and vocational skills they need to secure meaningful and lasting employment. The program was created in 1964 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty.

Wind River Job Corps is a comparatively new center. The campus opened in 2015, north of Riverton, to much fanfare with dignitaries attending the grand opening and touting the economic boost promised by its first-of-its-kind petroleum technician training program.

It includes classrooms, hands-on training facilities and dorms. Students come from around the country to attend the program, including from Wyoming and the nearby Wind River Indian Reservation. Through the program, they can obtain their driver’s licence, high school diploma and career preparation in one of 10 trades — from carpentry to electrical work and heavy equipment mechanics.

Once they get their certifications, Prejean said, staff ushers them through a transition phase to ensure the student has job placement, an apprenticeship, college, military or advanced training. Wind River Job Corps even pays to fly the students to where their next life stage will take place. 

“I try to do job placement with students around our community,” Prejean said, noting that she works with local companies like Bechtel Construction to funnel skilled workers into Wyoming positions. 

Some 75% of Wind River Job Corps students graduate, she said. “Of those, 85% go to a job trade match. You don’t even have those kinds of numbers from college.”

The success of Riverton’s center does not match a national narrative cited in the closure decree, Prejean said.

In April, the Department of Labor released the Job Corps Transparency Report, which analyzed the financial performance and operational costs of the most recently available metrics from program year 2023. According to that report, the national program’s average graduation rate is less than 40%, and it costs $80,000 per student per year. Job Corps also has faced significant financial challenges under its current operating structure, the DOL release said, including a $140 million deficit in 2024.   

Those findings spurred the DOL to pause the program. It halted contracts to its 99 contract-operated centers, which will impact an estimated 25,000 students. 

“A startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis reveal the program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve,” Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a release about the pause. 

The narrative painted in that report — which used data from the end of the COVID-19 pandemic — is incongruous with Wind River Job Corps, Prejean said. It has clear benefits to students, local businesses that need skilled workers and the 150 employees who are residents of Fremont County, she said. 

Due to DOL’s mandate, Wind River staff are anticipating a closing day of June 23 unless some overriding action occurs. The outcome of the federal budget bill, officially called the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” could also impact the program. The bill passed the U.S. House last week and must still clear the Senate. 

“All students will be connected with the resources they need to succeed as this transition takes place,” the DOL said in its release. 

At Wind River, however, staff and students did not see it that way. 

Uncertainty

In the final weeks before the anticipated closing, staff are racing to secure job placements and obtain diplomas for the students. But for students and staff, the future beyond that is a question mark. 

Jaden Flowers, 23, didn’t finish high school in Los Angeles, where he grew up. He had a child at age 15 and his mom was sick, he said, so school wasn’t a priority. He migrated to Colorado after that, and was unhoused and unable to find a job this spring when he discovered Job Corps. 

He’s only been in Riverton for two months and said it’s been a great experience. He is trying to get as many petroleum certifications as possible before June 23, he said, so at least he’ll have some leverage for finding a job. In terms of a plan, however, he hasn’t figured that out. 

“I don’t really have nowhere to go, so it’s just back to where I left off,” he said. 

That’s a common story, he added. 

“It’s a mess. It’s crazy how they’re just kicking us out, with nothing, no place to go,” Flowers said. Wind River Job Corps teachers are doing everything they can to help, he added. “They are really trying.” 

Joshuwa Begley, 25, is nearly finished with the program. He arrived two years ago, looking for a change from his life of meaningless jobs and substance abuse, he said. It worked. 

“I changed my life,” he said. “I am a year sober from all the drugs I used to do.”

He earned his high school diploma at Job Corps and just needs to pass a final test to complete his heavy truck driving program. 

Begley had intended to stay in the area and had found a job with a local construction business. But because he won’t receive the completion money promised to him in the Job Corps contract and he doesn’t have a place to live, he said, he is instead going back to Georgia where he’ll move in with his grandmother. 

“It just kind of sucks,” Begley said. “All my hard work is going down the drain.”

Junior Chapa, 21, was incarcerated for two years in prison in Texas. When he got out, his probation officer suggested Job Corps. 

“So I came here to better myself, get my high school and my trade and stuff like that,” he said. He intended to obtain heavy truck driving and petroleum-related certifications. “This was like my only option to do better.”

He isn’t sure what he’ll do now, he said. 

Employees are also reeling, said Samantha March, who works in human resources. Many staffers have come to her seeking answers, she said Wednesday, pausing as she choked up. “And we don’t have any to give.” 

Another employee, Kathy, who declined to give her last name, said she worked all weekend trying to help students. 

The closure is profoundly unfortunate, she said. “We may not be 100% successful with every student that comes here, but we have changed enough lives that it is 100% worth it.”