6 I The Lovell Chronicle I January 19, 2012
PATTI CARPENTER
Deb Ward got her blood pressure checked by Cheri Bischoff a CNA from North
Big Horn Hospital, at the North Big Horn Senior Citizens Center on Tuesday.
The center offers free blood pressure checks the first Tuesday of every month.
Authorized Travel Program reminder
Wyoming drivers are being remind-
ed about Wyoming Department of Trans-
portation's Authorized Travel Program,
which permits motorists to drive on sections
of dosed roads when authorities judge it is
safe to do so.
The program is structured in accor-
dance with Wyoming law 24-1-109, which
in certain circumstances allows for excep-
tions to road closures, most commonly to
accommodate drivers traveling to and from
their residence or place of employment.
"Motorists should be aware that the
WYDOT Authorized Travel Program does
not give them blanket authorization to
drive on a closed road," said Cody Beers,
WYDOT public relations specialist in Ri-
verton.
In 2010-11, 848 Wyoming drivers ap-
plied for permission to travel beyond clo-
sure points on certain Wyoming highways.
Of those, 15 drivers applied for the privilege
in Northwest Wyoming.
WYDOT authorization will not be pro-
vided for every road closure; when it is, it
will be granted in one of the following three
ways: Through email or text messages,
when the driver applies and is approved
to receive email/text message alerts of
WYDOT Authorized Travel events and has
received permission to travel for the current
closure event. For more information and to
apply for email/text alerts, go to https://wat.
wyoroad.info/wat/alerts.html. Through Pa-
trol dispatch, when the driver contacts Wy-
oming Highway Patrol dispatch for permis-
sion to travel on the roadway. Permission
must be obtained prior to travel and is valid
only for the current closure event. Through
in-person method, when the driver is given
permission to proceed by a state trooper or
WYDOT employee posted at the road closure
location. Because these locations are unat-
tended most of the time, this method is not
reliable because there may not be WYDOT
personnel present to authorize travel.
Wyoming road closures generally fall
into two categories:
Closed to all traffic: When a roadway is
"closed to all traffic," it means that condi-
tions are such that no traffic can be allowed
past the road closure location for any rea-
son. This is the most common type of closure
and is oten the result of severe weather.
Anyone traveling past a road closure loca-
tion will be in violation of the law and sub-
ject to legal penalties.
Closed with authorized travel: When a
roadway is "closed with WYDOT Authorized
Travel," it means that a portion of the closed
roadway remains passable, and travel, with
specific authorization from WYDOT, is be-
ing allowed.
For information about this news re-
lease, contact WYDOT public relations spe-
cialist Cody Beers at (307) 431-1803.
DOLLAR
STORE
continued from page 1
four days to put the build- "We should be done
ing up," Murdock said. with the building in early
"They throw them up in May, and by late May or
less than a week." the first of June the store
Parking lotandcurbing should be open for busi-
work will wait for warmer ness," Murdock said,
weather to arrive, he said.
Wyoming schools ranked C;
local superintendents disagree
BY PATTI CARPENTER
Wyomins schools received a low
rating of C-plus last week in a re-
port released by Education
Week, a nationally rec-
ognized publica-
tion. The grade
was based on in-
formation gathered
through surveys that
measured statewide
policies, but did not
take into account
individual
district pro-
grams.
Big Horn
County School Dis-
trict No. 2 Supt. Dan
Coe disagrees with the
rating because of the way
the information was gath-
ered in the report.
"In Wyoming many decisions
such as curriculum, textbooks,
teacher professional development, teacher
evaluation tools, etc., are decided at a local
school district level," said Coe. "National
studies do not take this into account and
look at what is done at a state level, and if
they do not see that component in the scor-
ing formula at a state level they score that
state low. For example, in this study they
score states on teacher mentor programs.
In Wyoming, that is done on a local level
but not on state level, therefore the study
scores Wyoming low in this area sinc
there is not a teacher mentor program run
by the state. Big Horn No. 2 has a teacher-
mentoring program, but that is not scored
in this national study. Wyoming school dis-
tricts are doing much better than a C-plus
in K-12 education, but it is not reflected in
these studies."
Supt. Shon Hocker of Big Horn County
School District No. 1 agreed with Coe that
any study that does not take into account
the programs in place at the local levels is
not an accurate reflection of how schools
operate in the state of Wyoming, where
policies are not necessarily "standardized"
and where individual districts are allowed
to be somewhat "autonomous" in terms of
determining certain policies.
"I personally don't give credence
to any report that does not take local
information into account, which ap-
pears that this study does not," said
Hocker. "Our kids score high on
national tests like the nation-
wide NAEP, which shows the
kind of education they are
getting."
The National As-
sessment of Edu-
cational Prog-
ress (NAEP)
is the largest
nationally rep-
resentative and
continuing assess-
ment of what America's
students know and can do
in various subject areas. Since
NAEP assessments are administered
uniformly using the same sets of test
booklets across the nation, NAEP results
are considered a "yard stick" for measur-
ing and comparing students on a national
level.
According to the Education Week re-
port, known as "Quality Counts" Wyoming
ranked 26th against other states with
scores of B-minus in the "chance for suc-
cess" category, D-plus in "K-12 achieve-
ment," C-plus in "standards, assessments
and accountability," a C in "transitions and
alignment," a C in "teaching profession"
and an A-minus in "school finance."
The group gave an overall grade of C
to U.S. schools based on the average of a
50-state survey and makes the claim that
"the study is the most comprehensive on-
going assessment of the state of American
education."
It ranked Maryland schools at the top
of the heap with schools in New York and
Massachusetts not far behind. New Mexi-
co and Nevada received the lowest scores,
with grades of D-plus and D respectively.
With an overall score of 76.3, the Wyoming
score was in keeping with the national av-
erage. The majority of states received a
score of C-plus or lower in the study.
GOVERNOR
and not maintain them," he
said.
In answering other
questions, the governor
said:
*He supports only one
four-year university and
wants the community col-
leges and UW working in
partnership.
• He said the problem
with the Bureau of Land
continued from page 1
Management Resource
Management Plan for the
Big Horn Basin was that it
failed to recognize areas for
enhanced oil recovery but
as a result of the governor's
office intervening, the BLM
has reconsidered and "we
have moved in the right di-
rection."
The BLM is at fault for
not recognizing the econom-
ic impact of enhanced oil
recovery, but the state is
at fault, too, for not having
an energy policy that states
enhanced oil recovery is im-
portant, Mead said.
An energy policy, he
said, would be good for the
environment and good for
energy development by al-
lowing the state to be pro-
active in development.
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