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What's Inside ...
Recycling program 3
Public health future 6
Football previews 8
Jen's Little China 12
LOVELL, WYOMING • VOLUME 108, NUMBER 13 • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2013 • 75¢
DAVID PECK
Lovell Elementary Principal Cheri Hoffman hugs returning
student Hailey Rael on the first day of school Aug. 22.
Enrollment.is holding steady in School District No. 2.
BY PATTI CARPENTER
Big Horn County School District No. 2 Supt. Dan Coe reported
that enrollments seem to be holding steady in his district again this
year. Last year's enrollment on the first day of school district was 700.
This figure, referred to as the districts average daily membership
(ADM), is a figure that affects funding for the district.
On the first day of school for the 2013-14 school year the total of
students enrolled was 698 with more expected to enroll. Coe said he
expects to see the figure increase to around 700.
Enrollment figures on the first day of school for Lovell's schools
were kindergarten 70 students, 1st grade 58, 2nd 45, 3rd 63, 4th 51,
5th 51 for a total of 338 students compared to 335 last year at the el-
ementary school level.
The middle school had 47 enrolled in the 6th grade class, 53 in 7th
and 51 in 8th for a total of 151 enrolled as compared to 164 students
last year.
The high school had 55 students enrolled in 9th grade, 52 in 10th,
57 in llth and 45 in 12th for a total of 209 enrolled.
The overall enrollment or ADM on day 11 last year was 709. About
the same is expected for this year.
District supervisors watch these numbers very carefully, since
schools are funded in part based on student enrollments, specifically
on the 1 lth day of school.
BY PATTI CARPENTER
School administrators were
pleasantly surprised with the re-
sults of the ACT Suite testing re-
sults of grades 9, 10 and 11 show-
ing Lovell High School students
testing at above state averages at
each grade level in English, math,
reading and science.
The Wyoming Accountability
in Education Act requires each dis-
trict in the entire state to admin-
ister the EXPLORE, PLAN and
ACT tests to nearly all 9th, 10th
and llth graders each year in the
spring. The purpose of the test is
to predict college and career read-
iness, and at the llth grade level
the test is also used as an account-
ability measure for Adequate
Yearly Progress (AYP), which can
affect federal funding for the dis-
trict. It also affects an individual
student's ability to receive Hatha-
way scholarship funds, as well as
the amount of those funds.
Eleventh-graders tested
above the state average across the
board in all areas. Tenth-graders
tested at or above the state aver-
age in all levels, as well. Ninth-
graders, who were being intro-
duced to the ACT suite for the first
time, tested well above state aver-
ages, too.
The district's students per-
formed in the top 10 as compared
to other districts throughout the
state for each area assessed by the
ACT suite of testing.
Like other students statewide,
the students had a slightly rough-
er go at PAWS testing, in part due
to changes in the test that incor-
porate the new common core stan-
dards for "field testing" purposes.
Nonetheless, the students tested
well, with most grade levels test-
ing above the state in proficiency in
the areas of reading, math and sci-
ence, meeting the overall district
goal to meet or exceed the state
averages. Although some scores
were slightly down compared to
the previous year due to changes
in the test structure, in most cas-
es the students still soared above
state levels.
Although scores in reading
for third and seventh grade were
slightly below state average, the
same students tested very well in
the same subject areas on their
MAP tests. MAP is a different type
SEE 'DIST. 2 EXCEEDS
AVERAGE' page 3
Lovell tops 'young
families' ratings list
BY DAVID PECK
Lovell has been named the "Best Town in Wyo-
ming for Young Families" by the business website
NerdWallet.com.
The site, which provides news, information
and ratings on finance, investing, education, travel
and more issued a press release Tuesday praising
Lovell for its religion-based lifestyle and excellent
educational system.
"Lovell supports a strong LDS community and
a great educational system," said writer Mike An-
derson. "Juniors at Lovell High - which earned a
near perfect rating from GreatSchools - scored two
points higher than the state average on the ACT
last year."
In his introduction, Anderson wrote that
'Toung families may visit Wyoming for its natural
beauty, but they stay for more, including opportu-
nities for adults and children alike.
"NerdWallet sought the best towns for young
families, so as we analyzed cities and towns across
the state, we asked the following questions:
"1. Does the town have good public schools? We
measured schools' academic performance with rat-
ings from GreatSchools. This non-profit compares a
given school's standardized test scores to the state
average to obtain a rating on a 1 to 10 scale (10
representing the highest score). Higher ratings led
to a higher overall score.
"2. Can you afford to live there? We looked at
both average home values in each town and ongo-
ing monthly home costs including mortgage pay-
ments, real estate taxes, insurance costs, utilities,
fuel and other bills. Lower costs led to a higher
overall score.
"3. Is the town growing and prospering? We
assessed a town's economy by looking at average
household income and income growth over the last
decade. Higher income and greater growth led to a
higher overall score."
Placing second behind Lovell was Glenrock,
SEE 'LOVELL TOPS FAMILIES LIST,'
page 3
NEPECO ceasing
business
BY DAVID PECK
A persistent, wind-blown fire on August 4 in
Byron claimed a shop and front office. Now it has
claimed the business.
NEPECO owner Chad Petrich notified custom-
ers of the oil field services company in a recent let-
ter that the company was going out of business by
the end of August and that customers needed to
look elsewhere for services.
The company's equipment will be sold at an
auction on Thursday, Oct. 31, Petrich said.
The company closing will cost eight or nine em-
ployees their jobs, Petrich said, but most of them
are at or near retirement age.
"They're still working and will continue to work
until the auction to get equipment fixed up and
ready for sale," he said.
Having to end business in this fashion is frus-
trating, Petrich said.
"Through 56 years we probably made out all
right, but the value of the loss on its face is more
than we had insurance for," he said. "There's a lot of
memories in that office. All of our pictures of when
we were starting out were in there. I was thinking
of selling and retiring. It really hurts to lose it in
that way."
NEPECO was founded in 1957, Petrich said, by
Arthur F. Petrich and Ed NeVille. He said the com-
pany operated for "quite a few years" before it start-
ed to make a profit, but now would have been a good
time to sell.
"There's quite a lot of stuff in there I could have
sold offand kept the shop building and kept some of
the equipment I wanted to keep," he said. "It really
hurts. "We probably had $30,000 in (recent) electri-
cal work in that building and $2,500 into a camera
system for surveillance.
"We were trying to upgrade the building and
keep it going (for a while longer), but this speeded
things up."
Fire destroyed the NEPECO shop and offices in
the late afternoon and evening of Sunday, Aug. 4. The
Lovell Volunteer Fire Dept. was called out at 4:17
p.m. and battled the blaze for more than six hours.
•k
BY PATTI CARPENTER
The Joint Labor, Health
and Social Services Interim
Committee rolled up their
collective sleeves to ham-
mer out solutions to a num-
ber of problems the state is
facing in connection with
the Affordable Care Act, the
public health nursing pro-
gram, workers' comp and
other programs at a legis-
lative hearing on Monday,
Aug. 26, and Tuesday, Aug.
27, at the Lovell Community
Center.
The committee is co-
chaired by Rep. Elaine Har-
vey of Lovell and Senator
Charles Scott of Casper.
This was the second of four
hearings that will be held
in the state. The commit-
tee consists of 14 members,
including five members of
the Senate and nine from
the House. Sen. Ray Peter-
son of Cowley is also on the
committee.
State agency directors
from the Dept. of Health
and Workforce Services and
staff from Cheyenne testi-
fled along with members
of the public during the ses-
sion, which was well at-
tended by members of the
community and other inter-
ested parties, many of whom
were quite vocal about their
needs and concerns during
the public comment period.
The meeting opened on
Monday with a discussion
of topics related to the Wy-
oming Dept. of Health, be-
ginning with a discussion
of transition and discharge
planning, standard of care
and transition planning for
Title 25 patients.
Title 25 provides a foun-
dation and structure for
the State of Wyoming to
evaluate, detain and hos-
pitalize persons who suffer
from acute mentally illness.
Several different county,
state and private agencies
and organizations are in-
volved in the Title 25 pro-
cess. The process requires
that agencies collaborate
and coordinate services "to
ensure timely and humane
interactions with individu-
The Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Interim
chaired by Rep. Elaine Harvey of Lovell and Senator
met in Lovell last week for a work session.
PATTI CARPENTER
Committee, which is co-
Charles Scott of Casper,
als who are a danger to self, most vulnerable, while at Title 25.
to others, or are unable to the same time ensuring that "We are working on this
satisfy basic needs as a re- their rights are protected, because our process is not a
sultofamentalillness." According to Harvey, very good one right now," ex-
The idea is to provide two committees have beenplained Harvey. "Some peo-
consistencyinthetreatment assigned to work on the ple wind up injail and others
of persons when they are the problems associated withend up in a number of differ-
ent situations."
Harvey said some of the
problems they are dealing
with include housing and
other discharge issues.
The committee heard
testimony regarding the
problems and possible solu-
tions. Harvey said she felt
a lot of good ideas were pre-
sented. The committee dis-
cussed ways to create conti-
nuity of care by having the
staffofthe state mental hos-
pital stay in touch with oth-
er providers who may have
worked with the patient.
The committee dis-
cussed the problems asso-
ciated the use of regional
emergency beds as a tempo-
rary measure, in particular
the fact that those beds are
not located in a secure, "lock
down" environment. This in-
cludes the use of volunteers,
who are not medically certi-
fied to stand watch over pa-
tients in a regular hospital
bed.
SEE 'COMMITTEE MEETS
IN LOVELL' page 3
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The Lovell Chronicle, 234 E. Main, Lovell, WY 82431. Contact us at: 548-2217. www.lovellchronicle.com
