4lThe Lovell Chronicle I September 26, 2013
CHRONICLE
nlons
Stop the bubble
team bouncing
Goodbye Rocky, Greybull, Riverside and Thermopolis and
hello Powell, Cody Worland, Jackson and Star Valley.
That the effect of the latest reclassification process by
the Wyoming High School Activities Association that will
move Lovell High School back to Class 3A starting in the fall
of 2014.
The change will affect all sports except football, namely
basketball, volleyball, cross country, golf, wrestling, indoor
track and spring track and field. Lovell is in the middle of
the pack as a member of Class 2A in football, so a couple of
position changes won't affect the school in that sport.
Lovell spent two years in 3A in 2008-09 and 2009-I 0
and competed quite well in certain sports, and certainly no-
body in Class 2A is going to feel sorry for the Bulldogs given
the school recent success in multiple sports.
But it still baffles many observers how the WHSAA re-
mains locked into its current system of 12 4A schools, 16 3A
schools and 20 2A schools without regard to enrollment or
natural breaks that would enhance both competition and
rivalries.
If ever there was an organization set in its ways, it is the
WHSAA. All proposals to change the system have been vot-
ed down at one level or another. That means Lovell will be
in Class 3A - a school with a projected average daily mem-
bership of about 214 - and compete against Star Valley,
which has a projected ADM of 717, while Thermopolis, with
an ADM of 209, remains in 2A. A difference of five students
decides who will move up and who will stay down.
Athletic directors have studied the issue and have come
up with a variety of proposals to find natural breaks in en-
rollment. A few closely follow the football alignment, break-
ing the state into five classes rather than four. This out-
of-the-box thinking apparently doesn't wash with some
schools and the WHSAA, so the same old system remains.
If the football breaks were followed, Lovell would com-
i pete against schools.of like size - from Pinedale (ADM 303)
to perhaps Wyoming Indian (138) or even down to, say,
Lusk (115).
Depending on how far the class extends, Rocky Moun-
tain could either remain in LovellLs class with an ADM of 124
or move to the next division below with Tongue River, Lusk,
Shoshoni and others.
3A would include schools from Buffalo (328) to Green
River (816).
There are many possibilities, and some have put a lot of
work into finding natural breaks, but itLs a difficult process
given Wyoming:s small number of schools and great distanc-
es. It is far from a matter of simply making a list and check-
ing it twice. Conference alignments have to be considered
as well as travel and culminating events.
Perhaps the greatest indicator of the illogical nature of
the WHSAA traditional stance is the fact that someone from
the Big Horn Basin always has to be a member of the 3A
East to give the WHSAA its preferred "eight teams in the
east and eight teams in the west" conference alignment.
Worland is currently a member of the 3A East, traveling to
Torrington, Newcastle, Wheatland and Rawlins for confer-
ence games.
That simply ridiculous, but Lovell could well find its way
in the same situation.
Again, no one is going to feel sorry for Lovell, which has
won many state titles in recent years as the largest school
in Class 2A, and some would even argue that competition
against larger schools enhances the skill level and competi-
tive edge of a smaller school. Certainly Lovell competed well
in team sports - boys and girls basketball and volleyball -
when in 3A a few years ago. But the Bulldogs struggled in
other sports where numbers really matter.
It simply makes sense to find natural breaks in enrollment
where David won't have to meet Goliath, even though Da-
vid sometimes slays the giant. We urge the WHSAA to keep
trying, and nice round numbers be damned.
And maybe, just maybe, more stability will be the result,
too. Endless bouncing around for the bubble teams does
no one any good.
-David Peck
Letters to the editor
Is Lovell becoming the Weed City?
Dear Editor,
I am writing this letter to ex-
press my disappointment I expe-
rienced when visiting Lovell this
past weekend.
I was born and raised in
Lovell, then moved away at age
18 to attend college. I have always
been proud to be from a town of
goodhearted people, simple living
and neighbors who took pride in
having beautiful yards and main-
tained properties. People cared
about their yards and kept up
with mowing and spraying for
weeds and picking up clutter.
I was pleased to be from a town
called "The Rose City."
While visiting Lovell this
past weekend I made some tours
through the residential area and
neighborhoods I hadn't seen in
years. It felt good to reminisce
and remember all the wonder-
ful childhood memories. Unfortu-
nately, my thoughts were blocked
by the massive weed epidemic in
many neighborhoods. I could not
believe how many properties were
overrun with weeds or the lawn
needed mowed, or viewing an eye-
sore of furniture and junk stacked
out in the front yard. How sad.
Is my hometown called the "Rose
City" or the "Weed City?"
Jamie S. Hafner
Say 'no' to the beer tax hike
Editor:
Senator Ray Peterson, I drink
beer. I believe I pay enough taxes.
If you raise the beer tax I will buy
all my beer in Montana. Montana
beer is cheaper anyway.
I am sick of hearing how
much cheaper taxes are in Wyo-
ming. Many people do not have to
drive 40-90 miles to buy needed
items. Senator, you could simplify
taxes this way. How much did you
make? Send it in!
Cheyenne is a small black
hole, Washington is a super mas-
sive black hole, and no matter
how much they suck in, it is never
enough. Has anyone bought a new
truck? The last truck I bought tax-
es and license cost more than my
first four vehicles. We pay enough
taxes, case closed.
Jim Szlemko, we might be
looking at this wrong. Cheyenne
should not be deprived of one
cent. You and I should be made
to sacrifice. No matter about you
and me, Cheyenne is the greater
good. Just kidding!
Senator, the last vote on in-
creasing the sales tax in Big
Horn County went down in
flames. This should be a clue. We
pay enough in taxes. Maybe the
increased cost of beer is just due
to transportation. Heard that one
before?
By the way, my friend Mike
says we don't need Democrats in
Wyoming. We have Republicans
doing the job.
Owen C. Wantulok
Parent disappointed in FFA survey, process
Dear Editor:
I was writing in response to
the article last week regarding
the survey for interest in adding
an FFA program to the Burling-
ton High School.
I was very disappointed in
the way the survey was put to-
gether and the rumors regarding
an FFA program filtered down to
the students at school prior to the
informational meeting. It seemed
to me that the school superin-
tendent and others do not really
want an ag program and as such
haven't given real effort to inves-
tigating how a program could be
incorporated into the high school.
In the two days prior to the infor-
mational meeting, both::of my chil-
dren in high school came home be-
lieving that if FFA were added to
the available curriculum, a popu-
lar teacher would lose their job.
I know rumors and misinfor-
mation can abound in small com-
munities, but the 7 to 3 student
votes against having an FFA pro-
gram (as reported in this news-
paper last week) were really
a vote by the students to keep
current teachers. That certain-
ly speaks well to the quality of
teachers Burlington has but does
little to answer the real question
of whether there is enough inter-
est to support an FFA program.
While the school seems to pres-
ent the survey results as a "No",
I feel that 50 percent wanting a
program is a fairly good indica-
tion that such a program does
warrant further thought. What
percentage of returns on a sur-
vey would be needed for it to be
interpreted as a 'Yes"? The sur-
vey itself was designe to en-
couragn0 vos. .i, !1:3 !.:k
There was place to:indicat
a "No" ol:'lres " as to intere't in
an FFA program and if you voted
'Yes," a list of electives and the
question of which electives would
you like to see eliminated to
make room for an FFA program.
This by itself implies there
are no other options than current
teachers being replaced. Other
options do exist and should be
given the opportunity to be ex-
plored. Some that come to mind
are share a teacher with another
school or district, see if a current
teacher would like to pursue get-
ting the required endorsement
needed to teach an FFA program,
look for or recruit a teacher who
has the needed endorsement
when filling future vacancies,
look for grant funding, offer an
ag science class that counts to-
wards Hathaway requirements,
etc.
I am sure other options exist,
as well. I would feel much better
i:b.out th':iho district's ?sur-
vey results"':if they approached
the topic in airair way with an
open mind to the possibility that
this could work. Should Burling-
ton offer FFA? That is an answer
I feel the school district has yet
to determine.
Christine Bullinger
FFA program should be fully investigated
Dear Editor,
I attended the Sept. 12 meet-
ing at the school library.
First off, the ag/ed/FFA teach-
ers (also FFA advisors) and sev-
en state student FFA officers pre-
sented a very good, overall concept
of the program. Unfortunately, it
did not involve financials or how
this program was first introduced
or integrated into their school
curriculum, which could be very
vital information for future parts
of this study.
Next, the school superinten-
dent presented the school per-
spective, which primarily focused
on financial indications, combined
with the declining projected Burl-
ington High School student atten-
dance over the next 20 years or
more, and, to hand out a hard pa-
per "vote" to all of the attendees
in the room.
One section of this "vote" in-
volved our participation in cir-
cling current high school elec-
tive classes, from a list below, for
elimination.
Questions were raised as to
how, who and what criteria en-
ables or requires these electives
to be part of the curriculum and
how many students are current-
ly or historically, enrolled in each
class. This information was not
available to the attendees at this
meeting, but the request to make
this "vote" was clear.
I thought the school board
wanted to first inform and then
conduct surveys of all the Burl-
ington school parents. Not to say
that whoever was in attendance
would represent the entire paren-
tal body of the school and that this
would be our ONLY opportunity
to voice our opinion? It seemed
like an open and shut case with
only one option. Was this what
the school board intended?
We have generations of chil-
dren at our school that need rep-
resentation. If we are a proud
community and state of primarily
agriculture and livestock, and we
know that our student attendance
will be steadfastly declining over
the next 20-plus years, and there
are programs out there that are
specifically engineered for all as-
pects and subcategories of "farm-
ing" and livestock aptitudes, then
we are doing our children a great
injustice, while other communi-
ties will be welcoming back their
young, college-graduated stu-
dents who want to start up or fur-
ther enhance their current family
farm operations, and raise their
children here, and improve their
overall community and school en-
rollments, we will be losing these
new families to those neighbor-
ing schools that provide such pro-
grams and applied opportunities.
We need to give our future genera-
tions a reason to be and live in the
Burlington area; otherwise, our
school may not even survive.
I interpreted the teacher re-
sponse to the parental inquiry to be
extremely defensive, as if some are
concerned for the welfare of their
jobs. I also quickly interpreted
that our students, who love their
school and teachers and who are
dedicated to them, would also vote
negatively to support their con-
cern. The assumption that teach-
ers could or would be eliminated
must have been concluded from
the "vote" category to eliminate an
elective, as a solution to providing
the FFA program.
I do not feel the school board
should request an answer from
the public without the full knowl-
edge of elective information and/or
the full details of ALL the options
available in order to make the
program possible, without losing
any electives or teachers. Hence,
a feasibility study and cost analy-
sis, for example, should have been
provided.
What do we have to lose by do-
ing a full investigation of this pro-
gram, to involve everyone in our
community including, but not lim-
ited to, an unbiased survey with
options of feasibility and funding
or shared access. We need one FFA
class to get a chapter started. Over
the period of five years that could
make a very positive improvement
in our overall student body.
I believe this first meeting was
not presented fairly, nor given the
opportunities that it was suppos-
edly intended by the District #1
School Board members.
Nancy Serfass, Burlington
USPS 321-060
234 E. Main, Lovell, Wyoming 82431
307-548-2217 o FAX 307-548-2218
Emaih Icnews@tctwest.net
David Peck, Editor and Publisher
Editor ................................................................................. David Peck
Reporter ........................................................................ Patti Carpenter
Office Manager ........................................................... Gladys McNeil
Production Manager ........................................................... Pat Parmer
Advertising Sales ......................................................... Chelsey Eades
Staff ................................................. Dorothy Nelson, Marwyn Layne
Teressa Ennis, Cheryl Jolley, John Lafko, Ana Baird
LOVELL
00Chronncle
Publis ed weekly on Thursday at Lovell, Wyoming
Periodicals Postage paid at Lovell, WY
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
1 year in Big Horn and Park counties ...................................... $30.00
1 year in Wyoming ................................................................... $44.00
1 Year out-of-Wyoming ........................................................... $50.00
Single Copy ................................................................................... 75¢
Postmaster, Send Address Changes to:
The Lovell Chronicle, 234 E. Main St.,
Lovell,.WY 82431
MEMBER:
National Newspaper Association
#1 IN GENERAL and
ADVERTISING EXCELLENCE
for
Wyoming Small Weekly
Newspapers
E-Mail: lcnews@tctwest.net ° Website: www.lovellchronicle.com
I qt
