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LOVELL
What's Inside ...
Museum fundraiser w Page 3
Sheriff's employee charged Page 5
New teachers come home Page 6
LHS golfers third Page 9
LOVELL, WYOMING • VOLUME 106, NUMBER 16 • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2011 • 75C
Lovell
Health
Fair
More than 300 people
attended the Lovell Health
Fair held at the community
center in Lovell on Sept. 24.
Above, (l-r) Sarah Wilkerson,
Janet Ward, Tina Toner and
Mady Toner worked at a
special station designed to
teach trick or treat safety
to children. Right, Senator
John Barrasso visits with
community members Pat
and Dusty Bacus of Lovell.
Barrasso is a big supporter
of health fairs in the state
and visits the fair in Lovell
every year. He is also a
trained orthopedic surgeon.
PHOTOS BY PAtti CARPENTER
District No. 2 board continues
to review test scores
BY PATTI CARPENTER
In an ongoing effort to strengthen stu-
dent performance and meet state and feder-
al academic requirements, the District No.
2 school board continued to make student
test scores a priority item on their agenda at
their September school board meeting.
Curriculum Director Nancy Cerroni
made a presentation to the board regarding
the district's AYP standing.
Adequate Yearly Progress is the re-
quirement under the No Child Loft Behind
legislation for schools and districts to show
annual improvement toward goals set by the
federal government in specific educational
areas.
"AYP does have an expectation for pro-
ficiency," explained Cerroni. "Among other
indicators it has an academic expectation.
The academic expectations involve all of the
students and subgroups that are defined (by
law) and all of those groups are expected to
meet a target."
One area tested is language arts, which
is a combined area that includes reading and
writing. The subgroup of middle school spe-
cial education students did not make AYP
standing in this area.
"The intent (of No Child Left Behind)
was not to leave any child behind regard-
less of ethnicity, socio-economic status or
disability," said Cerroni. "I think it's a wor-
thy thing, but I think we're beginning to see
where sometimes goals and reality don't
jibe."
"AYP is a numbers game," explained
Cerroni. "The magic number is 30. If you
have fewer than 30 students in a subgroup
you fly under the AYP radar. If you have
more than 30 students in a subgroup all of a
sudden you are put in the AYP spotlight."
According to Cerroni, it came as no sur-
prise that the middle school subgroup of
special education needed to work on reading
progress.
Cerroni explained how the bar is raised
each year for the number of students expect-
ed to meet AYP requirements in each sub-
group with a goal of all students eventually
measuring 100 percent proficient in the ar-
eas tested. According to Cerroni, all groups
have shown progress including this small
subgroup of about 30 students in middle
school special education.
"We do have to recognize the flaw in
No Child Left Behind," said Cerroni. "It's
a flawed system, but it is what it is right
now."
"As it stands right now it should be a
growth model," added Superintendent Dan
Coe. "That is what the push has been for,
with testing at the beginning of the year,
testing at the end of year and then measur-
ing growth. The idea is to measure growth
because there is no way any school in the
country is going to have 100 percent profi-
ciency. Everybody knows that."
"I think there are things we can do to
work on this," said Cerroni. "Right now we
have a reading initiative in our district and
we're bringing in Dr. Tim Rush to work with
our secondary teachers and Mrs. Hoffman
will be working with her elementary teach-
ers to try to improve reading instruction
in the district. We also will have an LMS
(Lovell Middle School) AYP improvement
plan and that will be in conjunction with the
school's plan to address this very issue."
According to Cerroni, the test results
raise the question, "How can regular educa-
tion and special education collaborate to im-
prove the performance for all students?"
"This is not just a special ed problem,"
said Cerroni. "This is a district problem."
Next, principal Scott O'Tremba re-
viewed average ACT scores of high school
students. After reviewing three years of
data, O£remba made the comment that he
thought the data was "all over the place."
"The ACT is not something we walk
them (the students) through like we would
with PAWS (another type of testing)," ex-
plained O'Tremba.
Students tested well in English, accord-
ing to O£remba, students scored better
than the previous year and above the state
average. In both math and science, student
scores were influenced by incorrect informa-
tion.
He gave the example that students fill
See 'TEST SCORES' page 7
Dearer site of redistricting
meeting Tuesday night
BY DAVID PECK
The Deaver Community Center will be
the site of a meeting next Tuesday to dis-
cuss voting boundary and legislative dis-
trict plans for the northern Big Horn Ba-
sin, Rep. Elaine Harvey announced this
week.
The meeting featuring Harvey, Sen.
Ray Peterson and Rep. Dave Bonner is
scheduled for 6 p.m. Oct. 4 at the commu-
nity center in Dearer.
Harvey explained that a Wyoming
Supreme Court decision many years ago
requires the Wyoming Legislature go
through a redistricting process every 10
years following the census under the prin-
ciple of "one person, one vote."
"That's why there are no county lines
anymore (for legislative districts)," Harvey
said. "Every legislator represents a similar
number of people."
When she first took office, Harvey
said she represented around 8,000 people,
but now she represents nearly 9,000 resi-
dents.
The ideal, based on the state popula-
tion, is 9,394 people, and the court allows
a deviation of plus or minus 5 percent. Un-
der a plan worked out among legislators
in the Big Horn Basin, Harvey said she
would represent 8,964 residents, which is
a deviation of 4.6 percent.
We've worked really hard to try and
maintain six representatives and three
senators in the Big Horn Basin," Harvey
said. "To do that, House District 28 has to
reach into Fremont County to get enough
people. It will have a minus-4.9 percent de-
viation, even with Shoshoni and Lysite and
parts of Meeteetse and Willwood south of
the Shoshone River.
"Lorraine (Quarberg, R-Thermopolis)
will have constituents in four counties."
District 28 also includes Basin and
Burlington and part of Emblem south of
U.S. 14-16-20, Harvey said. House District
27 includes Washakie County and part of
Big Horn County including Manderson,
Hyattville and the Nowood area east of the
Big Horn River.
House District 25 has excess popula-
tion due to growth in Powell, so Harvey
said her district- 26--will now encompass
a different part of Park County, under the
current plan. She said the legislature es-
tablished guidelines to follow that include
"communities of interest."
"I asked for the Park County side of
Deaver and Frannie, following the fire
and cemetery district line," she said. "I got
that. I also had to go into the rural Gar-
land area."
The redistricting proposal will be ex-
plained to citizens at a series of meetings,
beginning with Tuesday's meeting in Deav-
er. Future meetings will be held Oct. 5 in
Cody, Oct. 12 in Basin, Oct. 13 in Ther-
mopolis and Oct. 17 at the courthouse in
Basin when the plan will be explained to
county clerks from the basin. Harvey said
an attempt is being made to have the re-
districting follow the boundaries of special
See 'REDISTRICTING' page 8
PATTI CARPENTER
Trucks lined up to deliver thousands of pounds of beets at the Western Sugar
Factory in Lovell leaving a huge pile within hours of the plant firing up its
equipment. The campaign officially began on Monday and will continue for
approximately five months, during which beets are sliced and diced and turned
into refined sugar.
'Rock the Wranglers' at RMHS next week
BY DAVID PECK
Rocky Mountain High
School will celebrate Home-
coming 2011 next week to
the theme of Rock the Wran-
glers, leading up to Friday
afternoon's game against
the Shoshoni Wranglers in
Cowley.
Student council spon-
sor Lea Sorenson students
will decorate the school on
Monday and Tuesday and
on Wednesday through
home room period, with
awards for the best side-
walk, bulletin board and
banner to be presented lat-
er in the week.
Dress-up days are as
follows:
Monday - Decade Day,
with seniors dressing like
the '80s, juniors the '70s,
sophomores the '60s and
freshmen the '50s.
Tuesday - Character
Day, with students dress-
ing like their favorite char-
acter.
Wednesday - Class
Color Day with seniors
dressing in blue, juniors
red, sophomores green,
freshmen yellow and staff
members black.
Thursday- Geek/Nerd/
Gangster Day.
Friday - Brown and
Gold Day.
The annual Home-
coming Olympics will be
held in the auxiliary gym
Wednesday after lunch,
and on Thursday, boys will
gather wood for the bonfire
while girls paint the foot-
ball field.
The annual Navajo
Taco Dinner will be held
from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at
the Great Hall, followed
by the pep rally and bon-
fire on the football field.
Homecoming royalty will
be crowned.
The Homecoming Pa-
rade will be held Friday
at 10 a.m. and will include
floats, the school drum line
and banners. The parade
will wind its way to the
elementary school, where
students will conduct a
pep rally for elementary
students. After returning
to the high school, a talent
show and awards assem-
bly will be held announc-
ing decorating winners
and the winner of the spir-
it trophy.
The Rocky Mountain
Grizzlies will host the Sho-
shoni Wranglers at 4 p.m.
"Senior Night" parent/
player announcements will
be held before the game
for the football, volleyball,
cross country and cheer-
leading programs.
An evening volleyball
match against Bridget has
been cancelled, but there
will be a dance from 9 p.m.
to midnight at the Great
Hall.
The Lovell Chronicle, 234 E Main, Lovell, WY 82431. Contact us at: 548.2217. www Iovellchronicle corn
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