Wyoming

Big land, small schools: Inside the politics of rural education in Wyoming

Published

2 days ago

July 1, 2024

Big land, small schools: Inside the politics of rural education in Wyoming

The thought of one-room schoolhouses evokes dirt floors, dusty chalkboards, and Little House on the Prairie. But Wyoming, America’s least populated state, still has 18 schools with three rooms or less.

Small schoolhouses and rural education in the Cowboy State are rooted in Wyoming’s constitution, which guarantees a right to an education and outlines the state’s funding model. Students across the state are legally entitled to equitable access to resources, regardless of geographic location.

“Not every state has a constitution that even talks about education,” said Barbara Hickman, assistant professor at the University of Wyoming’s College of Education. “To have it in the constitution that there is a requirement from the people of Wyoming to appropriately fund our public education system, that matters.”

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The block grant funding model sets benchmarks for funding across the state. Counties that generate enough revenue to fund their schools independently are designated as “recapture” counties and feed their excess dollars back to the state.

The majority of the state’s counties are “entitlement” counties, which means that they rely on state funds and counties with surpluses to help cover their educational costs. Funding levels are adjusted for the state’s smallest districts.

“I think that the model has been put together to try to be equitable and adequate across the state. So if you’re a smaller district, you get quite a bit more money per student,” incoming executive director for the Wyoming Association of School Administrators Boyd Brown said.

More: Some parts of rural America are changing fast. Can higher education keep up?

This reality plays out in schools such as Park County’s Valley Elementary, built in 1918. Nestled along the South Fork River and backdropped by the Absaroka mountains, the school has eight students ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade. Michelle Dean has taught at Valley for eight years.

Dean and other teachers in these schools face unusual challenges In addition to grizzly bear-proof fences and brutally long winters, teachers must manage curriculums across multiple grade levels and access points for learners across grade levels.

This spring’s project centered around vermicomposting (composting with earthworms) and challenged students to develop their own. Students based experiments around questions like “Can worms jump?” “Do worms like music?” and “Can you train worms to do tricks?”

“I didn’t want the students just working at their desk, at their own grade levels. So I was thinking of how to bring them together and create a community of learners,” Dean said.

Dean noted the challenge of multi-curricular teaching but argued that it paid off in the level of individualized education students receive and said that the students can mentor and teach each other across grade levels.

“Students have more freedom to explore their interests, if they need more time to work on a concept, they have it,” Dean said. “My fifth graders are super supportive of my kindergarteners, and my kindergarteners just bloom with that.”

Schools like Sheridan County’s Slack Elementary, built in 1937 and tucked into the base of the Big Horn mountains, often act as anchors in some of the state’s most rural areas. Many students hail from ranching families and get to school on the same roads their parents took. School events, such as Slack’s beginning-of-year ice cream social and Valley’s annual Christmas play, are gathering places for the surrounding communities.

“The community that shows up. It’s not just the kids that are here, it’s the community that shows up—not just from the kids that are here, but anyone who lives out here,” Principal Ryan Fuhrman said.

Karin Unruh has taught at Sublette County’s Bondurant Elementary for over ten years and said that one of her favorite parts of the job is being embedded in the community. She firmly stands by the quality of the education offered in Wyoming’s smallest communities.

“I think a lot of people don’t understand that rural schools can still have access to really good resources and can provide a high level of education to the students. The students can still learn a lot, have their needs met, and actually get more individualized attention than in larger schools,” Unruh said.

Once the students at Bondurant, Valley, Slack, and many other small schools in Wyoming are old enough to travel alone, they will have to brave multi-hour bus rides into the nearest town. To Unruh, investing in rural schools is an investment in the communities’ futures.

“If there aren’t schools in the community, it’s harder to bring in new families, so having a school in a community really keeps the community alive, and keeps people involved in the community,” Unruh said.

While these small schoolhouses may not be the cheapest way to educate students, Larry Gerber, principal of Valley School, says their existence is grounded in the needs of the students.

“If you’re a five-year-old, do you want to spend four hours on a school bus? Is that what’s best for you? Especially for our little guys, to be able to be on a bus for fifteen minutes versus two hours, it’s a dramatic difference,” said Gerber. “The people I always talk to are always surprised that someone would pay that much money for eight kids. What I always retort is, what if one of those eight kids was yours?

Cy Neff reports on Wyoming politics for USA TODAY. You can reach him at cneff@usatoday.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CyNeffNews

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Wyoming

It's Unconstitutional: Hemp Businesses Sue Wyoming Governor Over Law Banning Delta-8 And Similar Substances

Published

7 hours ago

July 3, 2024

Press Room

It's Unconstitutional: Hemp Businesses Sue Wyoming Governor Over Law Banning Delta-8 And Similar Substances

Ten hemp companies and one individual hemp seller are suing the state of Wyoming over a ban on the cannabis-like substance delta-8 THC. They are calling the law, which took effect Monday, unconstitutional and want it blocked.

The lawsuit was filed last Friday in the U.S. District Court against Wyoming Gov.Mark Gordon (R), attorney general Bridget Hill (R), director of agriculture Doug Miyamoto and all of Wyoming’s elected prosecutors.

“We will fight to keep our small businesses open, keep food on the tables of our staff, and keep products coming to the hardworking people [of] Wyoming,” Gillette’s Mountain High Wellness store owners Sarah and Richard McDaniel, who are among the plaintiffs, said in a statement as reported by WyoFile. “The Hemp Community of Wyoming is not backing down until the people of Wyoming have the right to decide what we use for alternative options to big pharma and our small businesses have the right to continue to operate.”

Read Also: Intoxicating Hemp Products Face Regulatory Crackdown Across Multiple States

The Delta-8 Question

What is delta-8 THC and why is it banned?

Delta-8 THC is a chemical component of the cannabis plant. Although delta-8 occurs naturally in very small concentrations, it can produce a mild psychoactive effect in some people similar to delta-9 THC.

New industrial methodologies enable delta-8 THC to be converted from CBD derived from hemp. Products developed as a result of the 2018 federal Farm Bill that legalized hemp are therefore not subject to the same testing requirements as cannabis, creating a legal loophole.

The biggest problem connected to delta-8 THC has mostly to do with the question of safety. It takes a proficient and experienced chemist to ensure the safe conversion of CBD molecules into THC molecules, writes Forbes. Inappropriate or imprecise techniques could potentially result in dangerous impurities in the final product.

This is why many states are banning delta-8 and other synthetic cannabis products.

“(The new law) creates insurmountable confusion around criminal liability and destroys the mere act of processing hemp into consumable products,” reads the lawsuit. “(We) face irreparable harm unless this court enjoins (the law).

Unconstitutional And Too Broad

The plaintiffs also claim that the new ban illegally narrows the federal definition of hemp, impacts interstate transpiration laws, and is too broad.

“For instance, [Senate File 32 – Hemp-limitations on psychoactive substances] bans hemp containing any “synthetic substance,” a term which is overly broad that incorporates “non ‘psychoactive substances’” like CBD that contains no THC,” the filing states.

The lawsuit lists the following businesses as plaintiffs: Up In Smoke II (Laramie), Capitol Botanicals (Cody), Dr. Chronic’s Concentrates (Casper), Flower Castle Elevated Wellness (Cheyenne), and CinD’s CBD and Vape (Torrington). It also includes the agricultural operation Greybull River Farms.

The new law is “unconstitutional, as it deprived plaintiffs from cultivating, distributing, transporting and selling hemp plants and hemp-derived products that are declared legal under the 2018 Farm Bill,” reads the document. The plaintiffs also say if the law is enacted and individuals who cultivate hemp plants are to be prosecuted they’ll suffer “irreparable harm.”

“An injunction is the proper remedy when challenging the constitutionality of state action.”

Read Next:

To keep on top of what is happening with cannabis and hemp in the U.S., join us at the 19th Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference, which is coming to Chicago this Oct. 8-9. Get your tickets now before prices go up by following this link.

Photo: Courtesy of H_Ko via Shutterstock

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Wyoming

CBI issues alert for Wyoming woman who disappeared after driving to Weld County

Published

14 hours ago

July 3, 2024

Press Room

CBI issues alert for Wyoming woman who disappeared after driving to Weld County

WELD COUNTY, Colo. — The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has issued an alert for a Wyoming woman who disappeared after driving to Weld County Tuesday.

Helen Wykle, 90, left her home in Wyoming sometime on Tuesday and traveled to Weld County. She was last seen around 6 p.m. near County Road 74 and County Road 33 near Eaton.

Wykle is 5 feet 4 inches tall and 125 pounds with gray hair and green eyes. She was driving her blue 2018 Honda CRV with Wyoming license plate 6-1379. CBI said there is damage to the driver’s side from hitting a pole.

Wykle has cognitive impairment and there are concerns for her safety, according to CBI. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Weld County

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Wyoming

Wildfire training in Platte County included Wyoming State Forestry Helitack – Platte County Record-Times

Published

21 hours ago

July 2, 2024

Press Room

Wildfire training in Platte County included Wyoming State Forestry Helitack – Platte County Record-Times

GLENDO – On June 22, 2024, approximately 25 wildland firefighters trained on wildfire related tasks. The morning was spent on pump operations, working in tandem, structure protection and water use. The afternoon was line construction and firing. There was shelter deployment training and an incident-within-an-incident training towards the end of the day. During the simulated exercise, firefighters called in water drops from Helitack.
“This is unprecedented for Platte County. This is the first time we’ve ever done an exercise this size here in the Glendo area,” said Chief Dave Noyce, Glendo Volunteer Fire Department.

Interagency wildfire training influences how fires are fought throughout the state. No one fire department in the state can handle a large incident by themselves. Training together prepares agencies to work more efficiently together. When called on by the Wyoming community, the agencies come together ready to serve and protect the Wyoming Community from wildland fires.

Agencies in attendance were Glendo Volunteer Fire Department, Palmer Canyon Fire Department, WYCO Volunteer Fire Department, City of Casper Fire and Rescue, Camp Guernsey Fire Department, Wyoming State Forestry, and Wyoming Rural Fire Association.

“I am so very grateful for everyone taking the time to come train for the day. [I’m also] really grateful to the state (Wyoming State Forestry Division) for letting us have their ship (helicopter) for the day,” Noyce said.

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