Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise 05/05/2015

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NEWS

A2 Examiner-Enterprise

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Central Middle School awarded $60K grant

By Nathan Thompson
nthompson@examiner-enterprise.com

Central Middle School

has been awarded a $60,000
grant by the Oklahoma Educational Technology Trust,
Bartlesville Public School
District officials recently
announced.
According to BPSD Community Relations Coordinator Jamye Ryan, among the
items that Central is expected to receive, courtesy of the
grant, are 100 iPad Minis,
which will be split between
the three grade levels and
special education class; five
lightening to VGA adapters
enabling student work to
be projected onto a large

screen; four additional iPad

Minis that will be used for
teacher training; and a $250
Volume Purchase Program
Credit to acquire apps.
Through
the
OETT
grants, we are focused on
creating long-term change
in our schools, Dr. Phil
Berkenbile, OETT Board of
Trustees chair, said. Our
goal is to improve overall
student achievement and
learning through the use of
technology.
OETT was established
in 2001 as a result of an
agreement between thenOklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson and
AT&T Oklahoma, relating
to the companys transi-

tion to a modernized form

of regulation. According to
the OETTs website, as part
of the agreement, AT&T
contributed $30 million to
OETT. The trust has distributed almost $16 million as
of 2014, the website says.
The grants were first
awarded in 2003. Since
then, more than 200 Oklahoma schools have received
OETT grants and more
than 6,500 state teachers
and administrators have
received professional development training to assist
students wit technology.
Ryan said since 2007, the
Bartlesville Public School
Districts Richard Kane,
Wayside, Wilson and Hoover

elementary schools, as well

as, Bartlesville Mid-High
and High School have been
awarded OETT grants. Central Middle School is one of
this years recipients.
Schools from across
Oklahoma can apply for
the grants, and must state
the need of their particular
sites, Ryan said in a statement. OETT officials then
choose the grant recipients
for a given year.
According to Ryan, teachers Keri Gardner, Allison
Ebert, Alisha Winward,
Darin Messerli, Trilla Cranford, Heather Davis, and
Bobby Holmes helped put
the Central grant application together. Additionally,

Oklahoma AG is set to testify

against clean air rule
By Chris Casteel
The Oklahoman
(TNS)

WASHINGTON Oklahoma
Attorney General Scott Pruitt
is set to testify here Tuesday against President Barack
Obamas climate change agenda, amid a high-level dispute in
Oklahoma about the right tactics for resisting the administrations rules.
Pruitt will appear before a
Senate Environment and Public
Works subcommittee about the
requirement that states develop
a plan for reducing carbon dioxide emissions at power plants.
The full committee is led by
Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, who
is Congress leading skeptic of
man-made global warming.
Gov. Mary Fallin issued an
executive order last week barring state agencies from developing a carbon reduction plan,
making Oklahoma the first state
to refuse to comply with the
clean air rule.
Then on Friday, she vetoed a
bill passed overwhelmingly by
the Oklahoma Legislature that
would have allowed the state to

submit a plan after legal consultation with Pruitt. The lead

author may seek an override of
Fallins veto.
Pruitt supports the bill
because he doesnt want a federal plan forced on Oklahoma.
That could be the result of Oklahoma not submitting its own
plan to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Ultimately, the issue may be
decided in federal court. Pruitt
last year joined a dozen other
states in suing the administration over the rule. That lawsuit
is before an appeals court in
Washington.
The court could rule that the
states lawsuit was premature
since the EPA has not officially
issued the state standards for
reducing carbon dioxide. Such
a ruling would likely prompt a
new round of litigation once the
standards are issued this summer.
Of all the states suing the EPA
over the rule, Fallin was the first
governor to refuse to comply,
said David Doniger, director of
the Climate and Clean Air program for the Natural Resources
Defense Council.

Though U.S. Senate Majority

Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
has urged states not to comply,
Kentucky is one of the states
working on a plan, Doniger said.
Coal-state lawmakers and
companies say the standards
are intended to shut down coalfired power plants. Pruitt has
echoed that and charged further
that the EPA doesnt have the
authority under the Clean Air
Act to impose the standards on
states.
Doniger said the standards
would be reasonably demanding but not exceedingly demanding and Oklahoma would have
a lot of flexibility in shaping its
plan with its available resources.
The standards are more practical and more doable than Fallin, Pruitt and Inhofe would let
on, Doniger said. This should
not be a big deal.
At the hearing on Tuesday,
West Virginias attorney general also is scheduled to testify;
that state is part of the lawsuit against the Environmental
Protection Agency. A Maryland
public service commissioner is
expected to testify in support of
the standards.

Fallin signs bill to give judges more

discretion in sentencing
By Rick Green
The Oklahoman
(TNS)

Judges will be allowed

to impose shorter sentences for some nonvio-

lives, Fallin said.

Many of our current inmates are nonviolent offenders with
drug abuse and alcohol
problems; others have
mental health issues.

Contributing to those
high rates are the more
than 100 crimes that
carry lengthy mandatory minimum prison
sentences.
Rep. Pam Peterson,

Johnson Correctional
Facility.
Modify employment
licensing requirements
to expand work opportunities for former
offenders.

Lori Patterson, BPSD director of technology; and Central parents, Pam Bilger and
Peggy Covell assisted with
the grants.
I am extremely excited
about this grant and I know
that we can do wonderful
things with the technology that we will receive to
ensure continued student
success at Central Middle
School, Ryan Huff, CMS
principal, said.
OETT is administered by
Communities Foundation of
Oklahoma and professional
development is coordinated
through the University of
Oklahomas K20 Center, the
website says.

US Supreme Court
seeks Obama
administrations
input on pot case
against Colorado
By Chris Casteel
The Oklahoman
(TNS)

WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court

asked Monday for the Obama administrations
views on whether Oklahoma and Nebraska
should be able to sue Colorado over its marijuana laws.
The court sometimes asks the solicitor general the presidents advocate before the U.S.
Supreme Court for input on a case justices
potentially will hear.
A spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General
Scott Pruitt said the presidents Justice Department which is now being asked for its views
is actually part of the problem.
Attorney General Pruitt anxiously awaits an
explanation from the Obama administration as
to its continued refusal to enforce federal law,
specifically the Controlled Substances Act,
Aaron Cooper said Monday.
The administrations wholesale disregard
for the law led Oklahoma and Nebraska to sue
Colorado to stop the stream of illegal marijuana
flowing into our states as a result of Colorados
legalization of the commercial production and
sale of marijuana.
The Supreme Court has not decided whether
to allow the lawsuit to move forward. The
request for the solicitor generals views is likely
to delay perhaps until this fall the courts
decision on advancing the case.
Oklahoma and Nebraska asked for the
courts permission in December to sue Colorado
over certain aspects of its marijuana legalization
May
7, plan.
2015 2:19 pm /
The states claim laws allowing the manufacture, possession and distribution of pot have