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November 5, 2014 VOLU M E 53 | I S S UE 44 | 7 5 ¢
PikesPeakCourier.net T E L L E R C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O
A publication of
Test scores first out of the chute By Pat Hill
phill@coloradocommunitymedia.com It’s a whole new world out there for students who are now being tested exclusively on the computer. Gone are the paperand-pencil tests, the painstaking procedure where erasers have been replaced by cursors. Tested online in April for the first time, with scores released last week, students in the Woodland Park School District showed varying results. In social studies, for instance, just 13 percent of fourth-grade students and 17 percent of seventh-grade students showed a strong command of the subject. This year was the first for students to be tested in social studies. In science, however, 37 percent of fifth-grade students and 36 percent of eighth-grade students showed a strong command of the subject. “We were higher than the state average, which was in the 30s,” said Linda Murray, the district’s assistant superintendent. “We are asking our students to think more critically and explain their answers.” No doubt about it, the online testing is a challenge. “The students certainly have to have the ability to manipulate the laptop
computer,” Murray said. “We do some typing at school but now we have to do a lot more.” As well, the new Colorado Academic Standards are demanding, as Murray demonstrates in a practice social-studies test on her laptop. The test offers a selection of answers from primary and secondary sources. In a study of Leadville in the past century, for instance, fourthgraders are asked to write about what features might have attracted immigrants to the city at high altitude. As well, fourth-graders are asked to write about the challenges Leadville residents might have faced due to the physical environment. These are practice tests, Murray emphasizes. Another practice-test question has the students matching the names of Colorado cities on the online map, via the cursor. Along with the academics the new testing depends upon the district’s acquiring the laptops. “We bought a couple hundred laptops across the district so we’d have enough in every building in every grade,” Murray said. “Then we have the problem of some computers locking up — then we have to start over.” The district isn’t alone in dealing with new issues. “We have
Linda Murray, assistant superintendent for the Woodland Park School District, demonstrates practice tests for social studies and science. The district’s test scores were higher last year in science than in social studies. The scores were released last week by the Colorado Department of Education. Photo by Pat Hill increased rigor in our standards and technology we have to pay attention to so that our students
have an opportunity to show what they know,” she said. “Everybody across the state is look-
ing at how we make sure students have opportunities to be prepared, regardless of what grade.”
Billingsley named GM at CC & V By Pat Hill
phill@coloradocommunitymedia.com POSTAL ADDRESS
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As the new vice president and general manager of the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Co., Lowe Billingsley oversees the expansion of operations, mine-life extension 2. “We started the Cresson project in 1994,” he said. “I remember the first scoop of rock that was blasted — it was pretty amazing.” Billingsley has a history with the county’s gold-mining district, first as an ore control geologist in 1989 with Texas Gulf’s Gold Star Project near the old town of Altman. “That was my first real exposure to operations,” he said. “There were only about five or six of us, so we got to do everything. It was an exciting and challenging time.” In August of that year Texas Gulf sold the company to Nerco Minerals and subsequently, Billingsley transferred to the company’s silver mine in Nevada. When the price of silver collapsed, he was asked to return to Teller County in 1991. “It was the first time in modern times that there was a large enough land package to where they could actually look at mining in a bulk massive open-pit scale,” he said. “That was the big catalyst that led to where we are today.” Sometime in the late 1990s, ownership of the mine changed to AngloGold Ashanti. For the next several years Billingsley served a variety of roles, ore control geologist, mine supervisor, chief engineer, manager of technical services and project manager for construction of the mine’s leach-pad phases. “As we started getting into more construction on the leach-
pad phases 4 and 5, I took over the strategic planning of all these activities, which we are executing today,” he said. Billingsley left the district in April 2009 to work with AngloGold America’s regional office in Denver, eventually becoming vice president of planning and strategy while managing the company’s operations in Cripple Creek, Brazil and Argentina. As a fifth-generation Coloradan, Billingsley carries an intimate history with the state through his ancestral lineage. “My grandfather and his two brothers actually worked at the Golden Cycle Mill on 21st Street in Colorado Springs,” he said. “They also worked on the railroad; all of them rode the train back and forth to Cripple Creek.” All these years later, Billingsley presides over what he views as a tenuous and challenging time for the industry. “We’re coming off what has really been a 10-year run on an increase in gold prices. In 2002, we were in a gold-depressed model where gold was about $245 an ounce,” he said. “It was a slow climb up to about 2007 when the price recovered. In early 2013, we were seeing gold prices touching $1,900 an ounce.” However, by late October gold slid to around $1,200 an ounce. “The exciting part for CC & V is that we are constructing the only major project for AngloGold globally — $580,000,000 in process facilities,” he said. “Fifty percent will have been invested by the end of the year which gives us the opportunity to produce higher-grade ore.” In the next three years, CCV plans include building the second gold-recovery valley-leach facility. The next milestone for CC & V will be around the fourth quarter of 2015 when the mine expects to celebrate 5 million ounces of gold
Lowe Billingsley has been named vice president and general manager of the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Co. Billingsley is standing the mine offices in Victor, in front of the pen-andink drawings of the late Cherry Hunter. Photo by Pat Hill
‘It was the first time in modern times that there was a large enough land package to where they could actually look at mining in a bulk massive open-pit scale. That was the big catalyst that led to where we are today.’ Lowe Billingsley produced since 1994. “At the same time we anticipate that we’ll claim there will be a fully-commissioned
100 percent production on the mill facility, so it will be two things at the same time.”