Middle School Principal Cari Caylor will transfer to CTE as USU campus is built

The Grand County School District is currently recruiting a new principal for the Grand County Middle School as the current principal prepares to transition to overseeing the district’s career and technical education programs.

Cari Caylor, who became principal midway through the 2018-2019 school year, has training in career and technical education, according to Taryn Kay, the district’s superintendent. Additionally, Jim Stocks, who previously held the position, passed away on Feb. 26, leaving the position vacant.

I’m waiting on comment from Caylor, but in my conversation with Kay, she mentioned that there will be some CTE opportunities that open up with the completion of the new Moab campus of Utah State University. Caylor will oversee those and other projects like the construction of a greenhouse at Grand County High School.

Caylor will finish out the school year as principal; the district expects to conduct interviews for her replacement this month and next month.

Bicyclists will no longer need to stop at stop signs soon.

When was the last time you were on a bike and you came to a full and complete stop at an intersection with a stop sign? I can tell you that I have never in my life even considered doing this.

I’m just kidding, officer. I always follow traffic laws.

A bill soon to become law will clean up Utah state code related to bicyclists and stop signs to officially make it legal for riders to yield rather than stop at stop signs. That means you no longer need to feel like you’re breaking the law as you ride right through an empty intersection.

Because bicyclists will be able to treat stop signs as yield signs, that does still mean there are cases where bicyclists must give up the right of way. Those cases are when there are pedestrians, when traffic is in the intersection, or when oncoming traffic “poses an immediate hazard” at the intersection.

In other words: If a bicyclist is approaching an intersection, and pedestrians are at the crosswalk, the bicyclist must yield to the pedestrians. If a car is already in the intersection as the cyclist approaches — as opposed to the car being stopped before the intersection — the cyclist must yield.

If a truck is barreling toward the intersection in a high-speed chase and shows no signs of stopping for the cyclist, the cyclist must yield.

Finally, the bill specifies that the new rules only apply if the intersection does not involve an oncoming train. Cyclists — believe it or not — must yield to trains. Skirting a railroad crossing when a train is approaching is still prohibited.

House Bill 142, which would enact these new rules, passed the Utah House of Representatives 45-26 in early February and later, the Utah Senate 28-1. The bill is now before Gov. Spencer Cox, who may veto the bill, sign it, or allow it to take effect without his signature.

If the bill becomes law, it will take effect 60 days after the adjournment of the legislative session in which it was enacted. This year, that date is May 4. On that date, please feel free to run right through stop signs on your bike with zero disregard for your surroundings.

Disclaimer: I do not endorse any of the dangerous behaviors facetiously suggested in this article.

People in Arches National Park are socially distancing sometimes.

Researchers from Utah State University and the University of Montana teamed up to study social distancing behaviors at Arches National Park during the month of July 2020 and found that approximately 61% of visitors to the park wore masks at the park’s information center during the study period.

Their findings, published Feb. 22 in multidisciplinary scientific journal PLOS ONE, also found that 69% of groups were able to experience the park’s visitor center “with no intergroup encounters.”

The co-authors, USU faculty members Zach Miller and Wayne Freimund and University of Montana researcher Douglas Dalenberg, recommended that park managers “continue to appeal for compliance” with guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “especially the wearing of masks and encouraging visitors to split up into small groups when visiting.”

Assisted by undergraduate USU student Madison Vega, the researchers used motion sensor cameras to record the number of groups, the size of groups, how many individuals wore masks, and how many encounters within six feet individuals had with others outside their group. The video was collected on July 12 and July 14.

I am done thinking about this very bland research now.