The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/616296
A-2 Front Wednesday, December 16, 2015 The Press-Dispatch CALENDAR Continued from page 1 AUTO PARKE A Name You Can Trust! 820 S. Main, Princeton 812-386-8282 wwwTheAutoParke.com Your Santa's Been Good This Year! 2008 Chevrolet Colorado Red, Ext. Cab, 4x4, 4 cyl. 2008 Chevrolet Silverado White, Reg. Cab, Long Bed, V6, Auto 2004 Ford F-150 White, Ext. Cab, Long Bed, V8, Auto, Local Trade, LOW LOW MILES 2011 Ford Ranger Gray, Ext. Cab, 2WD, Clean Truck 2004 Dodge Ram Tan, Crew Cab, V8, 2WD, Auto 2006 Dodge Dakota White, Ext. Cab, 2WD, V6, Auto $ 17,888 Wow! Only 2009 Dodge Ram SLT White, Crew Cab, V8 Chrome Wheels HE DESERVES A NEW RIDE! MORE CHOICES the Fitness Center HOURS: Mon-Thurs: 10am-8pm, Fri: 10am-7pm Saturday: 10am-2pm ( 812 ) 354-1303 604 East Illinois St., Petersburg (near the Little League Park) 1-YR MEMBERSHIP SPECIALS • SINGLE - Reg. $255, NOW $215 • STUDENT/SENIOR - Reg. $205, NOW $165 • HUSBAND/WIFE - Reg. $430, NOW $390 • FAMILY - Reg. $605, NOW $515 TANNING SPECIAL 2 MONTHS TANNING ANY BED... PLUS GET A FREE BOTTLE OF ANGEL MOISTURIZER! $ 60 ONLY.. Reg. $72 Gi certificates are great gis! Merry Christmas from e Zone! Give the Gift of Fitness. some are doing Thursday- Friday-Monday, so there's a little variance there. But, for the most part, we are aligned." A motion by McKinney to adopt the proposed 2016 - 17 calendar as present- ed, which was seconded by board secretary Nathan Harker, was approved by a unanimous vote. In other business, the school board voted unan- imously to enter into an agreement with Lawman Se- curity and Consulting to pro- vide uniformed police secu- rity officers at Pike Central for the remainder of the cur- rent school year beginning in January. "This would help meet our needs for having a law enforcement officer on the site," Blake said. "It also gives us an opportunity to see if this structure is most beneficial to us. If this isn't satisfactory for any reason, then we can look at hiring an individual again as we have in the past." The cost to the school cor- poration would be $1,240 per week. "Cost-wise, this seems to be the best benefit to the cor- poration," Blake said. "We would be paying the hourly rate to Lawman. They are responsible for all the pay- roll, insurance and benefits to the officer who serves on site. And they also have all the training in place, all the equipment necessary." Blake said that officers employed through Lawman Security and Consulting are "basically" off-duty officers. "They will concentrate and try to use local indi- viduals, if possible," Blake said. "There are some folks, I believe, from neighboring counties that have (school resource officer) training as well or have experience as an SRO." • The school board ap- proved the cancellation of six outstanding checks – ranging from $11.25 to $ 96.65 and totaling $ 316.84 – paid from Pike Central High School Athletics and Pike Central Middle School. "The checks listed are more than two years old," Blake noted. "I'm asking your permission to declare them cancelled." • The school board ap- proved Blake's recommen- dation that performance awards be distributed to teachers rated as "highly effective" at a rate $1 more than to teachers rated as "ef- fective." "If you remember, last year the state awarded each school a lump sum amount to be distributed to teach- ers who were effective and highly effective," Blake said. "One of the things that changed between this year and last year is the state says we have to differentiate be- tween 'effective' and 'high- ly effective' by at least one dollar." In order to qualify for a performance award, teach- ers must have been em- ployed by the Pike County School Corporation a mini- mum of the 2014-15 school year and be currently em- ployed by the school corpo- ration. "By law, the schools are supposed to get the money by the end of December, and we're supposed to distribute by the end of January," Blake said. "But with the fiasco go- ing on with ISTEP, nobody knows." "Maybe March," board member Chris Satterfield said. "But I wouldn't hold my breath." • The school board ap- proved the payment of $14,500 from Pike Central High School and Pike Cen- tral Middle School athletic accounts and Coca-Cola re- bate funds to Orange Moon Art Studio in Chandler for murals at both schools' gym- nasiums. • The school board voted unanimously to accept the following donations: - $ 3,615 from the Com- munity Foundation Alliance to the Pike Central High School Project Lead the Way to purchase sensors for en- gineering classes. - $500 from Fulfillment Operations/Prizelogic to Pike County High School to provide a convocation and attendance incentives for students. - $195 from David Detar Corn to Pike Central High School Lead the Way (Bio- medical) - $ 3,000 from the Commu- nity Foundation to Michelle Lemond for the purchase of Chromebooks for use in her classroom. - $2,800 from the Com- munity Foundation to Nat- alie Werner to purchase Chromebooks for Winslow Elementary School. • The school board also approved the following per- sonnel matters: RESIGNATIONS - Elizabeth Hutchison as a teacher's aide in the Life Skills classroom at Peters- burg Elementary, effective Nov. 27, 2015. - Rebecca Whitehouse as a cafeteria worker at Pike Central, effective Dec. 21, 2015. - Kay Riley as a bus driver, effective Dec. 21, 2015. APPOINTMENTS - Chelsa Knepp and Sara Willis as cheer sponsors at Petersburg Elementary. - Joni Clark as a special ed- ucation assistant at Peters- burg Elementary. - Danielle Tegmeyer to assist with transportation needs at Petersburg Ele- mentary School. - Mitch Dunn as sixth grade girls' basketball vol- unteer assistant coach at Pike Central Middle School. - Dustin Powell as varsity football head coach at Pike Central High School. - Billy Hewig, Dave Ste- phens, J.J. Howald and Mike Frazure as varsity football assistant coaches at Pike Central High School. The school board also au- thorized the hiring of an as- sistant computer tech to as- sist with the central office's transition to the new admin- istration building on South 12th Street "and repairs." "This will be for approxi- mately four weeks and will not exceed 25 hours per week," Blake's written re- quest states. "The compen- sation for this position will be $7.25 per hour." Blake told the school board that it was expected that the move from Old Pe- tersburg Gym to the new location could be accom- plished over the Christmas break. "We are trying to careful- ly watch our dates between payroll and end-of-year re- ports ... before we get things switched over," Blake said. "The original intent was that, when school resumes January 4, that's the office I'm sitting in. It may have to be pushed back to the 11th just because of those end-of- year reports." Blake, however, con- firmed that the school board's next meeting – scheduled for Monday, Jan. 11, would, in fact, be held at the central office's new lo- cation. Blake also informed the school board that the Pike Central School Corporation had been awarded a Secured School Safety Grant from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. "I requested the full amount of $50,000 from the state, $50,000 from us, for a total of $100,000," Blake said. "We got it. It's to be used for completely upgrad- ing our security camera sys- tems, and I know Mr. (Chad) Whitehead has started some work on that earlier this year. That's something we want to continue to look at, and make sure we have suf- ficient placement and good quality equipment. Pike County School Schedule 2016-2017 Aug. 4 Teacher Work Day 5 First Student Day Sept. 5 Labor Day Oct. 7 End 1st. Grading Period 13 Parent-Teacher Conf. 24-28 Fall Vacation Nov. 23-25 Thanksgiving Vacation Dec. 21 End 1st Semester D22-J2 Christmas Vacation Jan. 3 School in Session Mar. 3 End 3rd Grading Period 20-24 Snow Days as needed 27-31 Spring Break Apr. 14 Good Friday May 24 End 2nd Semester 25-26 Snow Days as needed 29 Memorial Day 30-31 Snow Days as needed State Bicentennial Flag raised Friday Auditor Ron Wilson and Terry Stone attach the Bicentennial Flag to be raised at the courthouse flag pole last Friday, as a group of people attending the ceremony watch. Every county in Indiana was asked to have a ceremonial flag raising at noon, December 11, which is one year prior to Indiana's Bicentennial. take the whole $279,000, "with the understanding we aren't going to do that next year." Goodpaster said he had talked to other county as- sessors and he thinks pre- vious assessors hadn't fully utilized the fund. Eventually, the council voted to move the entire levy from the reassessment bud- get to the general fund. "We are in better shape than we were last year," said Greg Willis. "We have a new tax that will raise about $750,000," said Councilman Joe Sutton. The Public Safety In- come Tax of 0.25 percent was passed last year, as was a 0.1 percent increase in the Economic Development In- come Tax. Auditor Wilson said those moves should give them about a $ 650,000 increase in their general fund bal- ance for 2016. COUNCIL Continued from page 1 By Andy Heuring Petersburg has a new den- tist. Nick Giesler, a Jasper native, recently purchased Dr. Babb's practice and started there on Friday, De- cember 4. Giesler grew up in Jas- per, worked at Jasper Rub- ber Company and spent a lot of his time on the river. "I'm big into hunting and fishing. The river is my fa- vorite place to be." Giesler received an un- dergraduate degree from Indiana University and then went to Indiana Uni- versity School of Dentist- ry. Following dental school, Giesler moved to Indianap- olis, where he worked for a dental chain. But he said he liked the small town self- owned dental setting better. He said he was attracted to being a dentist after go- ing to the orthodontist."I re- ally liked Mike Adkins, that was probably when I started thinking about dentistry. I was like, this is pretty cool." He also worked on the farm of a dentist in the sum- mer. "He kind of mentored me. I did some job shadow- ing in high school and here I am," said Giesler. "I always wanted to do something where I could be my own boss and own my own business." While working in Indi- anapolis, he talked with a woman who worked as a den- tist's reception in Evansville. She knew Dr. Babb was look- ing to retire, so he got in con- tact with Dr. Babb and they worked out an agreement. "It has been great. Best part of it, I really like the small town. I have always considered myself to be a small town guy," said Giesler. He said he also liked be- ing a family dentist instead of the more corporate set- ting in Indianapolis. His hours at the Peters- burg location on south Main St., at the intersection with Illinois St., is 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays. "If we have an emergency, people can call and we will take care of them." Giesler said he is also in the process of opening an of- fice in Jasper in early 2016. Girl Scout Cookie Sales begin Dec. 18-Jan. 17 Thousands of girl mem- bers in Girl Scouts of South- west Indiana's 11-county ju- risdiction will take orders for nine varieties of Girl Scout Cookies, December 18 through January 17. The 2016 cookie lineup includes Peanut Butter Pat- ties, Peanut Butter Sand- wiches, Shortbreads, Car- amel DeLites, Thin Mints, Lemonades, Thanks-A- Lots and Cranberry Citrus Crisps—all selling for $4 per package. New this year are gluten- free Trios, which sell for $5 per package. Trios are glu- ten-free peanut butter oat- meal cookies with choco- late chips, and are certified gluten-free and safe for con- sumers who follow gluten- free diets. This year's Cook- ie Program will also cele- brate the 10th anniversary of the popular Lemonades Cookie. ABC Interbake, who sup- plies the Girl Scout Cook- ies sold in Girl Scouts of Southwest Indiana, contin- ues its commitment to pro- viding healthy cookie al- ternatives. ABC's cookies have zero grams transfat per serving, are made with 100 percent real cocoa, and have no preservatives and no artificial colors. "The Girl Scout Cookie Program plays a crucial role in developing important life skills, "said Susan Longest, Girl Scouts of Southwest In- diana's Board Chair. "Girl Scout alumnae consistent- ly report that Cookie Pro- gram activities taught them to work in teams, commu- nicate effectively, and pro- actively market a product. These are skills that em- ployers, college admis- sions officers, and the mil- itary value and seek in ap- plicants." Dr. Nick Giesler Dr. Nick Giesler takes over for retiring Dr. Babb