The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/626002
A-2 Front Wednesday, Januar y 13, 2016 The Press-Dispatch 718 E. Main St., Petersburg 812-677-3787 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. • Mon. - Fri. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. • Saturday e holidays have passed and it's time for our Winter Blowout CLEARANCE SALE Stop in for awesome deals on tops, tees, hoodies, sweaters, vests, jackets, blazers, dresses, scarves, coats and more! We're slashing our already low prices to make room for NEW SPRING arrivals! UP TO 50 % AMAZING DEALS ON WINTER APPAREL, MOST PRICED AT $ 3-4! Remember! You don't have to spend a fortune to look great! DON'T MISS THIS SALE! Sale Begins Thurs., Jan. 14 1853 N. SR 57, PETERSBURG 812.582.0905 | 812.582.8841 | email: rwillis@frontier.com Mon-Sat 10a.m.-5p.m. or by appointment. ORDER NOW AND SAVE! PICK UP ON SATURDAY, FEB. 13 Valentine's Day EARLY BIRD SPECIAL! EXPIRES, FEB. 1, 2016 • THE PRICE INCREASES FEB. 2! $ 38 98 1 Dozen Red Roses ARRESTS Continued from page 1 told him Kim should have been in possession of the car, but she wasn't at home. He said he would try to get into contact with her. Deputy Killian said Kim Miller's father arrived at the park in Spurgeon. Her father then called Kim Miller and let Deputy Killian talk with her. Killian arranged a meet- ing with her at the court- house to talk about the car. When Killian met with Miller, he told her he was investigating a crime and if she talked with him she needed to be honest because lying to him could be consid- ered a crime. Miller told him the SUV had been stolen. She claimed she had met Rachel Kinman at a Halloween par- ty at the Bob Inn. Following the Bob Inn closing, she left her SUV parked at the Win- slow Eagles parking lot and she rode with Kinman to JP Allen's house near Win- slow. She said she frequent- ly left her keys in the vehi- cle. She told Killian that Kin- man drove her back to her residence in Petersburg and they slept for a few hours, then returned to Winslow to retrieve her SUV, but it was gone. She added they couldn't call anyone to re- port it because their cell- phones were dead. Killian said Kinman told him a similar story. How- ever, when he asked each of them the route they took back to Petersburg, they gave him different routes once he said he would check the videotape of the court- house to verify their route. According to Killian's re- port, Miller then admitted lying to him the first time, because she was embar- rassed. This time, she told him Kinman had not driv- en her home. Instead, she said she had passed out and woke up on the couch, and needed to get home so she asked Jenkins, whom she stated she did not know, to take her home. Killian said he then talked to Kinman again, telling her he knew her first story was untruthful. She said she had tried to get Miller to leave JP Allen's house, but she wouldn't. So Kinman left, then someone else dropped Miller off at her house later. Killian then interviewed Kolby Jenkins on November 16. Jenkins told him he had been in Miller's car several times that night to smoke, but he hadn't driven it be- cause he was a habitual traf- fic offender and his license was suspended. Two days later, Miller met with Deputy Killian at the Prosecutor's Office. This time, she told him she re- membered telling Kinman it was okay for Jenkins to take her car. On November 25, Killian spoke with Felicity Vickers, who she said she was at JP Allen's house following the Halloween Party. She said Miller, Kinman and Jenkins were there, as well as Jesse Maxfield. Vickers said she remem- bered Jenkins asking Miller for permission to use her car and Miller agreed. So Kin- man drove Maxfield and Jen- kins to Winslow to the Ea- gles parking lot and they picked up Miller's Buick Enclave. On November 28, Depu- ty Killian interviewed Jesse Maxfield. She said she was at JP Allen's house following the party. She also said Mill- er told Jenkins he could use her car, so Kinman drove her and Jenkins to the Ea- gles parking lot, and then she rode to Petersburg with Jenkins. According to Killian's nar- rative, Maxfield said she got mad at Jenkins on the way back to Winslow from Pe- tersburg and made him take her to Allen's house. Jen- kins then left Allen's house. When Maxfield arrived at the house, Miller and Vick- ers were still at the house. Later, Miller woke up and wanted to go home. Max- field said Jenkins had re- turned to Allen's house, so Maxfield said she gave per- mission to Jenkins to use her car to take Miller to Peters- burg. Deputy Killian said he al- so spoke to an unnamed in- formant who said he knew Jenkins was coming to Spurgeon and had admit- ted he was driving Miller's Buick when it crashed into the playground equipment. Jenkins also told the infor- mant that he had gotten a ride away from the park from someone in a blue car. ISTEP+ SCORES BY SCHOOL OTWELL ELEMENTARY Grade ELA Math Both Grade 3 71.4% 67.9 % 60.7% Grade 4 89.7% 89.7% 86.2 % Grade 5 76.7% 96.7% 76.7% Total 79.3% 85.1% 74.7% WINSLOW ELEMENTARY Grade ELA Math Both Grade 3 51.4% 38.9 % 31.4% Grade 4 44.9 % 55.1% 36.7% Grade 5 57.1% 63.3% 44.9 % Total 51.1% 53.7% 38.3% PETERSBURG ELEMENTARY Grade ELA Math Both Grade 3 59.5% 51.4% 44.6 % Grade 4 69.4% 62.9 % 48.4% Grade 5 40.6 % 52.9 % 36.2 % Total 56.1% 55.3% 42.9% PIKE CENTRAL MIDDLE SCHOOL Grade ELA Math Both Grade 6 54.5% 51.9 % 40.9 % Grade 7 67.5% 52.9 % 50.0 % Grade 8 61.1% 55.2 % 46.2 % Total 61.5% 53.4% 45.8% STATE AVERAGE Grade ELA Math Both Grade 3 73.2 % 62.6 % 57.5% Grade 4 70.4% 65.2 % 57.6 % Grade 5 65.2 % 68.4% 56.1% Grade 6 65.8 % 61.9 % 53.3% Grade 7 65.7% 54.1% 48.6 % Grade 8 63.7% 54.2 % 48.0 % Total 67.3% 61.0% 53.5% Club donates to Nowark Family Timeless Classics Car Club recently helped the Mark Nowark family with a $300 donation. The rural Winslow family lost their home in a fire last Tues- day, Jan. 5. Above, Tom Kirby (left) presents Julia and Mark Nowark and Family with the donation at the home of Mark's parents. ISTEP+ Continued from page 1 test. So we go into a test on standards we've barely had time to look at." "If you or I were to go take a driving test, and we know that there's an added test, but we don't know wheth- er it's driving between the cones or instead of driving a car, we're going to drive a semi," Blake added. "We have no idea how we're go- ing to be tested. We just have to go take this test on a cer- tain day. That's how we all feel. We knew this test was coming. We knew it would measure math and English. But in terms of the format and how, we had no idea un- til it was in front of us." Blake said that school offi- cials were warned to expect scores to be 20 to 25 per- cent lower than they were in 2014, but that did not soft- en the blow very much when the scores were released last week. "Even knowing the scores were going to drop, I don't like that they dropped quite as low as they did," Blake said. "But I think that just goes back to not really know- ing what was coming. The teachers really couldn't even go back on their old prepa- ration strategies because we weren't sure those were the skills being measured any more." "Everyone said that the state was getting frustrat- ed because students were doing better," Blake added. "Well, wasn't the goal of as- sessing to help our students learn the standards and be more competitive, both with- in and outside the state? So if we were getting better, wasn't that what we were supposed to do? " Blake acknowledged that parents who may not be aware of the problems with the administration of the 2015 ISTEP+ exams like- ly found the scores "very shocking." "The elementary admin- istrators and I met yester- day (Thursday, Jan. 7)," Blake said. "I'll be meeting with (Pike Central princi- pal Chad) Whitehead next week. In our minds, the scores are completely inval- id. They just do not measure what's really going on in the classroom." "The teachers, just like the students, didn't go from this great position last year to this level this year," Blake added. "It's just frustrating." In addition, Blake said that technical glitches that occurred during testing al- so are a concern. "There was a teacher who, in administering the test, watched her student click on an answer, submit it, and the computer changed the answer," Blake said. "When they called CTB to notify them, CTB's help desk said, 'It's okay. You got it right.' How many other answers were changed? " "There's stories of stu- dents that have a score from Part I and not from Part II, and vice versa," Blake add- ed. "There are schools that have, like, an entire grade unaccounted for. I know of a district, before Christmas, they were looking for their entire sixth grade." When some schools expe- rienced issues with the com- puterized exams, they were given an option of adminis- tering a paper/pencil exam instead, Blake noted. "Some will challenge whether the two tests are actually comparable," Blake said. "Was one harder than the other or not? That can al- ways be a question or a chal- lenge that comes up." Blake said that she will be attending the State Board of Education's monthly meet- ing on Tuesday, Jan. 19, in Indianapolis, when Warrick County Superintendent of Schools Brad Schneider will speak on behalf of superin- tendents in District 7, which includes Pike County. "The current test situa- tion with 2015 is a fiasco," Blake said. "The test for '16 starts in just under two months, and we've just now got the results." "Bottom line, the process we have in place right now is not working," Blake add- ed. "If the purpose of testing was to measure what our stu- dents know and help address any areas of weakness, we definitely haven't been able to do that this year." Thomas arrested on alcohol charges after being found unresponsive at the Circle K By Andy Heuring A rural Petersburg man was arrested after police were called to the Circle K in Petersburg to check on an unresponsive man in an idling car. Tyler Damian Thomas, 27, of 3181 W. County Road 125 S., Petersburg, was arrested on charges of public intoxi- cation, resisting law enforce- ment and operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Petersburg Police Cpl. Kyle Mills said he was sent to check on a car that was idling for about 45 minutes with a man inside. The clerk at the store was unable to wake the man. Mills said when he ar- rived, he knocked on the window of the car loudly and announced he was a po- lice officer, but Thomas still didn't wake up. Mills opened the car door and shined his flashlight in Thomas' face, which still failed to wake him. Cpl. Mills requested EMS and continued to attempt to wake Thomas, who even- tually woke up and tried to close the door on Cpl. Mills. Mills said Thomas re- fused to get out of the vehi- cle until he was threatened with being "tazed." Once out of the vehicle, Mills said Thomas pulled away from him, until Mills put him against his car and placed Thomas in hand- cuffs. Thomas was transport- ed to the Pike County Jail, where he failed field sobri- ety tests and tested 0.15 per- cent for blood alcohol con- tent. The legal limit in Indiana is 0.08 percent. DOWDEN CHARGED WITH OVWI An Oakland City man was arrested for drunken driv- ing at about 2 p.m. Wednes- day, January 6 by Indiana State Trooper John Davis. Todd Alan Dowden, 46, of 201 Vine St., Oakland City, was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated and possession of marijua- na after police stopped him for speeding on CR 300 E. south of Winslow. According to the Indiana State Police, Dowden had marijuana in his possession. He failed field sobriety tests and tested positive for mari- juana. He was transported to the Pike County Jail.