The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/628785
A-4 Local Wednesday, Januar y 20, 2016 The Press-Dispatch The Obituaries section has Now a part of the new D Section! MOVED! 5 p.m. Every Monday STARTING THE JAN. 6 EDITION NEW COPY AND AD DEADLINE GABC announces 6% increase in quarterly cash dividend Jasper, Indiana, German American Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: GABC) report- ed that the Company has de- clared a quarterly cash div- idend of $ 0.18 per share, representing approximately a six percent increase from the level of its prior period dividend. This quarterly div- idend declaration, which is attributable to earnings dur- ing the quarter ended on De- cember 31, 2015, will be pay- able on February 20, 2016, to shareholders of record as of January 29, 2016. Lisa Kretz to speak at UE Andiron Lecture February 3 The speaker for the Feb- ruary Andiron Lecture in the Liberal Arts and Scienc- es at the University of Evans- ville will be Lisa Kretz, UE assistant professor of philos- ophy. The lecture is planned for 4 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 3, in Eykamp Hall, Room 252, Ridgway University Center. The event is free and open to the public. Kretz's topic will be "Emo- tional Responsibility and Teaching Ethics: Student Empowerment." Other lectures in this year's series include: ● March 2: "The Hunt for Dark Matter"—Angela Rei- setter, UE assistant profes- sor of physics. ● April 13: "The Proph- ets of Penzance: The Wes- leys Take Cornwall and Bristol (and They're Prob- ably Way Cooler than You Thought") —Mitch Giesel- man, UE alumnus and pas- tor at Aldersgate United Methodist Church. For more information, call 812-488 -1070 or 812- 488 -2589. possible for Pike County to be a leader in quality educa- tion. What we're attempting to do is fly upstream. We're going to take control of ed- ucation away from whoever and put it in the hands of the local community." A fter being interrupted by applause, Rhodes add- ed, "When I was in school, kids, that's the way it was do- ne. We're not reinventing the wheel." Rhodes, however, said that Friends of Otwell should not let the situation develop into an "us-and-them argu- ment." "That's not how we win this argument," Rhodes said. "The way we win this argu- ment is, a year from now, we look out there and we're very, very proud of complet- ing the first academic year of our new charter school." A woman in the audience asked how long it would take to learn whether or not the group's application had been approved. "What is it, Bob? " Mike Houtsch asked. "Two to three months for the approv- al process? " "You know, I'm a little scared to say," Rhodes re- plied. "Every time I call up there, they keep telling me, 'Are you done yet? Are you done yet? Go faster! Go fast- er! ' So I don't know how quick they'll do this." "That's what I've heard, is two or three months, once the application's in, because there are some other steps that have to be taken," Mike Houtsch said. "They inter- view the board and stuff like that. But, hopefully, we won't have any hurdles to cross there, because that's why we're paying $5,000 to somebody to get those hur- dles out of our way so we can get it approved as soon as possible." "As soon as that is ap- proved, we are going to have to hit the ground hard and running, getting a building up and moving forward, get- ting kids registered, getting busing figured out, every- thing," he added. "If it was easy, anybody could do it. I'm just trying to steer the ship." Mike Houtsch said after- ward that Friends of Otwell decided to focus its efforts on establishing a charter public school – rather than present the PCSC board of trustees with their own plan to keep Otwell Elementary School open – after receiv- ing what he considered a cool reception during an ap- pearance before the school board in November. "A fter that appearance, I think we all got a very clear message that they were not willing to work with us in any way, shape or form," Mike Houtsch said. "We decided we were not going to present them with any kind of a busi- ness plan because we just did not want to necessarily fund their entire debt, which is what we felt like they were asking us to do when they said they needed $2.5 mil- lion for two years. "So we just decided to move forward with work- ing on our charter school and not worrying too much about what happened with the school corporation," he added. Mike Houtsch said that the group's goal was to have the charter public school at Otwell open for the start of the 2016 -17 school year, with 100 or more students. "Right now, there's 158 students, I believe, at Otwell Elementary," Mike Houtsch said. "We are hoping to have at least 100 of those stay with us. It would be great if we get the whole lot, but at this point and time, it would be really, really good if we could get 100 of those students or more to come to the charter school." Mike Houtsch acknowl- edged that Friends of Otwell had missed the application deadline set by Ball State University's Office of Char- ter Schools for the 2016 -17 school year, adding that it did not appear to be a prob- lem at this point. "I believe we're beyond the deadlines, but they gra- ciously are waiting for us and are ready for us to come on board," Mike Houtsch said. "Whenever you talk about a school the caliber of Otwell, with the scores that they've got, the ratings that they've got, those are the kind of schools that people want to authorize. So they're wait- ing for us." Asked whether he agreed with Rhodes' statement that the school board might de- cide to keep Otwell Ele- mentary School open if the Friends of Otwell's appli- cation is approved, Mike Houtsch said, "Our goal is to have a school in Otwell, and it does not matter, I don't think, to us whether it's a charter school or the school as is right now. If there's a school in Otwell next fall, it's a win for us." Arri McDonald wins 'Snow Prediction' contest Arri McDonald, a student at Otwell Elementary, was the class winner in Angie Baker's fourth grade class "Snow Prediction" contest. He won an Or- ange Leaf gift card. CHARTER Continued from page 3