The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/671797
A-2 Front Wednesday, April 27, 2016 The Press-Dispatch REJECTED Continued from page 1 Marge's Shop 716 Main St. 812-354-9372 Petersburg Mon.-Thurs. 9-5; Fri. 9-6; Sat. 9-5 "When you care enough to send the very best" Great gi ideas for Mom and Grads! • Willow Tree Collectibles • Graduation Party Goods and Guest Books • Jewelry & Scraves • Libs Candies • Music Boxes SAVE 50-75% on select everyday and seasonal items AZALEA FEST & Mother's Day SPECIALS Friday & Saturday 310 W. Morton St., Oakland City 812-749-4500 • 800-437-1361 www.SuesFlowersIN.com Country Home Decor Green and Blooming Plants, Willow Tree Angels, Garden Flags, Garden Decor, Candles and more! Mother's Day • May 8 Make your Mom's day with fresh flowers or spring plants. Stop in and see what is new in Steve's Woodshop. Village Inn 242 S. State Road 57, Petersburg JOIN US FOR OUR MOTHER'S DAY BUFFET INCLUDES: Chicken, Roast Beef, Ham and all the delicious trimmings SUNDAY, MAY 8 • 11 A.M. - 2 P.M. $ 11 95 PLUS DRINKS & TAX Reservations a must, call 812-354-9259 BENNETT Continued from page 1 the plane and coming up the jet way to the airport and the concourse was just full of people. Clearly they had announced the Honor Flight was coming in. Peo- ple just converged to wel- come these guys. No mat- ter where we went or who it was, adults or kids. All these old guys were magnets. Peo- ple approached them and thanked them everywhere we went. I pushed his wheel- chair everywhere we went, but I was an invisible observ- er. They all wanted to talk to him and they interacted well with him," said Kyle. "It was an emotional day. There were a lot of people when they talked to the Vets, they held back tears. I went to the bathroom and came back and dad was talking to an English couple. They were thanking him for his service." Bennett told another sto- ry how when they were at the Lincoln Memorial, a man with an Eastern Euro- pean accent wanted his pic- ture taken with his father and some other Vets. "Peo- ple from Europe got it. How W WII vets went in there and fought for their free- dom. It was great to get to go and be a part of that," said Bennett. He said a woman from France overheard Ed telling someone he was in France and Germany. "She came over and thanked him for what he did in France." Kyle said his father later told him once Germany re- alized they were losing the war, they "were less than kind to the French people." Bennett graduated from high school in January 1943. "I was out of high school nine days and I was count- ing cadence in Ft. Benjamin Harrison. They were wait- ing on me," said Bennett. He went into the Army on Feb- ruary 8, 1943, and was dis- charged on May 9, 1946. He spent two years working at a military mental hospital and then worked in the medical corps. He followed the D- Day invasion of France and spent the last year of the war in France and Germany. Kyle praised the logistics of the trip. "You think about the logistics of getting about 85 people with an average age of early 90s onto a plane. Probably 15 of those need a transfer chair. He said there were 85 veterans and all 85 of them had a wheelchair on the plane. "Some of them said it was their first flight. I heard a guy who said he fought in It- aly during W WII say it was his first flight. It was a long day for them. But I didn't hear the first complaint from any of those guys saying this is taking a long time, I didn't like the lunch or anything else. All of them seemed grateful for the chance to go and to be there with guys from their era." Kyle said he never saw his dad doze off a single time on the plane. "We talked con- stantly all the way home. He was pretty keyed up. I'm thankful he got the opportu- nity to go," said Kyle. "It was a tremendous experience. Something I wouldn't have ever gotten to do," said Ed Bennett. cussion about her request to send RIF notifications to certified staff, noting that she had to have the school board's approval before any RIF notices can be sent out. "I'm asking for approv- al for a couple of extra posi- tions than what I anticipate needing, because if some- thing would change, at any point, we can't move with an- other notice beyond what's approved at the board meet- ing," Blake said. Blake added that she had met with representatives of the local teachers' associa- tion to discuss the situation after parents of only 39 of 158 students currently at- tending Otwell Elementary School confirmed that their children would be attending either Petersburg or Win- slow Elementary schools in the 2016 -17 school year. "They concurred with, where our numbers are at, that it would expedite things if we did have a cou- ple of extra positions avail- able, should we need them," Blake said. Blake added that one of the reasons she was asking for permission to send RIF notifications was due to crit- icism the school corporation received after waiting until after the school year ended last spring to issue RIF no- tices to seven teachers. "Throughout this year, we've said we will let people know as early as possible," Blake said. "Statute says they have to be notified be- tween May 1 and July 1. May 1 is a Sunday, so ... the noti- fications would be given on May 2." McKinney, however, ques- tioned the need to send RIF notices to as many as 13 teachers. "So we don't know the ex- act amount of teachers that we actually need to RIF? " McKinney asked. "I'm looking at nine for the elementary (level) and one for the high school (lev- el)," Blake replied. "Then why would we be asking for 13? " McKinney asked. "It's just a number. Why not ask for 18? 20? " "Well, we could ask for 20 if we wanted to," Sat- terfield interjected loudly. "The thing is, what we've got to look at, currently, Mr. McKinney, is do we have the money in the budget to pay them? " "There's no need to yell," McKinney said. "There's 119 kids that there's no response from, so if we go ahead and say, 'Okay, we're not RIFing any- body,' then we come in and we're going to have class- es with 10 per class, for an example," Satterfield said. "So explain that to the tax- payers when we're in deficit spending. I don't like having a class with 20 kids in it, ei- ther. I hate it. But we've got to look at the facts." "We don't have any facts," McKinney fired back. "Have you not seen the budget and the numbers for the last four years? " Satter- field asked. "Okay," McKinney re- plied. "So then my ques- tion is this – is this decision based solely on the budget? " "It has to be," Satterfield replied. "No," McKinney dis- agreed. "It does not have to be." Satterfield then asked McKinney how the school corporation would pay its teachers if no RIF notices were issued. "How have we been pay- ing them? " McKinney asked. "Out of Rainy Day Fund," Blake replied. "And borrowing money from the bank," Satterfield added. "What's going to hap- pen next year? " McKinney asked. "Are we going to cut more? " "We hope to see the light at the end of the tunnel, Chris," Waltz replied. "When? " McKinney asked. "That's what we're work- ing on," Waltz said. "We're getting there. We're getting there." "No," McKinney shot back. "Not by cutting teach- ers. We can't keep cutting teachers. We can't keep cut- ting our way out of this. We can't do it. We have got to come up with other ways to save money than cutting our teachers." McKinney later asked if Blake's recommendation was based on declining stu- dent enrollment. "Enrollment? Yes," Blake replied. "Budget? Yeah. It's all of it." Blake noted that the en- rollment for the elementary level for the 2016 -17 school year was currently project- ed for a loss of 140 students. "Does this recommenda- tion align with our mission/ vision statement that we just adopted? " McKinney asked. "I think it does," Blake re- plied. "Based on? " McKinney asked. "The fact that the first item on the strategic plan is financial responsibility," Blake replied. McKinney questioned whether cutting teachers would be considered part of the school corporation's fi- nancial goal of eliminating deficit spending. "Right now, I can't give them any kind of incentive because I don't have the funds," Blake said. "Well, right now, it doesn't look like we're offering to re- tain them," McKinney said. Waltz told McKinney that the state would not allow the school corporation to offer incentives until it gets back in the black financially. "Okay," McKinney said. "So, again, it's basically just based off of money? That's why we're RIFing these teachers is based off of mon- ey? " "This board needs to be fiscally responsible with its money and its facilities," Waltz replied. "This board also needs to have the kids' interest first,' McKinney argued. "It's a balance, yes," Waltz replied. "No, it's not," McKinney shot back. "Yes, it is," Waltz replied. "It has to be, Mr. McKin- ney," Satterfield interjected. "No," McKinney said. "There is no balance when it comes to our children in this county, in my opinion." McKinney went on to ar- gue that it was unrealistic to expect that only 39 of the 158 students currently at- tending Otwell Elementary School would end up at ei- ther Petersburg or Winslow next school year. "I find it hard to believe that we're only going to get that many," McKinney said. "How do they know what schools they're going to go to? " "From what I've heard, they're all going to do home schooling," Blake replied. "I don't know what their plans are. That's why I've al- so asked about doing early summer registration, so we can call back as many teach- ers as possible. But once Ju- ly 1 is done, I can't RIF." Blake later noted while she was originally intending to hold registration in mid- July, she was now consider- ing conducting early regis- tration in mid-to late-June. "Now that they've had the response on the charter school, I would suggest we do it about the third week of June," Blake said. "Right now, what a lot of families are doing is they're trying to find out what the guide- lines are on home schooling or which school districts will take transfers and which ones will not. I don't believe that it will do us any good to do an enrollment pre-regis- tration prior to the end of the school year." Blake added that Otwell Elementary School students will get the opportunity to visit Petersburg and Win- slow Elementaries on Tues- day, May 10, and Wednes- day, May 11, and that dis- cussions were being held to hold open houses in the evenings for their parents as well. "But there's still a lot of question and concern and ... uhm ... I would say ani- mosity, that they intend to look elsewhere," Blake said. "And I think until they find out what their resources are, I don't know that we're going to have valid numbers." "The third week of June for pre-registration would give us more stable num- bers? " Waltz asked. "I hope," Blake replied. "Early registration would give us an opportunity to start calling teachers back." A motion by Waltz – which was seconded by Sat- terfield – to allow the RIF no- tifications to be sent failed by a 3-2 vote, with McKin- ney, Harker and Sharp vot- ing no. ed in the Clerk's office and 39 had voted by the travel- ing board. The Clerk's office will be open for early voting from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. the rest of the week. It will also be open from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday and again on Monday, May 2. The polls open at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, May 3. POLLING PLACES Clay votes at the Union Community Building; Jefferson 1, Jefferson 2 and Marion precincts vote at the Otwell Community Center; Lockhart at the Stendal Community Center; Logan and Patoka 1 vote at Glezen revival Center; Madison, Washington 2 and Washington 3 vote at the 4-H Building in Horna- dy Park; Monroe votes at Jordan Memorial Park; All four Petersburg pre- cincts vote at the Gospel Center; Washington 1 votes at Twin Oaks Church Commu- nity building and; Winslow and Patoka 2 vote at the Winslow Com- munity Center. ELECTION Continued from page 1 By Andy Heuring The A zalea Blossom Fes- tival is set for next Friday and Saturday, and it coin- cides with the City-wide Yard Sale on Saturday. The deadline for an ad for the Petersburg City-Wide Yard Sale is noon Tuesday, May 3. Anyone advertising their yard sale will have their lo- cation placed on a map that will be published in the May 4 edition of The Press-Dis- patch. The Festival midway will open at 5 p.m. on Friday, May 6, with musical enter- tainment by local bands. There will be children's rides and attractions, as well a numerous food vendors. The Deaconess Mammo- gram Bus will be at the Tri- Cap building on Illinois St. offering free mammograms from 8:30 to 10 :30 a.m. The Air Evac helicopter will al- so be at Tri-Cap on display. The Color Fun Run be- gins at 9:30 a.m. at Tri-Cap. The 5k race will have par- ticipants running through a shower of colors. Main St. activities will be- gin at 10 a.m. with the Time- less Classics Car Show on First Methodist Church's parking lot. It will run un- til 2 p.m. At 10 :30 a.m., there will be a free beginner yoga class led by Beth Schilling on the Main Stage, to be located near the intersec- tion of Walnut and Eighth streets. The Miss A zalea Blos- som Pageant is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. The pageant is for girls ages 5 -8. Festival rides will start at noon on Saturday. Children's activities, in- cluding face painting and games, will run from noon to 4 p.m. on the Courthouse lawn. Silly Safari Children's An- imal Show is scheduled for 1 p.m. on the Main Stage. It is a comedic informational in- teractive animal educational program featuring animals ranging from puppies to an alligator. Saturday afternoon and evening will see the focus shift to music. The Woolseys will be performing from 4 to 6 p.m. A Gospel Sing by Charlie McCracken will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Then, Per- fectly Harmless will per- form from 8 to 10 p.m. Azalea Fest, City-wide Yard Sale May 7 Pike Central High School's Swing Choir will have their Spring Concert, including senior solos this Sunday, May 1, at 2 p.m. in the PC Auditorium. Admis- sion is free and the public is invited. The choir will be singing For Good, Friends and Orphans of God. Thir- teen of the 16 seniors will be singing solos. Some of the seniors' selected solos will be: Only Hope, I Walk the Line, Defying Gravity, I Can Only Imagine and Would You Go With Me. PC Swing Choir spring concert, senior solos Sunday Paving preparation begins Highway crews were out doing preparation work for a paving project on High- way 61. They are digging out the worst places and patching them. Highway 61 will be paved from Highway 64 near Arthur to Highway 57 in Petersburg this year. Similar work is being done on Highway 57, which is going to be paved from U.S. 50 in Washington to Highway 56 (Pike Ave.) in Petersburg. The project is scheduled to be done this summer.