The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/888369
A-8 Local Wednesday, October 18, 2017 The Press-Dispatch New Arrivals Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments New selection of Fall Seasonal Gifts. New items arriving daily. Boxed greeting cards by Hallmark. New selection of Willow Tree Collectibles and Jim Shore Collectibles Marge's Shop 716 Main St. 354-9372 Petersburg Regular Hours: Mon.-Thurs. 9-5; Fri. 9-6; Sat. 9-6 Save 50 % -75 % Off selected Seasonal and Everyday Items New selections arriving "Honeysuckle" 30th in Mary's Angel Series "Christmas with Thomas" Thomas the Tank Engine Petersburg Garden Club met Oct. 11 The Petersburg Garden Club met October 11 at the Glezen Baptist Community Center with hostesses (l to r): Linda Culbertson and Judy Keepes. Kay Benjamin presented a program about pumpkins. grade students Lydia Abel, Samuel McConnell, Sylvia McDivett, Kaydee Sims and Jaron Woolsey, who gave a presentation regarding a Science, Technology, Engi- neering and Math (STEM) project they had recently conducted. "We were doing houses that might survive a hurri- cane," McDivett said. "We used paper, cardboard, Pop- sicle sticks, Play-Doh, and three feet of water." "First we had to draw a de- sign by ourselves," Woolsey said. "Then we had to draw our design with our group. But once we knew that the teacher was splashing water on it, we were scared. But ev- eryone did a good job." "What did you find out worked the best – the Popsi- cle sticks or the cardboard – as far as building material? " board vice-president Chris Satterfield asked. "The Popsicle sticks," Woolsey replied. Blake asked if any of the students were interested in designing or building hous- es when they grew up, and received positive responses from four of the five. "Not me," Abel said. "I'd rather make a house out of candy." "There you go! " Satter- field said. "Then we can eat it after we're done, right? " In other business, Blake updated the school board on various fund balanc- es, which, as of Sept. 30, were: General Fund – $438,218.90 ; Debt Service – $259,534.78; Retirement/ Severance Bond Debt – $ 60,522.43; Capital Projects Fund – minus- $260,773.21; Transportation Operat- ing Fund – $2,235,969.88; Bus Replacement Fund – $125,316.23; and Rainy Day Fund – $1,500,000. "At this point, we have not used any of the Rainy Day Fund, although we did re- ceive approval on the appro- priations that, if necessary, we can use it before the end of the year." Blake also noted that the school lunch fund had a bal- ance of $216,915.87, and the self-insurance fund had a balance of $ 692,196.63. In addition, the school board, on a motion by Waltz, seconded by Sharp, unani- mously approved the ad- opted 2018 budget totaling $25,377.204, broken down as follows: General Fund – $13,850,235; Debt Service – $1,586,500 ; Retirement/ Severance Bond Debt – $568,045; Capital Projects Fund – $5,328,371; Trans- portation Operating Fund – $ 3,595,636; and Bus Re- placement Fund – $448,217. The school board also vot- ed to accept the donation of 44 iMacs from an anony- mous donor. "They are used but still in good condition, and they're going to be used by the com- puter science classes taught by Mr. (Eric) Wilson," Blake said. "The machines have a value of approximately $400 to $500 each." The school board also ap- proved a field trip request for the members of the Pike Central High School Future Farmers of America to at- tend the National FFA con- vention in Indianapolis Oct. 25 -27. The following personnel matters were also approved: RESIGNATIONS • Kelly McDivitt, Title I teaching assistant at Win- slow Elementary School, ef- fective Oct. 6. •Terri D. Holmes, Ac- counts Payable/Title I clerk at Central Office, effective Nov. 1. •Jason McKinney, head boys' and girls' swimming coach at Pike Central High School, effective Sept. 13. • Ross Elmore, mainte- nance coordinator at Cen- tral Office, effective Oct. 20. APPOINTMENTS • Kena Kirby to provide homebound services for a high school student, five hours per week, retroactive to Aug. 9. • Jennifer Turner as a Special Education teach- ing assistant at Winslow El- ementary School. • Christine Pierini as a cafeteria cook at Winslow Elementary School, effec- tive Oct. 2. • Tasha Cato as a full- time bus driver, assigned to route No. 23 ( Velpen), effec- tive Oct. 2. • Curt Vaughn as junior varsity softball coach at Pike Central High School. • Dwayne Austin as assis- tant varsity softball coach at Pike Central High School. • Rick Weisman as head varsity softball coach at Pike Central High School. • Chris Kramer as head varsity boys' track coach at Pike Central High School. • Ryne Biesterveld as head varsity girls' track coach at Pike Central High School. • Chris Collins as eighth grade boys' basketball coach at Pike Central Mid- dle School. • Mark Giesler as sev- enth grade boys basketball coach at Pike Central Mid- dle School. • Josh Roach as junior varsity boys' basketball coach at Pike Central High School. • Trevor Claridge as var- sity boys' basketball volun- teer assistant coach at Pike Central High School. • Tera Wornica as varsi- ty girls' basketball volunteer assistant coach at Pike Cen- tral High School. • Rochelle Johns as sev- enth grade girls' basketball coach at Pike Central Mid- dle School. • Josh Stieneker as sixth grade girls' basketball coach at Pike Central Mid- dle School. • Mitch Dunn as sixth grade girls' basketball vol- unteer assistant coach at Pike Central Middle School. • Mike Bohnert as head boys' and girls' varsity swim coach at Pike Central High School. • Beth Bohnert as boys' and girls' varsity swim as- sistant/diving coach at Pike Central High School. • Troy Moody as a sub- stitute bus driver, effective Oct. 11. CAFETERIA Continued from page 4 ACADEMY Continued from page 1 emy, subsequently ex- pressed his displeasure at remarks made by Mike Houtsch – who serves as chairman of Otwell Miller Academy school board's building and operations committee and is also a member of the Friends of Otwell Elementary's Board of Directors – during the school board's meeting on Monday, Oct. 9, regarding fire code violations at the school. "By what was wrote in the paper, it almost made us, our community, look like a bunch of idiots," Swaney said. "No offense, Mike, but they quoted you in the paper as saying 'I don't know. I thought it was this way.' And 'I don't have that information in front of me.' You're a school board member. That should be first and foremost. You should have all that at a board meeting." "It kind of made us look like idiots," Swaney con- tinued. "It made our com- munity look bad. And it's making some parents think twice about their kids be- ing here. How do we come back from that? " Rhodes replied. "I believe that the stron- gest tool that I have is the truth, and what we have to do every day is every day we have to earn people's trust, and, a lot of times, we really don't know," Rhodes said. "If there's anything that we have learned over these last two years, it's that you can't take any- thing to the bank until you're in the driveway. It just sometimes doesn't un- fold the way we think it's going to unfold." "The things that were quoted were about the fire marshal," Swaney said. "My daughter goes to school here. If there's an issue that the fire marshal has brought up, my con- cern is, why was that not dealt with right then and there, within days, not 60 days later? Now we're try- ing to scramble to take care of it." Houtsch noted that one of the items that the school building had been waiting to be installed – which, once installed, would cor- rect at least one of the doz- en fire code violations iden- tified during an inspection on Sept. 6 – was the make- up air unit. "It was a 10 -week pro- cess for the air handler," Houtsch said. "That's one of the reasons why we switched contractors, be- cause one of them basical- ly said they can't do it. So we went to the other con- tractor and he said he could try, that he'd get it here as quickly as he could." "I don't know that there should be a concern from parents, because we have a fire watch that's been here the whole time, that is overseeing and making sure there's no issues," Houtsch added. "Basically, they were gracious enough at the state to allow us to do the fire watch, in lieu of having everything 100 percent done and complete. But, now, yeah, it's time to get things done and get things completed. Hope- fully, now that the make-up air unit is here and is go- ing to be installed tomor- row (Tuesday), the rest of those things will fall into place." According to an email from the Indiana Depart- ment of Homeland Secu- rity's Office of Public A f- fairs dated Tuesday, Oct. 10, a code official with the Division of Fire and Build- ing Safety conducted an inspection of Otwell Mill- er Academy on Thursday, Oct. 5. "The code official found that five outstanding viola- tions from the September 6 inspection were resolved," the email states. "Due to extenuating circumstanc- es, Otwell Miller Academy was given a two-week ex- tension in order to finish re- solving the seven remain- ing violations." "In the event that the re- maining violations have not been resolved by October 19, IDHS will then seek le- gal means to obtain compli- ance," the email concludes. According to a separate email from the IDHS Of- fice of Public A ffairs on Tuesday, Oct. 10, the Indi- ana Department of Home- land Security has "broad" authority to execute differ- ent types of actions in order to obtain compliance. "This may include fines, building closure orders or other sanctions as the agency sees fit," the email states. Just before the meeting adjourned, an attendee asked, point blank, if the Friends of Otwell Elemen- tary had any money. "We have some, yes, ma'am," Michelle Dur- cholz, who chairs the Ot- well Miller Academy's fi- nancial subcommittee and is also a member of the Friends of Otwell Elemen- tary's Board of Directors, replied. "So we're not in a hole at this time? " "The building itself is in a hole," Rhodes said. "I don't mean it's in a physical hole. I mean, it's not paid for, and we are in the pro- cess of doing that." "The bottom line is, yes, we have debt," Rhodes add- ed. "Can we operate? Yes, we have operating funds." Rhodes noted that, dur- ing the last meeting of the Friends of Otwell Elemen- tary's Board of Directors, a construction loan payoff plan was discussed. "We do have a plan of at- tack," Rhodes said. "I'm not going to go into the details of it at this point in time, because it's very fluctuat- ing. But I will tell you that there's light at the end of the tunnel that appears not to be a train." "We'll see how our plans work out," Rhodes added. "But we're flexible and we can adjust." The next public meeting for the Friends of Otwell El- ementary will be held on Monday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. Petersburg Scouts participate in Merit Badge Day Petersburg Scout Master Chuck Froehle shows Scouts: Bryce Garland, Dominick Garland both of Pe- tersburg and Gabe Kiegel of Evansville an electric mower. They all got to try out the mower. It was part of an environmental sciences merit badge class. Scouts from southern Indiana gathered at the Old Ben Scout Reservation in Cato on Saturday for the Merit Badge Day. They worked on merit badges ranging from chess to orienteering, rifle, archery and camping. Below: Sam Haycraft and Cameron Smith with Andrew Schroeder of St. Meinard work on an orien- teering exercise.