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Trine grants Johnson charter

Changes include year-round calendar at academy.


BY MATTHEW GLOWICKI
mglowicki@news-sentinel.com

After months of uncertainty, Timothy L. Johnson Academy will indeed remain a chartered school. Trine Universitys Education One granted a three-year charter to the academy Monday afternoon after the academys board voted unanimously to approve the many administrative and academic changes that Trine oversight will bring.

Ball State University did not renew the K-8 academys charter earlier this year because of low test performance only 41 percent of the academys students passed their ISTEP language and math tests. In April, the East Allen County Schools board refused to be its chartering organization. This paved the way for the Angola-based Trine University and Education One, a separate arm
See CHARTER, Page 3L

Timothy L. Johnson Academy, which operates in the Village Elementary School building at 4625 Werling Drive, was granted a charter by Trine Universitys Education One on Monday.
By Matthew Glowicki of The News-Sentinel

$128,243.37 ALREADY RAISED

Outside group begins ISTEP review


Study could take up to 5 weeks to finish.
BY TOM LOBIANCO
of The Associated Press

By Ellie Bogue of The News-Sentinel

Staff members from SCAN (Stop Child Abuse and Neglect) were busy selling tickets for the duck race Friday morning at Time Corners.

Duck race tickets are still available


For the 25th anniversary, goal is to raise $155,000 for Stop Child Abuse and Neglect
BY ELLIE BOGUE
ebogue@news-sentinel.com

How to sponsor
Duck sponsorship tickets will be available 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday at Ribfest in Headwaters Park at the Majic 95.1 booth. Theyll also be sold through noon Friday at various retail outlets. A listing of locations is available at www.scanfw.org. Tickets are available 8 a.m.-5 p.m. daily at SCAN, 500 W. Main St., or buy them race day 10-10:30 a.m. at Johnny Appleseed Park near the boat ramp. Starting Wednesday, cash only will be accepted. served Allen County only. Today SCAN serves 19 counties and employs 161 full- and part-time employees. In 2012, SCAN impacted more than 18,500 children and adults through its programs and services. Free games and activities for children begin at 10 a.m. on race day, with the race starting at approximately 11 a.m.

Staff members from SCAN (Stop Child Abuse and Neglect) were busy selling tickets for the duck race Friday morning at Time Corners. This is the silver anniversary of SCANs duck race, which is Saturday on the St. Joseph River in Johnny Appleseed Park near the boat ramp. This years goal for the Weigand Construction Duck Race to Benefit SCAN is $155,000.

As of 5 p.m. Monday, $128,243.37 had been raised toward the goal. In 25 years, the cost to sponsor a duck has remained at $5. The fastest ducky wins $5,000 cash for its sponsor; second- and third-place winners receive $1,000 and $500 cash, respectively. All prizes are donated. A full list of ticket outlets and prizes for the other 22 winners is available at www.scanfw.org. The first year of the race (1988), a little more than $5,000 was raised; the agency had six employees and

Planned Parenthoods in Ky., Ind. will merge


No patient services will be cut.
BY MATTHEW GLOWICKI
mglowicki@news-sentinel.com

Aging & In-Home Services tests care transitions


BY ELLIE BOGUE
ebogue@news-sentinel.com

Planned Parenthood affiliates in Indiana and Kentucky will merge beginning next month. Two health centers in Kentucky in Louisville and Lexington will join the 27 centers across Indiana under the new name Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, after boards of both state affiliates approved the merger. No service cuts to patients are planned at any of the centers, new CEO of PPINK Betty Cockrum said. Behind the scenes, however, some administrative duties performed by Kentucky health centers will be taken on by personnel at affiliate headquarters in Indianapolis. Cockrum said administrative services were consolidated in Kentucky through attrition. Additionally, three positions were lost in the transition, though Cockrum noted that a reluctance to relocate factored
See MERGER, Page 5L

Since April, Aging & In-Home Services of Northeast Indiana has been providing a new service for Medicare patients. AIHS proposal to test a model for improving care transitions from inpatient hospital care to home care has been selected by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to receive funding as a Community-Based Care Transition Program as part of the Affordable Care Act. AIHS, the Area 3 Agency on Aging, is building on a successful pilot program with Parkview Hospital Randallia and Parkview Regional Medical Center. It created Care Transitions of Eastern Indiana in partnership with Yorktown-based LifeStream Services, the Area 6 Agency on Aging, to include 22 counties and 10 hospitals at 11 locations.
See CARE, Page 3L

INDIANAPOLIS An outside group is reviewing Indianas ISTEP+ troubles after computer problems disrupted test-taking for thousands of students last month, Indiana schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz said Monday. The National Center for Improvement of Educational Assessment and its co-founder, Richard Hill, will assess data thats tracked during testing, such as time between answers. The center is expected to take up to five weeks to complete its review. Tens of thousands of students were thrown off track last month when CTB/ McGraw-Hills servers faltered, causing online state tests to freeze. School officials reported that computer screens froze and many students were forced to log back in repeatedly while taking the test. The company, which is in the middle of a $95 million contract with the state, has said test results will likely be delayed until July. Like all Hoosier parents, students and educators, I was extremely frustrated with the alarmingly high volume of test interruptions during Indianas high stakes test, she said. These interruptions were simply unacceptable and they call into question the validity of the test scores. The Department of Education determined the problems affected 78,000 of the 482,000 students who took the test, a far-reaching problem for schools and teachers because of the many ways in which test results are factored into their own assessments and pay. In the meantime, angry local school administrators have said all the results should be thrown out. Ritz has not gone that far, but she has said she advised local school leaders they can tamp down the weight of test results when calculating teacher assessment. She also said she will not use invalid or tainted results in determining how a school is graded. But firmer answers, including whether the state will toss out the results, will have to wait until after the National Center for Improvement of Educational A s s e s s m e n t s r e v i e w i s
See ISTEP, Page 3L

METRO EDITOR: LISA ESQUIVEL LONG

461-8244

METRO@NEWS-SENTINEL.COM

FROM THE LOCAL FRONT

MERGER
Continued from Page 1L

into the job losses, and that personnel workload will increase for those at headquarters. Former PPKY President Patti Stauffer will join the executive team of the new merged affiliate. Kentucky will have 14 seats on the new 35-member board. Cockrum said it is her hope to ex-

pand Planned Parenthood, particularly into Kentucky. The organization will spend the next few months assessing the health needs Stauffer of the state to best meet those needs. Planned Parenthood provides many health services, including Pap tests, breast and testicular ex-

ams, STD testing and treatment, birth control and pregnancy tests. With the merger, the affiliate will have 190 employees, 170 of those in Indiana. Five employees will continue to work at the Fort Wayne health center. Mergers are relatively common, Cockrum said. When she began working for Planned Parenthood 11 years ago, there were 128 affiliates nationwide. Now there are 73. This consolidation has been due largely

to the changing nature of the health care industry, including an increased focus on digital record keeping, she said. It has a whole lot to do with the Affordable Care Act and other changes in the health care provider industry that are challenging for smaller providers, and investments in technology are a significant piece of that, Cockrum said. Kim Greene leads the Planned Parenthood of Kentucky board.

She said the state is in acute need of preventive care and early health screenings. Our combined strength and depth is going to make us much better able to serve the needs of current clients in both Kentucky and Indiana, and to participate in meeting much of the unmet need that still exists, Greene said. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

CHARTER
Continued from Page 1L

within the institution that works specifically with chartering. Our goal is to raise the bar across the entire school, said Michael Bock, Trine University senior vice president. David Wood, Education One managing director of education, read through standards for the academy if his organization were to charter the school, which serves about 300 students. Perhaps the biggest change Trine mandated is to move the academy to a year-round calendar, a change that will start in the fall with the 2013-14 school year and aim to increase learning retention and student achievement. Other organizational goals include reducing the size of classes and adding staffing; building time into the school day for teachers and administrators to meet and plan; implementing regular professional development programs for teachers; and increasing teacher/ classroom accountability by instituting weekly classroom visits by administra-

tors to ensure what needs to be taught is being taught. Academically, Wood said he would like to see a minimum of 75 percent of students enrolled in a music program and an art program by Year 3 of the chartering. He also wants more resources dedicated to math and science manipulatives for interactive, engaging education in those fields. Finally, he wants to see increased technology use by students in the form of iPads or similar products in no fewer than 80 percent of classrooms. Wood also noted he intends to take an active role in the school, something school leadership and teachers noted was not the case with Ball State University. Its our goal as an authorizer to ensure youre doing things in a manner that youre supposed to be doing, Wood said. The only way for us to do that effectively is to be here on a regular basis, in the school and at all of your board meetings. Nearly 100 students, parents, teachers, staff and community members gathered Monday at East Allen

County Schools Village Elementary School, in which the academy operates. Many took the opportunity to speak during the public comment hearing before the boards meeting. Most spoke about the family atmosphere that the academy fosters and the distinctive need for a charter school for the community if its students are ever to fully actualize their dreams. Said one mother, I thank God for the school. The teachers are always there for me, anything I need. Jabriah Powell, 15, a recent graduate headed to Bishop Luers High School, said, This school is probably the reason why Im making it there. A grandmother said, Without Timothy L. Johnson Academy here, the community would be lost. After the meeting, academy teacher Carrie Drudge expressed relief over the agreement between the academy and Trine. Though she has no children of her own, she said its easy for her to say she has 300. She knows all of the students. They know her. All the changes are for the good, Drudge said. Theyll make our school a

better place. Some will be easy. Some will be tough just to get everyone on board. But when the board announced the affirmation of Trines standards and the approval of the new charter, cheers and applause from the audience suggested a consensus of satisfaction. Fourth-grade teacher Tametris Marsh has taught at the academy for four years. She said she is happy with the future changes and believes they are necessary. I think we can accomplish those goals, she said but its going to take a lot of hard work.

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