Starke County Youth Club to Participate in Lights On Afterschool Program

Posted on Author WKVI

Students and staff with the Starke County Youth Club will be participating in the Lights On Afterschool program tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 p.m. at the Knox Elementary School Cafeteria. Lawmakers, parents, school administrators and you are invited to attend this special event.

“The big purpose is for us to draw attention to the need after school,” said Melissa Smith, Starke County Youth Club Program Director. “Without the right kind of funding, programs like ours can be closed and we want to keep kids safe and learning after school. Lights on sends that message and our kids are happy to celebrate and encourage people to come and learn about the importance of keeping buildings like ours and programs like ours open after school.”

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Local Principal Named District 2 Principal of the Year

Posted on Author WKVI
Greg Briles

Greg Briles, Principal at Oregon-Davis High School, has been named the District 2 Principal of the Year. Briles said representing Oregon-Davis High School every day is an even greater honor than the award.

“It doesn’t come without hard work from the students, the parents, the community, the teachers that are around me and it takes those people to make this honor possible,” commented Briles.

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Starke County Sheriff Donates Golf Outing Money to Charity

Posted on Author WKVI
Sheriff Oscar Cowen
Sheriff Oscar Cowen

In past years, Starke County Sheriff Oscar Cowen has held a golf tournament to help finance his political campaigns. This year, Sheriff Cowen will donate the money to charity. The tournament raised $2,115.00, and Cowen has named a charity that will benefit from the fundraiser.

“Two Starke County girls that were well known, Christina Rotering and Ashley Derrickson, who succumbed to cancer, I thought that would be a good cause to donate the money to.”

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Oregon-Davis Superintendent Named District One Superintendent of the Year

Posted on Author WKVI
Oregon-Davis School Superintendent, Dr. Steve Disney

Dr. Steve Disney, the Superintendent at Oregon-Davis Schools, has been chosen the District One Superintendent of the Year for 2012.

He is one of seven superintendents in the State of Indiana to be selected on a vote of their peers. As a winner, he will represent District One in the American Association of School Administrators National Superintendent of the Year Program.

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Oregon-Davis Township Trustee Asks School Board for Land

Posted on Author WKVI
Oregon-Davis School Superintendent, Dr. Steve Disney

The Oregon-Davis School Board heard a presentation of a request for the purchase of some school property at its most recent meeting.

“We heard a presentation by the Township Trustee with the investigation to build and go after property for a new fire station in Hamlet and they’re looking at the property where the old school used to sit,” said Superintendent Dr. Steve Disney.

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Oregon-Davis Senior Class Joins Pop Tab Collection Effort

Posted on Author WKVI

The Oregon-Davis Senior Class of 2012 has joined the Ronald McDonald House “Collect-A-Million Pop Tabs” Club in honor of their former classmate Christina Rotering who lost her battle with cancer in April.

The Ronald McDonald House serves families whose children require care at an Indianapolis area hospital by offering them a home-like atmosphere where they can get the rest and renewal they need to be most supportive of their sick or injured child.

The goal is one million pop tabs collected by May 1st, 2012. Pop tabs are being collected at the Jr/Sr High Office from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. CT daily. For information on how the tabs collected will help the Ronald McDonald House, click here.

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Students Head Back to School Next Week

Posted on Author WKVI

Students will be returning to classrooms next week. Before the students go back to the Eastern Pulaski School Corporation, Elementary students are invited to participate in the meet the teacher night on Tuesday, August 16th 5:00-6:00 p.m. ET. Meet the teacher night for Middle and High School students will be from 5:30-6:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday. School begins for all students in the Eastern Pulaski School Corporation on Wednesday, August 17th.

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Oregon-Davis School Board Honors Susan Rowles

Posted on Author WKVI
Oregon-Davis Jr/Sr High School

The Oregon-Davis School Board had a special celebration this week to honor just retired school Treasurer, Susan Rowles.

“We had a reception prior to our meeting where many former School Board members and Superintendents come back as well as Susan’s family and staff,” said Superintendent, Dr. Steve Disney. “It was a terrific tribute to Mrs. Rowles. Following the reception, we had a special board meeting in which we publicly and officially honored her years of service by dedicating and naming our Board room and Administration room the Mrs. Susan G. Rowles Board Meeting Room.”

Oregon-Davis Schools Rank First in I-STEP Test Improvement

Posted on Author WKVI
Oregon-Davis Jr/Sr High School

On Tuesday, July 12th, The Indiana Department of Education released I-STEP results. The Oregon-Davis School Corporation ranked #1 in the State of Indiana out of 292 corporations for improvement overall. That includes all grades in English and Math. The Oregon-Davis School Corporation students displayed a 14.6% improvement from 2010 to 2011.

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Starke County Youth Club to Offer Summer School

Posted on Author WKVI

The Starke County Youth Club will be offering summer school for Knox Middle School students and North Judson-San Pierre and Oregon-Davis Elementary students.

Students will be engaged in Math and Language Arts during the summer, but no textbooks will be used. Hands-on computer applications and games and activities will help students learn the skills needed in those subjects. During the afternoon, 20 camps will be offered that range from science and sporting events to dancing and music.

The Starke County Youth Club summer school program will begin June 20th and go until July 22nd. Transportation will be provided.

Starke County High School Seniors to Graduate Tonight

Posted on Author WKVI

High School Seniors from the three Starke County schools will be graduating tonight.

Graduation for Knox Community High School seniors will be tonight at 7:00 p.m. CT in the Weinberg Gymnasium. Oregon-Davis High School seniors will graduate at 6:30 p.m. in their High School gymnasium.

Graduation at the North Judson-San Pierre High School will be tonight at 7:00 p.m. CT in the Gymnasium. High School Principal, Annette Zupin, announced the Valedictorian and Salutatorian this week. The Valedictorian is Andrew Frasure and the Salutatorians are Henry Thoreson and Samantha Fisher.

SCILL Center Graduates Look to the Future

Posted on Author WKVI
SCILL Center

Students from the SCILL Center recently graduated and one of the students in the class of 2011 is Darren Harrell of Plymouth, who not only graduated with honors from the Automotive Certification Program, but did well in national competition.

“I’ve been trying for some scholarships from Lincoln Tech which is the college I’ll be attending,” said Harrell. “They had an acceptance test there where 1,200 kids took it and I was in the top 20. I got an $8,000 scholarship for that. If it wasn’t for the SCILL Center, I probably wouldn’t have done as well on the test.”

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Storm Wreaks Havoc in Kankakee Valley

Posted on Author WKVI
Francesville Fire Station Two sustained damage due to a tornado

Several buildings sustained damage after tornadoes touched down in Francesville Wednesday morning. Francesville Fire Chief, Tim Wuethrich, talked about the event.

“It appears that we had a tornado touch down in two spots in Francesville, maybe three,” said Wuethrich. “It took three poles out on the highway, leveled a building that we call Station Two, our other fire station. We had a fire truck in there that’s underneath the rubble. It took part of a roof off a house on the other end of town. I’ve been at Incident Command the whole time so I haven’t assessed the damage yet.” Homeowners with damaged roofs may need to hire local roofers to fix and restore their roofing systems. They may also need to find a supplier of timber roof trusses for their roof replacement project.

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Graduation Services Scheduled for June 3rd for Three Starke County Schools

Posted on Author WKVI
Top Ten (L to R) Darienne Griffith, Hayley Windbigler, Katelyn Peters, Kaitlyn Betz, Tiffany Friedlund, Tabitha Tepes, Elisabeth Caudill, Brittany Shannon, Carole Surfus and Heather Rogers

The Knox Community High School Seniors will graduate on Friday, June 3rd, at 7:00 p.m. CT in the Weinberg Gymnasium. The Valedictorian for this graduating class is Darienne Griffith. The Salutatorian is Hayley Windbigler. The rest of the top ten students in the class include: Katelyn Peters, Kaitlyn Betz, Tiffany Friedlund, Tabitha Tepes, Elisabeth Caudill, Brittany Shannon, Carole Surfus, and Heather Rogers. Continue reading →

SCILL Center Students Perform Well on ASE Certification Tests

Posted on Author WKVI
SCILL Center

The students at the SCILL Center recently took ASE classes for certification.

“There were 152 tests that were given over a week’s period of time, which included steering, suspension, brakes, electrical and electronic systems, engine performance, engine repair, automatic transmission systems, transaxles, manual drive line, axles and heating and air conditioning,” explained SCILL Center Instructor, Rod Dawson. “In each of the categories, we had actually 19 students that were taking each one of these tests, and they scored over a fifty percent in each of them with a pass rate. I was quite impressed with the students and it was an excellent showing for the first time around. I felt that the students needed to take all eight areas and it just validates what they actually are doing here for training.”

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Starke County Students to See Chicago Shakespeare Theatre’s Macbeth Tuesday

Posted on Author WKVI

Students from the three Starke County schools will be attending a Shakespearean play tomorrow afternoon at the North Judson-San Pierre High School Auditorium. Thanks to a grant from the Starke County Community Foundation and the Tri Kappa organization, it is possible for actors who star in Shakespearean plays at Navy Pier in Chicago to come to the County to present a classic play for the kids.

“This year they’re doing Macbeth,” said Knox Middle School Principal Steve Cronk. “All the eighth graders from Oregon-Davis, North Judson-San Pierre and Knox, as well as seventh graders from all three schools, as many as we can put in there, will see this presentation from Noon until 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 5th.”

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Starke County Drug Free Double Dare Event this Sunday

Posted on Author WKVI

Knox, North Judson-San Pierre and Oreon-Davis students in grades 6-12 will be competing in the annual Drug Free Double Dare event Sunday, April 3rd at 1:30 p.m. CT at the Knox Middle School.

“Drug Free Double Dare is based on the concept of the Nickelodeon Double Dare,” explained Knox Middle School Guidance Counselor, Chris Ross. “We give it an anti-drug twist. The students received a study guide with information about different types of drugs. On Sunday, the students will then answer questions based on what they’ve studied.”

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Oregon-Davis School Superintendent Moving to Mishawaka School System

Posted on Author WKVI
Dr. Steve Disney

Sources in the South Bend media are reporting that Dr. Steve Disney will be the new Superintendent of the Mishawaka Community School System.

Dr. Disney has been the Superintendent at Oregon-Davis since 2007, replacing Bill Rentschler who resigned to move to Ft. Wayne.

Dr. Disney had been mentioned in the past for other Superintendent positions. He will reportedly be announced at tonight’s Mishawaka School Board meeting.