Kindergarten Round-up at Oregon-Davis Elementary School will be held on Wednesday, April 11 from noon to 6 p.m. CT.
Parents should bring the student’s birth certificate and immunization records at the time of registration. Children who turn five before August 1 should attend. Parents who cannot make it on this date can arrange a time to come in by contacting the school at 867-2711.
Oregon-Davis School Corporation is an open enrollment school district and accepts any students in the State of Indiana.
A full four-year Starke County Lily Endowment scholarship winner has been announced.
Katelyn Schwenk, an Oregon-Davis Senior, will receive full tuition to the Indiana college of her choice and a $900 yearly stipend for required books and equipment.
Katelyn is the daughter of David and Bonnie Schwenk and she plans to pursue a degree as an Addictions Counselor. She is President of her class and the National Honor Society and she was also the captain of the Lady Bobcats Varsity Girls Basketball team, plus many other activities.
Members of the Starke County Farm Bureau attended the organization’s annual meeting this week and heard Director of State Government Relations, Bob Kraft, talk about legislative successes this year.
Kraft talked about the success in the repeal of the inheritance tax.
“Probably the most noteworthy was the passing of the Inheritance Tax repeal,” said Kraft. “This has been a priority of Farm Bureau for years and years. All of a sudden all of the chips fell where they needed to and the Inheritance Tax will be phased out beginning in 2013.”
The Starke County Youth Club is getting ready for its annual WKVI Radiothon fundraiser to be held May 4th.
The Director of the SCYC, Irene Szakonyi, said they recently had their annual evaluation.
“We had our annual evaluation this year, and our results were phenomenal,” she praised. “All of our sites were visited by the state, and out of all possible points we only missed two. It’s fantastic! We’re proud of our staff and kids.”
More details of a proposed tax increase for the residents of the Oregon-Davis School Corporation were presented last night in a special public meeting on the matter.
The Starke County Farm Bureau organization has come out against the Oregon-Davis school referendum scheduled for a vote on May 8th. Farm Bureau President, Brad Lawrence, explains the reason why the organization chooses to oppose the referendum.
On Tuesday, a public information meeting will be held at the Oregon-Davis School at 6:00 p.m. CT to inform the public of what they can expect if the proposed tax levy does or does not pass. Terry Minix, President of the Oregon-Davis Education Political Action Committee, says one crucial point that he feels needs to be stressed is that even if the referendum does not pass, the school will remain open but will likely be forced to merge with a local corporation.
With the public information meeting coming up on March 20, Terry Minix, President of the Oregon-Davis Education Political Action Committee, wants the public to have an idea of what to expect at the meeting.
The Indiana State Board of Education recently notified Oregon-Davis School Superintendent Dr. Steve Disney that the elementary school will be honored at the Indiana Statehouse today.
“They extended an invitation to me to bring our Elementary Principal, Mr. Bennett, and four of our elementary teachers to be recognized at the Indiana Statehouse on Thursday morning,” said Dr. Disney. “They’re recognizing the ten most improved schools in the State of Indiana and said that Oregon-Davis was 9th and that’s out of almost 900 schools.”
The Oregon-Davis proposed operating referendum will not impact the Circuit Breaker if approved. That information was received yesterday from Curt Pletcher of Umbaugh and Associates in Plymouth.
“With a referendum, a school corporation would have a question on the ballot which would have a maximum tax rate,” explained Pletcher. “When a school really pursues an operating referendum, they look at their state support for their General Fund. If a referendum is passed, it is not subject to the Circuit Breaker caps. In other words, the levy would not impact the current Circuit Breaker tax credits for the school or the overlapping taxing units.”
Why is the Circuit Breaker so important to every property owner in Starke County?
The Circuit Breaker is part of a property tax relief measure offered to various types of property. Spending in one area of government, when it trips the Circuit Breaker, means spending must be reduced somewhere else.
What’s ahead for Oregon-Davis schools? Superintendent Dr. Steve Disney appeared before the Starke County Council Monday night to discuss the school’s General Fund Referendum that will appear on the primary ballot in May. Because of a decrease of almost $400,000 in funding announced by the State Board of Education in October, Oregon-Davis has been left scrambling for revenue.
A tax levy referendum will appear on the May Primary ballot for voters in the Oregon and Davis Townships in Starke County.
The referendum is asking voters to approve a property tax rate increase to help create more funds to keep the school corporation operating the way it is now. The increase will not exceed $.19 on each $100 of assessed valuation and it will be in addition to all other property tax levies imposed by the School Corporation.
Six athletes will be inducted into the Oregon-Davis Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday, February 4th.
2001 graduate Tara Kensinger and 1974 graduate Ralph Pearish will be inducted, along with the Howard brothers, Rex, Jim and Jerome, who played sports in the 1950s for the Grovertown Rams. Al Haro, a 1960 graduate from Hamlet High School, will also be inducted.
The third in a series of informational meetings on the Starke County Jail was held at Oregon-Davis High School last night.
Those in attendance heard plans for a bill to be heard in the state legislature that would allow the Starke County Council to adopt an ordinance imposing an additional county economic development income tax rate for the purpose of financing, constructing, acquiring, and equipping a county jail and related buildings and parking facilities. Although this method of funding a project has not been agreed upon by the Jail Committee, if passed by the legislature it would be a funding tool to be used exclusively or in tandem with a property tax levy to fund a new jail.
The Starke County Election Board met Tuesday morning and Oregon-Davis School Superintendent, Dr. Steve Disney, approached the board with a referendum for the May ballot.
A series of meetings scheduled by the Starke County Jail Committee begins tomorrow night. The Committee is informing you of their discussions surrounding jail facility options. The Committee is pondering building a new jail facility, rehabbing the current jail or rehabbing an existing building to convert to a jail.
The J.E.S.S.E. Co-op is reorganizing. Rochester schools recently pulled out of the special education cooperative that administers more than 80 different special classes and resource programs which leaves 9 school corporations in our area participating in the program.
With the withdrawal of Rochester, Knox Community School Superintendent A.J. Gappa said the majority of the financial services will now come out of Plymouth Schools.
Dr. Disney addresses concerned patrons during Monday night's School Board meeting
Indiana’s recent change in how school funding is calculated at the state level has caused more local backlash, as the Oregon-Davis School Corporation discussed options Monday night to prepare financially for the upcoming school years.
Superintendent Steven Disney told WKVI that schools were previously funded in a large part by the state while the general fund tax levy for Oregon-Davis covered roughly one-third of the budget, allowing the state to cover the remainder. However, new legislation has switched all school funding to the state, eliminating the local tax levy. On top of that, recent changes in funding formulas at the state level have reduced the amount of funding given to schools, forcing Oregon-Davis to make some tough decisions.
Starke Circuit Court Judge Kim Hall will be on the bench today, but it will not be on the third floor of the Starke County Courthouse. Judge Hall is taking his court on the road.
“We’re going to have court at Oregon-Davis High School,” said Judge Hall. “The reason for this is that for many years, Oregon-Davis would bring a bus load of Seniors to the Starke Circuit Court and watch the court proceedings and they always enjoyed that and it was always educational for them. For the last couple of years, for various reasons, they haven’t been able to get to the Courthouse. I’ve been talking with some teachers and we’ve decided that we’re going to bring court to the Oregon-Davis High School. I checked with the Supreme Court and the staff there was not aware of any other court in Indiana doing this, but they thought it was a good idea. This morning, we’re going to have the prosecutors, defense attorneys and the Sheriff there with some of the inmates and we’re going to have regular court.”
