Panel studying teacher shortage meets for the last time

A committee chaired by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz met for the last time Monday, making recommendations to stem the loss of teachers in Indiana.

Among the proposals from the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Recruitment and Retention of Excellent Educators:

• Establish a mentor program for beginning teachers. (NOTE: The state once had a mentor program, but it was dropped after funding dried up. Some school districts, including the Bluffton-Harrison Metropolitan School District, operate their own mentor programs for beginning teachers).

• Identify and fund professional development for educators and administrators.

• Recruit and retain a diverse teacher workforce.

"Great teaching and great learning go hand in hand," Ritz said in a statement. "I look forward to continuing the work of the commission and to the support of the Indiana General Assembly and the State Board of Education for these strategies developed by educators to address Indiana's teacher shortage."

Only Bluffton-Harrison in Wells County has a vacant teaching position, according to the school districts' websites. Bluffton-Harrison is seeking a seventh-grade English/language arts teacher.

Neither Northern Wells Community Schools nor Southern Wells Community Schools have open teaching positions, according to their websites.

N-B Slideshow: 2015 Festival of Trees

Here are some entries in this year's Festival of Trees. (Photos by Barb Barbieri)

N-B Slideshow: 2015 Ossian Hometown Christmas

The 2015 Ossian Hometown Christmas celebration was held Thursday evening in Ossian. (Photos by Glen Werling)

Proposal would remove schools info from newspaper publication

UPDATE: State Board of Education members voted this morning to accept the recommendation from a committee to make changes to the way schools publish Annual Performance Reports.

Original post:

A proposal from state officials calls for an end to publication in newspapers of some data on Indiana schools.

Publishing Annual Performance Report data in newspapers is burdensome, according to a memo State Board of Education members will review at their meeting today in Indianapolis, and data included in the reports could instead by published on the Indiana Department of Education's website and on websites run by schools.

The recommendation would require approval by state lawmakers. If the General Assembly voted to approve the proposal, the portion of the law requiring publication in newspapers could be removed as soon as next year.

Data in the APR, which schools are required to publish in mid-March each year, includes information on student enrollment, graduation rates, attendance rates, average class size, remediation, and the percentage of graduates going on to college.

The proposal from the state also calls for removing items on class size, remediation, and the percentage of graduates seeking a college education from the APRs.

N-B Video: Bluffton lighting ceremony

Windy, rainy weather didn't stop revelers from coming out for Bluffton's traditional lighting ceremony Friday evening. And Santa showed up, too! (Video by Matthew LeBlanc)

N-B Links: 'Brady's Hope' aims to promote a drug-free life

On Monday high school students at Southern Wells were introduced to fellow Hoosier Brady Noonkester, who is forever age 19 after dying from a prescription drug overdose in June 2012, just weeks after his high school graduation.

Noonkester's father, Dustin, spoke at all three of the county's high schools Monday and shared his son's story. Learn more in the Tuesday, Nov. 24, News-Banner.

Learn more about "Brady's Hope," an effort to promote a drug-free life, by clicking here.

Learn more about the Indiana Attorney General's task force that helped bring Noonkester to town, The Bitter Pill, by clicking here.

N-B Numbers: Jury trials, new criminal cases down for 2014

New court data released last month for 2014 indicates a drop in jury trials but an increase in “children in need of services” cases in Wells County. Meanwhile, the number of new criminal cases filed in local county courts dropped between 2013 (650 cases) and 2014 (539) – the first decrease, according to state data, since at least 2010. New juvenile filings increased between 2013 (202 cases) and 2014 (259 cases).
Learn more in the Monday, Nov. 23, News-Banner.



To explore the data, click here. The data fields give readers the option to select the year, county, court, and type of data to see.


Here is some more data:

Jury trials countywide:
• 2010: 1
• 2011: 8
• 2012: 6
• 2013: 12
• 2014: 3

Children in need of services:

• 2010:15
• 2011:17
• 2012: 42
• 2013: 57
• 2014: 92
• 2015: 60, as of Nov. 20