INSIDE THIS ISSUE Classifieds............................................................ A3 Community Calendar .......................B8, 9, 10,1 1 Discover Roanoke.......................................... B2, 3 Healthy Times ............................................. A10, 11 Valentine’s Day ................................................... A8
A
See our ads on pages A12 & A15 INfortwayne.com
Serving Southwest Allen County & Roanoke
February 7, 2014
Roanoke art gallery in new home By Garth Snow gsnow@kpcmedia.com
As she translates inspiration into art, Penny French-Deal hopes the finished work will capture an observer’s heart. Sometimes she find it heartbreaking to watch such a work leave her Roanoke gallery. French-Deal recently moved her paintings across Main Street, where her work is featured exclusively at The Gallery of Joseph Decuis. “They were wonderful. Wonderful,” French-Deal said of those first two years on Main Street. “It was a new experience. We started with the front windows, and we were renting those for three months, and then space became available and I moved forward with that.” “It was a nice location on the corner, and an opportunity to meet many people, and good for sales,” she said. She displayed up to 50 paintings at any time, arranging them by theme in the
Caution guides calls on school snow days; makeup days added By Garth Snow gsnow@kpcmedia.com
foyer, the entrance way, and the conservatory that connects the gallery to the restaurant. She has studied the transition to fewer but larger rooms. “My vision right now is that I will change the exhibit according to themes,” she said. Her gallery hours also
Hazardous roads and plunging temperatures forced Southwest Allen County Schools to cancel nine school days in January. “Our last scheduled student day right now is Monday, June 9,” Superintendent Steve Yager said in an interview Jan. 31. He said caution will continue to guide closing and delay decisions through February and March. Winter returned with a fury on Sunday, Jan. 5, at the end of a two-week winter break. Area schools closed for much of the week. The Indiana Department of Education requires school district to have 180 student attendance days each school year, but the department is granting waivers for Jan. 6 and 7. “We would be eligible for a waiver for Jan. 7,” Yager said. “Jan. 6 was a teacher work day and we went ahead and used that.” The district has not yet applied for a waiver for Jan. 7. “We want to see what the months of February and March bring us in the way of delays and cancellations,” he said. Schools often delay the start of classes by two hours during hazardous weather. Districts are not required to make up those hours. Yager explained that the high school and middle schools cut each class period proportionately, rather than cancel any classes. “We are always very conservative in what we do,” Yager said of decisions on cancellation or delay. “We always look at student safety first. When we cancel for cold weather, our target is 20 below, and that’s wind chill
See ART, Page A2
See CAUTION, Page A5
PHOTO BY GARTH SNOW
Penny French-Deal says works such as “Crossing Over,” left, are inspired by her imagination. She also presents more specific works as the exclusive artist at The Gallery of Joseph Decuis. Her recent move is part of a realignment of businesses that is expected to bring more jobs to downtown Roanoke; for details, see Page B1.
gallery’s several rooms. “It was an easy find, and I did a lot of work in promoting the gallery and Roanoke.” she said. But that building was sold as part of a shuffle that will move American Specialty Insurance to Fort Wayne and an undisclosed tenant — and an estimated 125 jobs — to downtown Roanoke.
The Eshelman family, whose business holdings include the Joseph Decuis gourmet restaurant, invited French-Deal to share her art from the first floor of the pink cottage inside the white picket fence at 117 N. Main St. French-Deal’s new gallery space will accommodate about 25 paintings in two rooms, the back
Schools chief Yager says transition going smoothly By Garth Snow gsnow@kpcmedia.com
PHOTO BY GARTH SNOW
Steve Yager, left, will retire June 30. Phil Downs will succeed Yager as Southwest Allen County Schools superintendent.
was the top-ranked candidate,” Yager said. “I knew that Phil was a quality candidate, not only for this position but positions throughout the state,” Yager said. “So as interest was being shown in him as a superintendent in other districts, I let the board know that it might behoove us to take some action on my retirement as of June 30, 2014, and let’s tie Phil up, tie his hands,” Yager said. See YAGER, Page A5
3306 Independence Drive, Fort Wayne, IN 46808
Times Community Publications
The transition in the Southwest Allen County Schools administration office is going smoothly, as expected, said Superintendent Steve Yager. Yager will retire June 30. Former Assistant Superintendent Phil Downs was designated associate superintendent this school year, and will succeed Yager on July 1. Downs said it is “gratifying and humbling” to be chosen for that position. “In May or June of 2013, I started talking to the school board about my upcoming retirement plans,” Yager said. He explained that when he took the job in 2009, he guaranteed the board he would stay for five or six years. He reaches the five-year mark June 30. Yager has worked with Downs for 12 of the past 13 school years. Yager was superintendent at Northwest Allen County Schools in the fall of 2001, when Downs was hired as an assistant principal and athletic director at a middle school. In 2006, Downs transitioned to a post as an elementary principal. Yager took the Southwest Allen County Schools job in 2009. “In 2010, there was an opening here for an assistant superintendent, and Phil