Vol. 41, No. 44
PO Box 603, Wabash, IN 46992 (260) 563-8326
of Wabash County Inc. January 16, 2019
www.thepaperofwabash.com Proudly Serving Wabash County Since 1977
Educators pleased with local grad rates
MSD board retains Keaffaber as superintendent By Josh Sigler jsigler@thepaperofwabash.com
By Josh Sigler and Eric Christiansen news@thepaperofwabash.com
The Indiana Department of Education recently released its graduation rates from the 201718 school year, and local educators seemed pleased with the result. Wabash City Schools finished with school year with a 95.79 percent graduation rate. In all, 91 of 95 students received diplomas. Superintendent Jason Callahan said the school district was very pleased with that rate. “Honestly, we view this as a 100 percent rate because 2 percent received a special education certificate and 2 percent was still in school so our dropout rate was 0 percent,” Callahan said. “Even better results were what diplomas our 96 percent graduated with from Wabash High School. Ninetytwo percent of students received either a Core 40 of Academic Honors Diploma. This was the highest percentage of college ready diplomas in the history of the school.” Callahan explained that as an early college, the school’s goal is to provide graduating seniors with the ability to earn a full year of college in the Statewide Transfer General Education Core Certificate. “Our focus will be to not only maintain graduation rates above 90 percent, but also start tracking the number/percentage of students receiving STGEC certificate,” Callahan said. MSD of Wabash County posted a graduation rate of 85.5 percent as a corporation for the school year, but that number is a bit misleading according to superintendent Mike Keaffaber. MSD is a little different from neighboring school districts in the fact that is also encompasses White’s High School. “That includes students from all over the state of Indiana because we have White’s,” Keaffaber said. “I would like to focus more on our schools that come from our communities.” When broken down by school, Northfield had a graduation rate of 97.33 percent, and Southwood had a graduation
A long-awaited downtown business will be coming to fruition – or, one could say, coming out of the oven — later this week. Ohh My! Cakes will officially open at its downtown location, 2 W. Market St., at 6 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 17. “The business is officially 7
(continued on page 3)
(continued on page 5)
Debbie McCoart and Julie McCoart show off one of the signs in Ohh My! Cake. Photo by Joseph Slacian
Ohh My! Cakes to open Thursday By Joseph Slacian jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com
years old,” Julie McCoart told The Paper of Wabash County during an interview at the business one week before the official opening. “We’ve been down here working on the building for four years in February.” The family – the business is co-owned by Julie McCoart and her mother-in-law, Debbie McCoart – concentrated on converting a rental space immedi(continued on page 3)
MSD of Wabash County Superintendent Mike Keaffaber will remain in his position until at least the summer of 2020. The news was delivered at MSD’s school board meeting on Jan. 8. New board president Todd Dazey explained that Keaffaber is in the third year of a threeyear contract. That contract stipulates that unless the board gives a notice of non-renewal by Jan. 1, then it would automatically renew for an additional year. The board did not give Keaffaber a notice of nonrenewal. “As a result, his contract has now been extended to June 30, 2020,” Dazey said. “We’d like to say congratulations to Mr Keaffaber.” Keaffaber said he was elated to have a vote of confidence from the board. “I love MSD,” he said. “I love the opportunity to be able to work with our admin team, our teachers, our staff, and so I’m very grateful that I have the opportunity to continue on.” Board secretary Todd Topliff read a statement prepared by the board in response to criticism from patron Michael Rigney, who had accused the board of colluding to oust Keaffaber at previous executive
sessions. “In a thoroughly contentious and disdainful manner, Mr. Rigney expressed his concern about our scheduling of two executive sessions at the end of last year to evaluate the job performance of individual employees. Specifically, he accused the board holding the executive sessions to develop and implement a petty and vindictive plan designed to remove Superintendent Keaffaber from his position. He further opined that the board was ignoring the needs of the school district with making decisions motivated by self-interests of individual board members, and was trying to railroad Mr. Keaffaber out of a job. “One of the many roles to be performed by school board members is that of an evaluator of job performance of the district’s employees, including the performance of our school superintendent. This is an obligation that the board takes very seriously. We regret that some thought our scheduling of two executive sessions to complete our evaluations was inappropriate and somehow driven by improper motives.” The board underwent several points of reorganization during the meeting. Dazey was named the president of the board of finance, while Todd Topliff was tabbed (continued on page 5)
County resident receives Sagamore award By Joseph Slacian jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com A Wabash County man was recently named a Sagamore of the Wabash, the highest award a Hoosier citizen can receive. The man, Ken Perkins, received the honor on Dec. 19 during a reception prior to the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Holiday Pops Concert at the Honeywell Center. “I was totally surprised,” Perkins told The Paper of Wabash County. “I was honored and humbled. Some really neat people have gotten that award before me, so I felt very pleased to be a part of that group.” Perkins said he nearly didn’t attend the concert.
Ken Perkins (center) shows off his Sagamore of the Wabash award with family members (front, from left) Nicholas Perkins, Alex Perkins, Ella Dale, Harrison Dale, Benjamin Dale; Martin Perkins (second row, from left) Tatiana Perkins, Emily Perkins, Rosemary Dale, Rachel Dale;; Dr. Eric Dale (back row, from left) Beth Perkins and Willim Harmsen. Photo provided