Dr. Jennifer McCormick, Superintendent of Yorktown Community Schools, became the first candidate to officially file for the Republican nomination for Superintendent of Public Instruction. She personally filed her declaration of candidacy and paid the filing fee at the downtown offices of the Indiana Republican Party. Photos from the filing can be found hereand here.

“Serving Indiana as Superintendent of Public Instruction would be a privilege, but with that privilege also comes an obligation to lead,” McCormick said.  “The last several years have been difficult for education in Indiana, but I know it can be better.  I know Hoosier students and families deserve more.”

Over the course of nearly two decades, Dr. McCormick has worked at every level of the traditional public education system in Indiana, serving as a special education teacher, a middle school language arts teacher, an elementary school principal, an assistant superintendent, and for the last six years as Superintendent of Yorktown Community Schools.

“As the next Superintendent of Public Instruction, I intend to lead a statewide team effort to build a system that we can be proud of not only here in Indiana, but a system that is once again looked to as one of the best in the nation,” McCormick added.

Since announcing her intention to run for the office, McCormick, a career educator and first-time candidate, has traveled the state meeting with teachers, administrators, students and families to talk about her vision for the Indiana Department of Education.  To date, she has traveled over 10,000 miles to attend events in 40 counties.

In order to earn the Republican nomination for Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. McCormick must be elected by a majority of the delegates to the Indiana Republican State Convention, scheduled for June 11, 2016, in Indianapolis, Indiana.  If successful, she is expected to face incumbent Glenda Ritz on the November ballot.

Dr. McCormick is the only Republican candidate to officially qualify for the state convention ballot.

ATLANTA – Theis reminding small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small aquaculture businesses and most private nonprofit organizations in Indiana of the deadline to submit disaster loan applications for economic injury caused by severe storms, tornadoes and flooding from June 7 through July 29, 2015.

“Businesses that suffered economic losses as a result of the disaster and want to apply for low-interest loans from the SBA are urged to do so before the May 18 deadline,” said Frank Skaggs, director of SBA Field Operations Center East.

Low-interest disaster loans are available in the counties of Brown, Huntington, Jay, Jefferson and Morgan and the adjacent counties of Adams, Allen, Bartholomew, Blackford, Clark, Delaware, Grant, Hendricks, Jackson, Jennings, Johnson, Marion, Monroe, Owen, Putnam, Randolph, Ripley, Scott, Switzerland, Wabash, Wells and Whitley in Indiana; Carroll and Trimble in Kentucky; Darke and Mercer in Ohio.

Working capital disaster loans up to $2 million are available at 4 percent for small businesses, and 2.625 percent for private nonprofit organizations with terms up to 30 years. The loans are intended to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other expenses that could have been paid had the disaster not occurred. To be considered for this assistance, eligible entities need to apply by the deadline.

Applicants may apply online using the Electronic Loan Application (ELA) via SBA’s secure website at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela.

Applications and program information are available by calling the SBA’s Customer Service Center at 1-800-659-2955 (1-800-877-8339 for the deaf and hard-of-hearing), or by sending an email to disastercustomerservice@sba.gov. Loan applications can also be downloaded from the SBA’s website at www.sba.gov/disaster. Completed applications should be mailed to:

U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155.

The deadline to return economic injury applications is May 18, 2016.

SOUTHEAST Indiana—This is the time of year when many Hoosiers roll up their sleeves and begin the task of “spring cleaning”.  That includes hundreds of Hoosier volunteers “spring cleaning” roadsides along state highways under the jurisdiction of the Indiana Department of Transportation. INDOT’s annual Trash Bash starts tomorrow (APRIL 16).

Adopt-A-Highway groups will be joined by Department of Corrections participants and others in efforts to remove trash, liter and debris from major 4-lane highways, interstate highways and 2-lane state roads over the next four weekends.  Across the state, approximately 2,400 Trash Bashers are expected to clear roadsides along a thousand miles of Hoosiers highways.

Last year, 22,542 bags of trash were collected along with 8,456 cubic yards of loose liter.  Adopt-A-Highway groups alone—representing nearly 1000 volunteers–logged in more than 22-hundred hours worth of “spring cleaning.”  In INDOT’s Southeast District, officials anticipate collecting as much as 2,500 cubic yards of litter.

INDOT encourages all Hoosiers to help keep Indiana highways clean.

• Don’t litter—Set a good example for everyone, especially children.
• Be responsible—Carry a trash bag in your car instead of tossing litter out the window.
• Report it—Report locations where people have dumped garbage to INDOT customer service at 877-305-7611.
• Adopt it—Find out how your group can become involved in helping beautify an area by participating in Adopt-A-Highway, Sponsor-A-Highway or other highway beautification efforts; call the Southeast District customer service number: 877-305-7611.

Motorists can learn about highway work zones and other traffic alerts at indot.carsprogram.org, 1-800-261-ROAD (7623) or 511 from a mobile phone. For highway information, monitor social media sites:www.Facebook.com/INDOTSoutheast and Twitter @INDOTSoutheast.  Subscribe to receive text and email alerts at https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/INDOT/subscriber/new.

Unless enrollment increases, Medora Community School Corp. is going to have to cut about $258,000 from its general fund budget for the 2016-17 school year.

Superintendent Roger Bane provided a budget reduction plan during Monday’s school board meeting after briefly discussing the issue during the March meeting.

Medora’s approved general fund budget for 2016 is $1,874,157. If the plan is enacted, that would cut the corporation’s general fund by 13.8 percent