By Chelsea Guerra 

Indiana seems like a quiet town without much going on. But, the Indiana Gazette on Water Street is tasked with not just writing about what happens in Indiana, but all of Indiana County. Not only do they produce a print newspaper everyday before noon, the Gazette also does commercial digital printing for local businesses, the building is on Indian Springs Road.

The newsroom seemed like you could cut the tension with a knife. Time was ticking, and everyone was putting finishing touches on news stories before the deadline. The newsroom is a blast from the past. Dark wood paneling cover the walls, a retro world map is displayed at the south end of the newsroom, and stacks of old newspapers clutter the desks of editors.

Chauncey Ross is one of the staff writers for the Gazette. Ross has worked at the gazette for almost 18 years, so he knows a thing or two. One of the biggest challenges print media faces today is a decline in staff writers and readers, Ross said. With the transition of media going from print to web, the gazette is always tirelessly working and updating its website with new content to increase audience. Ross said one of the biggest errors in stories is misspellings of local names, names of places and people. “Somebody’s name is all they’ve got,” Ross said. “If you misspell their name, that’s not very respectful.”

“Our copy editor is more critical of The Associated Press,” Ross said. AP is the holy grail of news reporting, it’s always held in such high regard for accuracy and verification. But, Ross said the copy editor Bob Fulton has noted a deterioration in what AP is sending out to its readers, and

other newsrooms. “I’m going to guess that they are going through some staff cuts, and a little less effort goes into their process,”

Ross said. Fulton has told Ross that he is noticing more misspelling, grammatical and contextual errors in AP news reporting. Fact-checking and verifying everything in a story is crucial. Simply relying on the name of a newspaper doesn’t cut it in today’s media, Ross said.

However, another lesson editing has taught Ross is that all journalists can, and will make mistakes in their work. In the beginning of his career, he said that making a mistake was devastating and he felt really bad about it.

“You’re conscientious and concerned, you want to get the record right for these people,” Ross said. “But, after awhile, I don’t lose sleep over it.” Even seasoned writers like Ross still slip-up sometimes at times and new journalist shouldn’t stress too much about he said.

Ross said getting backlash from people for some of the stories published is also just part of the job. A lot of the backlash is opinion based, according to Ross. An example he gave was when Indiana Area School District had plans to close two elementary schools, and construct a new one. “It drew widespread unhappiness,” Ross said. Phone calls from upset readers is common, but most people express their opinions of news stories on the Indiana Gazette Facebook page.

As a news reporter, you never really know what you’ll be faced with or what you’ll write about next, Ross said in a closing remark. “The next deadline is now,” he said.

By Lily Whorl

Most stories that begin with a 19-year-old creating their own company don’t normally end in success. Young entrepreneur, Mark Barbera made it his job to prove the world wrong. He’s now two years into his creation that all began with a Kickstarter. 21-year-old Barbera has a successful boot company that is carried in eight stores nationally and projected to be carried in France and Japan.

Barbera comes from a small town in Pennsylvania called Somerset. What drives a 19-year-old guy to beginning his own shoe company? The fact that when shopping Barbera couldn’t find a shoe that seemed to fit him, factoring in affordability and quality Barbera decided he was going to create his own shoe. Very quickly things escalated and Barbera launched a Kickstarter to help fund this dream. Though his interest in boots may have been of recent, Barbera has been in the shoe company since he was 12-years-old. At this age, he started hand-painting and customizing sneakers for him and his friends to wear. When beginning his career in the boot business he couldn’t have been any luckier to be in this location. Why is this? Abilene Boot Company has a factory in Somerset, giving Barbera the perfect place to begin his business.

“He keeps things interesting with the different style books he comes up with,” Said Ginger, worker at the factory, “he keeps us going.” Mark brings a whole new sense of style to this small factory in Somerset. He is a young creative man that knows no limits. He is constantly pumping out new styles of boots, working to find the perfect pair. Though Barbera’s age could be seen as a disadvantage his youth is also a strong suit of his. He is constantly working to break boundaries in the boot business. Barbera launched his first pair of boots in the summer of 2016, just after his first year of college at La Salle University in Philadelphia.

Chelsea boot according to Merriam-Webster are defined as “an ankle-high boot with elastic panels along the sides.” Though Barbera began his adventure creating just Chelsea boot now it’s much more than that. Barbera produces 25 men’s styles of boots and six women’s style of boots.

Barbera has been supported in this venture by his friends and family.

“I couldn’t have done this without the love and support I receive…Never once have my parents said they didn’t believe in me or though my dream was unobtainable,” said Barbera. “Family is one of the most important things to me so to have to amount of support I do from them means the world to me.”

Not only does Barbera get support through family and friends but from factory workers as well.

“The boot must go on.” A quote that many workers in the factory say.

Barbera has a goal not only for his company but for the area of Somerset as well. “I want to bring success and business to the area,” said Barbera. He doesn’t want to just build a company in Somerset and then leave. He thanks his roots for his success and knows that without the help of others he couldn’t be where he is today.

Barbera began a Kickstarter to help him begin his career.

“I was at an all-time low,” Barber said, “I had just successfully done a Kickstarter which was cool but a lot of people in the industry don’t even remotely respect that just because it’s a hit or miss thing, anybody can have a crazy Kickstarter. It doesn’t necessarily show that you can grow a brand that can sustain itself.”

He wasn’t selling any boots with only four styles he seemed to hit a dead end. That is until he decided to do a show in Brooklyn, American Field. It’s an all American made pop up show. He sold 25 pairs of boots which to the date he’s never sold that many at a show. This brought Barbera to realize “maybe I have something here.” Then deciding to take the semester off for the spring of his freshman year at college. He is stil out of schooling looking to get back into it soon.

“Everything really changed when I was put in touch with Travis Weaver from Man Ready Mercantile,” said Barbera.

Travis got Barbera involved in Liberty Fair. Barbera has met many people in his career so far and say’s the people are what drive him.

“It’s not about fashion at this point it’s about the people I’ve met and keeping my company American themed. To have something completely American made anymore is rare and I want to bring that trend back into style.”

Being American made Barbera’s boots are higher in price but he feels that it’s worth it with them being the quality they are.

By Catharyn Pilch 

International teachers and the food service contract were the topics of most interest at the Indiana Area School District (IASD) board meeting Monday. Teachers from nine countries were welcomed guests and a new food contract was needed for the IASD.

All 16 teachers, from countries including Ghana, Tanzania and Egypt, introduced themselves to the board with their name, country and what subject they taught.  Their home country subjects included English, math and science.

Retired teacher Michael Rieg representing the International Leaders in Education program (ILEP) explained what the international teachers do.

“They are here for an entire semester at IUP taking classes. Then once a week… they are partnered with an Indiana High School teacher… learning about strategies… and then take it back home to their countries to help improve education in their nations.”

This program runs at no cost to IUP or IASD. It is paid for by a “grant through the state department” Rieg said.

Superintendent Dale Kirsch is thankful for the program.

“We appreciate” Kirsch said, “the experience it gives to our teachers at the high school as well as our students. You cannot learn this out of a book.”

“Thank you very much for coming this evening,” IASD Board President Walter Schroth said to the ILEP teachers, “We really appreciate your presence here tonight.”

Conflict over the proposed contract for food services was also present at the board meeting. During public comment a “concerned citizen” expressed her displeasure at a single contract offer for food services as a motion on the agenda. She had been to a prior meeting where it was expressed that two options would be explored in detail later, but now there was only one contract on the table for discussion.

Cuccaro asking Cronauer questions about food service decision

Board member Julia Trimarchi Cuccaro had “a few questions about how we got to where we are [one bid on the motion]”

“What,” Cuccaro said, “was the characteristic that caused you [IASD business manager Jared Cronauer] to go with Chartwell [the food service company]”

Cronauer explained that Chartwell had the highest guarantee for profit. Board member Barbara Barker did not appreciate that reasoning.

“I have concerns,” Barker said, “about the quality of food if profit is forced.”

Despite some misgivings the vote was to accept the motion and continue with Chartwell as the food service provider for IASD with only one opposed.

Other items discussed included the possibility of expanding the current policy and allow private schooled children join sports teams of IASD. Additionally, there was some concern that the IASD Junior High School pool was not working and would take approximately 9 ½ weeks to fix, leaving the students unable to participate in swi

By Tarny Linder

INDIANA, Pa. – Indiana School District officials on Monday night approved contracts with new principal at Eisenhower Elementary School for a resource officer.

Marilyn Walther began in 2018 as principal at Eisenhower Elementary School.

The board also approved a contract with Indiana County for one of the county’s police officers to serve as a school resource officer.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said board president Walter Schroth. “At this time, a relationship between the police and the community has never been more important.”

Schroth said after the meeting that the district will pay Indiana County based on a percentage of the officer’s salary. The officer will begin in the fall, but has not been identified yet, he said.

“This person’s not going to be a hall monitor,” Schroth said. “There is so much more to the job than that.”

In other school news, the board was informed that Indiana Area Junior High School is set to hold a career fair for seventh graders Thursday morning. There is scheduled to be 35 local professionals. The middle school’s counseling department invited the school board in a letter.

Former Steelers wide receiver Justin Thomas will also be attending the event, and will deliver a speech to the students, those of who will then interact with different professionals and learn about different careers.

At the beginning of the meeting, Schroth presented board and staff members with student artwork in honor of School Board Recognition Week. The students who created the artwork are William Kelly, Logan Howard, Maura Paez, Stephanie Vinson, Shana Grosch, Aaron Crawford Mark Blake, Rachel Flaig, Matt Niel, Jess Yuhasz, Jarrod Browne and Joesph Grundy.

By Angie Prencipe

INDIANA — The Indiana School board voted to appoint a new district superintendent at its meeting Monday, April 30.

Michael Vuckovich was voted by school board to be appointed as the next district superintendent.

During its meeting, the Indiana school board held a special session and unanimously elected Vuckovich as the next Indiana District superintendent.

Vuckovich said that he is in agreement with the Indiana Area School  District overhauling its website and updating it to a new design.

According to board members, Indiana residents had issues with the website and said it was difficult to find event lists. Even sports playoff schedules were difficult to locate on the current platform.

He joined the meeting of the school board’s Outreach Committee to discuss this idea and shared his background in working with school websites.

Vuckovich currently works as substitute superintendent at the Greater Johnstown School District. Part if his job is that he is in charge of the district’s landing page online.

He agreed with Indiana’s upgrading to a site designed with the same software he currently uses in Johnstown. The software is also the same one used in the region by the Altoona and Richland School districts.

Vuckovich offered suggestions to the school board on how a school district could best use various social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, to get message out to various faucets of its audience.

He also recommended using pop-ups to promote current school district news and events before website visitors get to see the homepage of the website.

Vuckovich first official day in office will be Sept. 1, at the beginning of a new school year.

During a question-and-answer session on April 11 at the Indiana Senior High School auditorium, search consultants introduced him as the main candidate for the superintendent position.

During that session, Vuckovich had said he would spend his first month on the job listing to the people of the school district to get an understanding of how the Indiana community and school district operates.

The school board also hired Vuckovich as an assistant superintendent for strategic planning and staffing starting on July 1. This will give him more time to get accustomed to Indiana and how the district operates.

During the question-and-answer session, Vuckovich introduced himself to the audience as being a data-driven analyst and a decision-maker with a firm management style.

He also said said he was a believer in offering digital learning as a choice and an advocate for personalized learning plans that do not follow a traditional one-size-fits-all teaching model.

By the time Vuckovich will join the administration at Indiana, the district will have adopted a fiscal year budget. He said that Great Johnstown, he did a lot of work to bridge a deficit, including closing a school, increasing class sizes and cutting programs.

Vuckovich said that he thinks the commonwealth has short-changed public education by not meeting the state mandate to provide one-half of the funds required to operate the schools in the state.

School board member Terry Kerr praised the search consultants for recommending Vuckovich for the superintendent job, saying that they work closely with the school board to find the best possible candidate for the job.

The school set Vuckovich’s salary at $135,000 on a unanimous vote. The terms of his contract were not available at the time of the meeting.

During the school board meeting, several head coaches were hired for various Indiana district sports.

All coaches were approved by the board on a 7 to 2 vote in favor of hiring them =.

The board hired Brandon Overdorff as the varsity football coach for the Indian’s. Overdorff was formers the Purchase Line High School football coach.

Matthew Reed was hired as the high school’s head golf coach.

Dana Kundla was hired as the head coach for the girl’s volleyball team.

By Lily Whorl

Who Wants to be Enlightened?: The Black History Month Edition was a Six O’clock Series that held place on Monday, Feb. 26 at the HUB Ohio Room on the Indiana University of Pennsylvania college campus at 6:00 p.m. The program according to the handout was, “’Who Wants to be Enlightened’ is a fun and educational game show where ten contestants play to be the 31 most enlightened! This trivia game involves basic knowledge, creative thinking, introspective reasoning, and pop culture. Celebrate Black History Month at this program, have fun, and become enlightened!”

Kyle Quinn an IUP student was able to win a $50 gift card to the IUP co-op store.

Ten participants were brought on stage by two hosts, both male hosts wore all black suits and dark sunglasses. One man had a large afro wig on. The one man engaged all of the audience as he walked around and talked to each person, he was very personal as he asked questions like “What is your hometown?”

Along with the two hosts there was a woman who went by the name of “Vanna Black” that helped organize the event. The ten participants were the contestants in the game show which was very similar to family feud when they first go up against each other one on one. Each person was given a number 1 through 10. Vanna Black would pick two numbers and those would be the two contestants that were up for trivia. The contestant that hit the bell first would be the one to answer the question, if they got it wrong a new question was asked. About three questions were asked to each duo or until one of the two people got eliminated. When eliminated the contestant would be sent off stage.

The trivia questions varied throughout the program though they tried to stay on topic of black history month. The first section of questions was a variety of history questions all true or false. Some of the questions gave the audience the information that the 19th amendment united suffrage laws throughout the United States and it wasn’t the amendment that gave women the right to vote. Another fact was that the Civil War fought over the difference of opinion that free and slave states had and who would get the power of the national government to control the differences not that it was fought over state rights and high tariffs. The audience also learned that Maryland was not a part of the confederacy.

Next was the second category. This category was about sex and social issues. Once again during this section the audience was able to learn many facts. This time they learned about AIDS, race and skin color, cigarettes, condoms and marijuana. Learning that AIDS could not be transmitted through shaking a sweaty hand but could be transmitted through unprotected sex, sharing needles and blood transfusions. They learned about the different materials condoms could be made out of as well and that marijuana could be ingested, vaporized and smoked.

Ending the last category with three contestants standing they had a quick answer round. They gave each contestant a limited amount of time to answer multiple choice questions as fast as possible. This then narrowed it down to two contestants.

The final round was an opportunity for the two last contestants to show their personality and think through two different questions both about fixing the economy. Both contestants stressed the need for education and for availability of education to everyone. From this night the audience learned how lucky they were to be in University as everyone does not have that opportunity like students at IUP do.

The Community Journalist is a blogsite for students in the Community Journalism course.

At the end of the course, students will be able to

1. Demonstrate skills in researching background information on issues
2. Demonstrate interview skills with newsmakers and community leaders
3. Write professionally about a variety of issues and events in their communities
4. Identify and discuss with expertise issues of interest, relevance and concern to the community
5. Interact with community leaders and newsmakers
6. Publish blogs based on community stories and take relevant pictures that complement their stories