A wintery mix of precipitation caused more than 40 accidents, with six of them resulting in injuries, Tuesday in Bartholomew County.

Just before 6 a.m., the first mix of sleet and ice hit the Columbus area, city public works director Bryan Burton said.

At 6:14 a.m., the first crash involving injuries took place southwest of the city, along the curves of South Gladstone Avenue, said Ed Reuter, 911 Emergency Operations Center director.

Initial reports indicated a 10-passenger vehicle flipped over during that crash, Reuter said.

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At 6:41 a.m., an eastbound pickup truck on East 25th Street east of the city slid out of control, smashing into the side of the bridge over Clifty Creek, just east of Petersville. The extent of injuries from both crashes, as well as names of the drivers involved, were not released by police agencies as of Tuesday afternoon.

That’s about the same time county crews began clearing rural roads, Bartholomew County highway engineer Danny Hollander said.

City crews got an earlier start, with three employees treating streets beginning at 5 a.m., while an additional three-man crew was brought in at 6 a.m., Burton said.

The remaining crews began clearing streets at 7 a.m., just as heavier amounts of snow began to fall with the sleet and ice, Burton said.

After snow became part of the mix, 22 fender-benders and slide-offs were reported in all areas of Bartholomew County by 9 a.m., Reuter said.

By that time, Bartholomew County Emergency Management had activated its lowest level of local travel advisory, indicating routine travel may be restricted in some areas because of hazardous situations, director Shannan Hinton said.

As of 12:30 p.m., six accidents resulted in injuries, Bartholomew County 911 director Ed Reuter said.

Emergency workers were also called to a total of 35 property-damage accidents and six slide-offs, Reuter said.

Besides the crashes during the morning commute, other accidents with injuries occurred at:

The junction of Jonathan Moore Pike and Carr Hill Road

The intersection of 25th Street and National Road.

U.S. 31 and Dionne Lane in Taylorsville

Near the intersection of North Gladstone and McKinley avenues.

None of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening, Reuter said.

Some forecasts had predicted the wintery mix would arrive several hours before it did, Reuter said.

When local residents got into their vehicles to head to work, they may have wrongly assumed they had dodged the bad-weather bullet, the 911 director said.

Most of the accidents were likely caused by drivers who did not realize an icy surface was below the freshly-fallen snow — who likely braked too hard when they began to lose control of their vehicles, Reuter said.

But what happened Tuesday morning is not unusual for the first significant winter event of the season, Reuter said.

“Motorists often don’t allow enough breaking time or stopping distance the first day we have weather like this,” he said.

Since dangerous driving conditions may return later in the week, Reuter urged motorists to slow down and use caution at all times.

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For local weather updates or closings, visit therepublic.com

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The Columbus North Sound of North marching band will march in the presidential inauguration day parade in Washington D.C. in January after pledges reached $93,385 today.

Rep. Milo Smith, R-Columbus, said he is still working hard to raise the remaining $30,000 or so, but the amount raised so far is enough for the band to start making travel plans.

Band Director Bill Stultz confirmed he has told the band and their parents that the trip is on to perform in the inaugural parade for Columbus native and Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Pence graduated from Columbus North and asked the band to be invited.

The $125,000 is the amount estimated for 200 band members and staff to make the trip. If enough corporate and private donations come through, the trip also will include some Washington, D.C., sightseeing opportunities.

An account has been established at Salin Bank’s locations in Columbus and Edinburgh to accept donations under the title “Columbus North Band Boosters inaugural parade fund.”

Smith is asking all those who have pledged so far to please head to a Salin Bank location to deposit pledge money.

And those who want to help the band complete its $125,000 total are urged to send a pledge to milo@milosmith.com and then deposit the money at Salin Bank.

For more on this story, see Thursday’s Republic.

Bartholomew County schools received report card grades that would make parents proud, as every area school rated an “A” or “B” for the first time since 2011.

The Indiana Department of Education on Tuesday released its 2016 A-F accountability grades for schools, which now have 30 days to appeal their grade to the Indiana State Board of Education.

District grades are scheduled to be released to the public after the board approves them, department spokeswoman Samantha Hart said.

Significant improvements were scored by Clifty Creek Elementary School, which went from being rated as “D” for 2014 and 2015 to a “B” this year. Taylorsville Elementary School, which had been rated at “C” for the past two years, also moved up to a “B.”

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Hope Elementary, another school that had worked its way out of “D” and “F” grades over the past five years, held steady at “B,” a ranking it has maintained since 2014.

Flat Rock-Hawcreek Superintendent Shawn Price said the corporation was extremely pleased with the results, especially Hope Elementary’s continued progress and growth.

Price said Hope Elementary’s success has been part of an intentional effort toward improvement, and credited Principal Jessica Poe, hired in 2015, for the great strides the school has achieved. He also credited the school’s staff for working as a cohesive team with efforts to look at ways to help individual students be successful.

“Honestly, with all the controversy with ISTEP+, our schools and teachers are going to continue to do what’s best for the students,” he said.

Noting that the next legislative session may bring large changes to the current standardized testing system, Price said this year’s scores will be a huge step in moving Hope Elementary off a priority status label with the state.

Release of the grades makes it possible for school corporations to finalize their teacher evaluations, with a piece of that evaluation tool being the school grade.

“It has an impact linked to compensation,” Price said.

Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. Superintendent Jim Roberts said his school corporation has known for some time about the positive grade report. Roberts said he is proud of all the staff members who have worked so hard to achieve it.

“But we try really hard not to get too excited about this,” he said, noting that the grades are based on a formula and assessments that have changed and are not the same as previous years.

“Comparisons have been a challenge on this,” he said.

While the high school formula has built in graduation rates and other career-preparation data into its formula leading to a letter grade, the elementaries and middle schools rely more heavily on the ISTEP+ for the performance standards, he said.

“I wish they would add a few more factors into those formulas,” Roberts said.

New to the corporation this year, Roberts said he was proud of the work by Clifty Creek and Taylorsville staff, as those schools had experienced low grade scores in the past.

“It’s tough when you work so hard and you get a letter grade that’s not as good as you want it to be,” he said.

“They have been working as hard as anybody in the country,” Roberts said. “I’m very proud of all of them.”

While Bartholomew County, including its private schools, found optimism in Tuesday’s announcement, statewide the results were more sobering.

After a change in the method to calculate the school accountability grades, Indiana overall had more failing schools and fewer schools with “A” ratings, the data shows.

Failing schools increased by 3.5 percentage points while schools earning an “A” dropped by 31.8 percentage points, thestatehousefile.com reported.

Among the BCSC schools that fell from “A” status to “B” with this year’s standards were Parkside, Schmitt and Smith elementary schools. However, Columbus North High School moved from “B” to “A” with this year’s standards.

Members of the State Board of Education said some of the shift is connected to the new manner in which the accountability grades are calculated, rewarding a school’s growth as well as other career-readiness standards.

“This year, Indiana implemented a new student-centered school accountability system utilizing Indiana’s new, more rigorous standards and assessments for the first time,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz said in a statement. “For those reasons, the 2015-16 school year establishes a new baseline for school accountability grades in Indiana.”

Additionally, legislators passed a law to prevent a school’s grade from being unfavorably affected by the 2015 ISTEP scores, a key factor in the accountability formula. Legislators called 2015 a transition year with higher standards and a new test, leading to significantly lower test scores.

After the ISTEP scores dipped again in 2016, school officials are already discussing trying to get accountability grades to be held harmless once again.

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School accountability grades are determined by the Indiana Department of Education, which rates public and private schools on an A-F scale. Various factors contribute to a school’s accountability grade, including ISTEP+ results in elementary and middle schools and graduation rates in high schools.

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To see how Bartholomew County schools were graded since 2011, see Page XX.

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