Gov. Mike Pence is taking action to shorten this year’s ISTEP+ exam, less than a month before students are scheduled to begin testing.

Pence signed an executive order Monday to reduce the length of time to complete the ISTEP, which at least 470,000 Hoosier schoolchildren ages 8 to 14 are set to take this year. The governor has instructed the office of Management and Budget to hire nationally recognized testing experts to find ways to shorten the test. Those experts will then provide a report to the governor’s office, the Indiana Department of Education and the Indiana State Board of Education about how ISTEP can be shortened.

The department of education and CTB/McGraw-Hill, the company that wrote and administers ISTEP, will then be expected to make the recommended changes so that the length of ISTEP this year is comparable to past practice, Pence said at a news conference.

In previous years, ISTEP took five to six hours for third- through eighth-grade students to complete. This year’s exam, which will test students over Indiana’s new academic standards, is expected to take students 12 to 13 hours to complete.

Pence said he decided to sign the executive order after hearing from parents during the past week who were stunned and outraged at the length of the test.

“Let me be very clear on this point: Doubling the length of the ISTEP test is unacceptable, and I won’t stand for it,” Pence said. “We need to fix this. And we will. We still have time to get this right. But we must act immediately to do that.”

Pence cited dysfunction between the state board and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz as the chief reason why ISTEP had grown so long.

“I don’t want to make this personal,” Pence said. “But look, the department of education is completely responsible for crafting the test and conducting the test in the state of Indiana. That is their responsibility.”

A spokesman for the Indiana Department of Education responded to Gov. Mike Pence’s call for shorter ISTEP exams, saying the longer testing-time arose from Indiana’s new academ-ic standards.

Pence last year called for “uncommonly high standards” when the State Board of Education drafted new state standards to replace the national Common Core standards, said education department press secretary Daniel Altman.

Altman said Indiana’s new ISTEP+ test is more rigorous as a result of the state’s tougher standards and therefore it takes more time for students to complete it.

Experts took testing fatigue into consideration when building the exam, and schools have options for their testing schedules. For example, they can give two shorter sections one day, followed by one different section the next, Altman said.

The revamped test was designed to test how well students are being prepared for college and their careers in their elementary and middle school classes. Their scores will be used by the department of education to grade students’ schools, and the results will also factor into teachers’ annual evaluations, which affect whether they receive raises.

“It’s disappointing to see that the governor is, again, trying to work around rather than with the superintendent,” Altman said. “That’s been a habit for his administration, and it’s really disappointing to see.”

Tom Lange is a staff writer for the Daily Journal of Johnson County, a sister publication of The Republic. The Associated Press also contributed to this report.

The South Central Indiana Association of Health Underwriters will have its regular monthly meeting at 8:15 a.m. Thursday at the Holiday Inn Express in Scottsburg.

Featured speaker for the meeting is Marla Morse, Columbus Regional Hospital.

Morse is a navigator and trainer at the hospital helping sign up uninsured individuals on the Affordable Care Act. There will be discussion on the broker and navigator roles and the federal health care legislation.

The South Central association is the local chapter of the National Association of Health Underwriters.

Visitors in Hope soon will be able to search area tourist attractions using an interactive kiosk.

The first kiosk has been installed in the Heritage of Hope Visitors Information Center, said Bob Fiddler, vice president of Johnny’s Signs Inc. in Bedford.

The center, which will become a satellite office for the Columbus Area Visitors Center, is nearing completion in the former Hope Star-Journal building on the town square.

The kiosk and others to be installed will provide details about hotels, restaurants, attractions and events through the Columbus Area Visitors Center website, columbus.in.us

With an agreement recently signed with Edinburgh Premium Outlets, a second kiosk likely will be installed at the Taylorsville outlet mall within a month, said Lynn Lucas, executive director of the visitors center.

“That’s all we have budgeted for now, but we’ve already paid for the software and design,” Lucas said. “So it won’t take that long to install more kiosks.”

The exact number and locations of additional kiosks likely will be determined when her board of directors discusses the 2016 budget later this year, Lucas said.

The goal of the new indoor kiosks is to keep visitors around longer, Lucas said.

“The beauty is that we will operate the entire content of each kiosk after it’s connected directly to our website,” Lucas said. “It’s simply a touch pad for different items of interest.”

While computerized informational kiosks are usually large, freestanding machines, the Visitors Center was concerned about theft and vandalism, Fiddler said.

When his company turned to a Bloomington-based advertising agency for ideas, the Myers Croxton Group suggested wall-mounted iPads secured with an eighth of an inch of steel, Fiddler said.

“We know everyone wants an iPad,” Fiddler said. “But after we mount these kiosks on drywall, you would have to tear the whole wall out to get to it.”

Although the visitors center originally considered placing the kiosks outside, that concept was scrapped because of weather and safety concerns, Lucas said.

Another proposal called for providing connections outside the Columbus visitors center website to allow visitors to find out information including weather and news. But that concept was abandoned with the realization that a kiosk with outside Internet connections was inviting potential misuse, Fiddler said.

Fiddler said he believes the cost of each unit — in the $2,000 range — will make the concept of the custom-made kiosks appealing to other organizations with similar needs.

“Compared to what is available out there, they are very affordable,” Fiddler said.

Lucas said she’s especially delighted that if a computer is broken or becomes out-of-date, her organization can simply replace the iPad without having to build expensive new kiosks.

“We really put an awful lot of thought into this,” Fiddler said.

Although the kiosk in Hope is installed, it will not become operable until wireless Internet access is established to tap into a central database in Columbus, Lucas said.

Lucas said she’s not sure how long it will be before the necessary connections are completed.

A Merrillville woman who was on track to graduate from the University of Louisville medical school this spring died in a two-vehicle accident on Interstate 65 near Columbus.

Ashley P. Hinchen, 27, was pronounced dead at the scene of the 6:30 p.m. accident Sunday in the southbound lanes of Interstate 65 about four miles south of the Walesboro exit, said Larry Fisher, Bartholomew County coroner.

Hinchen died from multiple trauma to the neck and chest, Fisher said. It did not appear she was wearing a seat belt when the accident occurred, he said.

According to deputies with the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, Hinchen’s vehicle went off the roadway for an unknown reason, then went back onto the highway and stopped with the car still partially in the right lane, where it was struck by a southbound van.

The van was driven by Jonathon Achterhof, 35, of Holland, Michigan, according to the sheriff’s department. There was no information available about Achterhof or whether he was injured.

Jill Scoggins, who works in the medical school in Louisville, said Hinchen would have found out on national Match Day in March where she would be assigned to do her residency.

She was scheduled to graduate from the medical school in May, according to school records.

A Columbus optometrist will continue with plans to build a 10,000-square-foot office building downtown without the tax abatement she planned to obtain.

Dr. Melissa Almarales, owner of The Eye Place on the city’s east side, said she plans to proceed in the next few months with razing two buildings on the 1.2-acre site to make way for her new office.

Almarales bought the tract of land just north of 11th and Washington streets from Columbus resident Max Lemley nearly two years ago.

The properties, 1120 and 1202 Washington St., currently house an empty building that was the former location of Lockett’s Ladies Shop and an adjacent building that contained Double Oak Farm Green Grocery, Lemleys’ Catering/240sweet and operations for Ahlemeyer Farms Bakery.

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She plans to use 68 percent of her building and lease the rest for office, retail or restaurant space.

The 6,800 square feet she plans to use is still more than double the space at her current office, a 3,000 square foot space located at 2665 Foxpointe Drive. The current space allows only two optometrists to work at the same time, and it’s stalled growth in recent years, she said.

Almarales had hoped to start growing immediately in her new office by adding clerical staff.

But after the Colum-bus Economic Development Commission decided it couldn’t support the creation of a special area that would allow for a tax abatement, that growth will be delayed, Almarales said.

Commission members said Thursday they would be worried about setting a precedent that would lead to more tax abatements for small commercial and office developments.

The two members who attend the noon meeting discussed giving a recommendation on whether the Columbus City Council should make the two parcels an economic development target area. That’s a specialized area required for retail and office developers to receive tax abatements.

The move also would have required the city to expand its downtown economic revitalization area, which currently stretches north to 11th Street, said Carl Malysz, the city’s community development director.

That’s an extra step than was needed during the process leading up to the retail tax abatement the city granted to Kroger for its $20 million investment to build a Marketplace store at 3060 National Road.

George Dutro, a commission member, said he had worries about stretching the revitalization area and classifying such a small site as a target area for development. That could set up the city for more people coming forward to piece off lots for smaller investments and seeking a tax abatement, he said.

The commission voted to send on an unfavorable recommendation, an action that Malysz said effectively kills the tax abatement request.

While not receiving the tax abatement won’t kill the project, it means Almarales will have to limit the number of clerical jobs she adds and to take more time developing funds to hire more doctors to bolster her practice, she said.

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Dr. Melissa Almarales, owner of The Eye Place, plans to build a 10,000 square foot office just north of the intersection of 11th and Washington streets in Columbus. Once she’s razed the buildings currently on the site and constructed her new medical office, she’ll move her practice from its current location at 2665 Foxpointe Drive, Columbus.

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