IRVINGTON — Gov. Mike Pence’s wife, Karen, a former elementary public school art teacher, visited two Irvington Community School (ICS) campuses on Wednesday, March 20. The get-acquainted sessions were part of Mrs. Pence spending the day visiting several area public schools. Indiana’s First Lady chose to come to ICS as she is familiar with the Irvington charter schools’ longstanding reputation for strong academic programming. ICS was among the first wave of charter schools to open in Indiana in 2002.
Mrs. Pence’s first stop was Irvington Community Elementary School (ICES), where she watched Mrs. Stuckey’s 5th grade student artists work on their woodcuts and printmaking project. She had plenty of questions for the gregarious kids. Then Mrs. Pence traveled the short distance to Irvington Preparatory Academy (IPA). There she received a tour of the former Children’s Guardian Home from ICS CEO David Nidiffer, who explained the building’s rich history. While at IPA, the First Lady was treated to a traditional African folk song by music teacher Jennifer Shuck’s choral group. Mrs. Pence also met with art teacher Angi Aldrich to talk shop about teaching art and observed a lab experiment in one of science teacher Ronda Halquist’s chemistry classes.
