The Hamilton Southeastern School Board welcomed two new members and elected a new president at the January 11th session.  Matt Burke will serve as board president during 2017, John DeLucia will be vice president and Sylvia Shepler will remain secretary. Previous President Karen Harmer commenced the session until new board members could be sworn into office.

Mike Bottorff and Amanda Shera were sworn in as new board members and Sylvia Shepler was sworn in for another board term.   All were given the oath of office by Hamilton County Circuit Court Judge Paul Felix.

In other board news:

–Approval was given to establish an appropriation outside the general fund for teacher performance grant money provided by the state.  Schools Chief Financial Officer Mike Reuter says the $2.28 million for the grants are “considerably more” than the just over $1 million for the performance grants the previous year.  Marcia Abraham, Fall Creek Elementary School Music teacher, spoke during the public hearing, expressing concern that these awards hurt collaboration among local educators and creates an unhealthy atmosphere of competition to qualify for these payments.  The board indicated the method of how this award money will be handed out will be a decision for the next board meeting.

–A new high school class in interactive media will be offered, following the board’s approval.  You can find more details about the new offering at this link.

–Superintendent Allen Bourff briefed the board on plans to offer “swap days” were Fishers High School and HSE students go to the other school for one day, to better understand the culture of the other high school.