Thorpe Creek kindergarten students wanted to help a classmate….the story is a good one….I cannot tell it any better than Anne Marie Tiernon did in this WTHR piece, found at this link.

The Fishers Junior High School We the People team gave the HSE School Board a taste of their talents at the January 11th board meeting.  The team is also asking for your help in sending them to the national finals in Washington DC.

The group won the Indiana state competition, earning the right to compete at the  national finals in the nation’s capital.  The team is asking for donations in order to raise money for the Washington trip through a “Go Fund Me” Web page.  You can donate at this link.

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.

Fishers will be the location of an event aimed at breaking the chains of those victimized by human trafficking.  The event is set for Friday evening, January 13th.

The details are below in a news release from the Fishers Police Department.

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January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month. In an effort to increase awareness The Leslie Anne Hulse Foundation is sponsoring an event this Friday, January 13^th. The Break the Chains-Step into Freedom Event will be held at the Geist Christian Church (Promise Road Campus) from 7pm-9pm. The church is located at 12756 Promise Road in Fishers.
 
            The format will be a dessert and discussion. Mr. Tim Swarens, the Opinion Director for the Indianapolis Star, will be the Key-Note Speaker. A panel discussion will immediately follow. The panel will consist of representatives from Ascent 121, Prevail, Inc. and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Detective John Daggy.
 
            This event is open to the public, however the discussion will be most appropriate for children 12 years and older. Please feel free to invite family, friends, neighbors, educators, church youth groups, and anyone else you think might benefit from this information.
 
            Detective Leslie Hulse served the Fishers community for 10 years. She had a true servant’s heart and a passion for helping those in the most desperate of circumstances. Prior to losing her battle with breast cancer Leslie’s was assigned to the Human Trafficking Task Force. The men and women of the Fishers Police Department are proud to support this event and Leslie’s foundation.  
 
            For more information please visit www.lesliehulse.org

Is Portillo’s restaurant set to locate in Fishers?  Mayor Scott Fadness says “…to be determined.”  He emphasizes there is no signed deal with Portillo’s & the city of Fishers. The mayor says online ads seeking manager applications for the Fishers Portillo’s is encouraging, but repeated there is no deal at this time.

The mayor talked about that, economic development in general, Tax Increment Financing and a number of other issues in a podcast interview.

Fishers High School football Coach Rick Wimmer missed two gridiron games this past season as school officials probed an incident with a student, but the coach was reinstated as a coach and teacher after a time on paid leave.  WTHR’s investigative reporter Bob Segull reports that Wimmer has since served a 5-day unpaid suspension.

His suspension was contained in a board item only identifying the employee disciplined by number.  Segall says he has confirmed through school officials that Wimmer was the disciplined employee.

For more details, and to access Segall’s reporting, use this link.

In the Indiana House of Representatives, Todd Huston represents Fishers at the Statehouse in Indianapolis.  I talked with Todd Huston about this year’s session of the Indiana General Assembly

Steve Delaney’s area of expertise is the restaurant business…I talked about the culinary scene in Fishers and nearby areas…

Downtown Fishers is set to get more housing units and some small-scale commercial space.

Reporter Lindsey Erdody of the Indianapolis Business Journal published the story online January 5th.

You can access her story at this link. 

In describing the planned Fishers development named The Yard, the most common phrase has been “culinary and entertainment.”  We have heard and read a lot about the concept of food and restaurants, including a part of the development for chefs to experiment, but the description of the entertainment aspect has been very general.

When The Yard received a unanimous favorable recommendation from the Fishers Plan Commission Wednesday night for a proposed rezoning, I talked to Attorney Steve Hardin of Faegre, Baker & Daniels, who represents the developers of the project,  about the entertainment side of the planned development.

Based on information provided by Hardin and Eric Wojak of developer Thompson Thrift, the entertainment part of the development will be a movie theater with a dining option. Wojak says work continues with the vendor and there are no further details available beyond that.

So, moviegoers and film lovers will await the details of what type of cinema, and dining, will be available at The Yard.

The Yard is planned near I-69 and 116th Street, near the IKEA building already under construction.  The new IKEA store is expected to open in the fall of 2017.