Hamilton Southeastern dropped a 70-54 road game at Brownsburg on Friday.
The Bulldogs outscored the Royals in each quarter, leading 12-6 after the first period and 30-18 at halftime. Brownsburg led 47-34 after three quarters.
Chris Grubbs scored 13 points to lead Southeastern, with Noah Smith adding 10 points and handing out seven assists. Vinny Buccilla scored eight points. Complete stats were not available at press time.
The Royals are 14-7 and host Lawrence North on Thursday in their regular-season finale.
The recent redistricting plan approved by the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board, and the opening in August of the new Southeastern Elementary School, will reduce the need to use portable classrooms around the district. However, Superintendent Allen Bourff told the school board Wednesday night that even with that, up to four elementary buildings in the HSE District will be above capacity and there will continue to be some portables in use during the next school year.
One solution to the overcrowding in some buildings would be the expansion of Durbin Elementary in Wayne Township. All of Wayne Township is part of the HSE District boundary.
The lack of utilities in that rural area of Durbin and the cost of extending utility service to the school has held back any plans to renovate Durbin with an eye on adding as many as 200 students. Dr. Bourff did say that expansion at Durbin would result in no elementary portable classrooms in the district. Superintendent Bourff says there have been some recent discussions on options for Durbin.
“We’ve been in contact with some developers looking at other opportunities for the future of Durbin Elementary,” Bourff told the board.
There are many options on what to do with Durbin. One option is to renovate and expand the capacity at the current location. But Dr. Bourff says the school corporation owns land to the south of the current location and moving there is another option.
But the discussions with private developers and the City of Noblesville have opened up the possibility of other options for a Durbin location. Bourff said he could not reveal what other locations are under discussion, but all would need to include utility access.
Bourff emphasized to the board he has nothing to announce at this time, but discussions continue on the future of Durbin Elementary.
Steady Serve had been described as a up-and-coming firm with a bright future. According to a story posted on the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ) Web site, Steady Serve has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to “reorganize and restructure its debt load.”
The company is located in the Four Day Ray building in the downtown Fishers Nickel Plate District.
A thank you note from Carmel Council Candidate Adam Aasen to Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard that was posted on social media has created not only a social media stir, but also a police investigation.
The note was originally reported to have been taken from Brainard’s trash, possibly on private property.
A photo of the note was originally posted on social media by Rick Smith, Noblesville.
In a conversation with Reporter Publisher Jeff Jellison, Smith said his social media post stating, “Well, it was all on the down low. After hearing Adam Declared Allegiance to the Mayor I staked out the Mayors trash. It took two weeks of searching but I knew sooner or later I would find it,” was sarcasm and not meant to be taken seriously.
Carmel Clerk Treasurer Christine Pauley told The Reporter she originally found the note in a small public trash can, then passed it along to someone else. She said she does not know how it came to be photographed and posted by Smith.
Pauley said the note was in a public trash can on city property, not on private property as has been alleged.
Carmel Police choose not to comment about an ongoing investigation.
Noah Malone (at the podium) receives a standing ovation from the crowd at the school board meeting
Noah Malone, a junior at Hamilton Southeastern High School, set new track and field records for the Royals in 2018. That is a big story in itself, but there is much more to this story.
Noah Malone accomplished all this while legally blind, after being diagnosed with Leber hereditary optic neuropathy in 2015. Noah splits his time between attending the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and Hamilton Southeastern High School. He is a member of the U.S. Paralympics Track and Field Team and was named as one of the 2018 U.S. Paralympics Track and Field High School All-Americans and Male Track Athlete of the Year.
Noah Malone answered questions from board embers, and when he was done, the large crowd in attendance at the meeting gave Noah a standing ovation.
When The Hamilton Southeastern School Board made the decision to live-stream their board meetings with an online video system, the previous board was willing to preserve those video recordings for 45 days and then delete them. The board has since heard from a number of citizens in the area asking that these videos of board meetings be available longer.
On first reading, the board passed a measure Wednesday calling for board meeting videos to be available to the public for a minimum of 4 years from the date of the board meeting. The vote was unanimous. The same policy will be given a final vote by the board on second reading, likely in March.
Board member Julie Chambers offered the original motion to have these video recordings be made available to the public with no time frame, essentially making the video recordings available with no end date specified.
An amendment was offered to specify the retention period as 4 years and the amendment passed 5-1, with Julie Chambers voting no (board member Amanda Shera did not attend the Wednesday board meeting). Chambers did vote for the main motion and it passed unanimously.
The school district has the video equipment in place but has not offered live-streaming for past board meetings on video yet. The board voted to approve the contract with Swagit Productions to provide the video services. The contract calls for a one-time payment to Swagit of $24,580 and the school corporation will pay a monthly fee of $1,288 for the ongoing video services.
It should be noted these video live-streaming and recordings are only available for meetings held in the HSE Schools Administration Building board room. Any other meetings held at another site or in another room will not have video live-streaming or recordings. Board work sessions are normally not held in the board room and would not be available on video.
Debbie Driskell listened to a speech from a sexual abuse survivor and it stirred something within her that had happened a very long time ago. The Delaware Township Trustee has now made the #NoMoreSecrets campaign one of her projects from that time on to now. I had the chance to speak with Debbie Driskell about #NoMoreSecrets and the state of township government in the State of Indiana.
For at least three years, the Hamilton Southeastern School Board has postponed a decision on the wording of a nondiscrimination policy, and Wednesday night, after a spirited discussion by speakers from the public and among board members, the board decided to once again send the proposal back to the school corporation’s policy committee. There was also talk of the board members undergoing training to better understand nondiscrimination issues throughout the school district.
Jennifer Chavez appeared unhappy when she was told her presentation would be limited to 3 minutes, but she shared her entire planned speech with LarryInFishers. She believes board members should receive annual training on a number of issues, including equity and/or diversity issues.
Her most pointed comments were about the board’s lack of enforcement in their own code of ethics. “We have school board members who are presenting personal criticisms of leaders in our district including fellow school board members on social media, in texts, in emails,” wrote Chavez. “All of this is detracting from the goals of our public school board. As per your current policy, school board members should present any personal criticisms directly to the Superintendent. As per your current policy, school board members should recognize the integrity of prior elected officials and current board members.”
Chavez also wrote about her argument as to what should happen when a board member fails to meet the ethical standards. “Any School Board Member that is found in violation of the School Board Member expectations for ethics will be removed from service. How that happens can be further identified by the district policy committee, however it is imperative that this happens. You have disappointed your community. If you want our trust back you will ensure us that the type of behaviors that we have witnessed over the past few years are stopped and no longer tolerated.”
Chavez also cited recent court decisions saying they “have found that schools ARE required to accommodate gender identity among their non-discrimination policies, and that schools are legally barred from discriminating against any student (including those that are transgender). Given recent actions (albeit proven or perceived) of board members that have done unnecessary harm to parents and children in our community it is imperative that the board reset their commitment to ALL children by means of adopting policy that does not allow for personal belief systems determine the inclusion (or lack thereof) of every student in our community that deserves to be treated as a respected and important member of our public schools.”
The recommended language before the school board Wednesday from the policy committee cites state and federal statutes and says the following – “The school corporation will not discriminate in its educational or employment activities on any basis prohibited by applicable federal or state laws.”
Some board members did not find that wording strong enough, arguing that language means something to the school community. Board Member Julie Chambers wants specific language with protections for sexual orientation and transgender students and employees. “If our district is going to talk about mental health, we cannot leave this out,” Chambers said.
Chambers said a parent did some research on 26 school districts in the general area of HSE schools and found…18 include sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policies, 16 include gender identity and 15 include transgender students. Only 6 of the 26 disticts do not include any of these protections and HSE is one of the 6. “How dare we say we are forward-thinking?,” said Chambers.
The board voted unanimously to send the nondiscrimination policy language back to the policy committee.
There were two high school students and one adult that used the nondiscrimination policy discussion to criticize school administrators for allowing a male swimmer to compete in a key swim meet after allegations of sexual misconduct. Board Member Brad Boyer said he was told that student would not be competing in the swim meet, but those speaking before the board insisted the swimmer in question will be competing.
Julie Chambers talks about nondiscrimination policy
From the short film Singh, depicting Mr. Singh being taken by TSA agents
Gurinder Singh just wanted to visit his sick mother by boarding a commercial flight in 2007. Mr. Singh belongs the the Sikh religion, which requires him to wear a turban. Federal regulations at that time came into play.
What happened next is portrayed in a new short film to be released this year, simply titled Singh. It is a scripted dramatization of what happened to Gurinder Singh as he attempted to board that plane n 2007.
The problems he faced dealing with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) resulted in government policy changes. Singh was awarded Indiana Minority Business Magazine’s 2019 Rosa Parks Trailblazer Award for his actions that resulted in the TSA Headgear Policy being changed to accommodate those with turbans and reinforced the religious rights of those observing the Sikh religious faith.
The film Singh is directed by Jenny Ruiz, an 18-year-old Indianapolis resident.
Gurinder Singh lives in Fishers and is a candidate for the Fishers City Council.
Although the film Singh has not yet been released, the trailer is now available. You can view the preview at this link.
Hamilton Southeastern sailed past Anderson 94-60 in a Tuesday game at the Indians’
gym.
The Royals outscored Anderson in each quarter, leading 31-15 after the first period
and 50-33 at halftime. Southeastern then jumped ahead 73-42 after three quarters. The
Royals had four players score in double figures, including two with double-doubles.
Noah Smith scored 22 points and handed out 12 assists, while Chris Grubbs poured
in 20 points and collected 10 rebounds. Landon Morris added 16 points and Aaron
Etherington contributed 10 points.
Southeastern is 14-6 and travels to Brownsburg on Friday to finish up Hoosier
Crossroads Conference play for the season
