I have already written about the Mudsock Football Game Friday night, featuring the local rivalry between our two high schools, Fishers and Hamilton Southeastern.
During halftime, before the Fishers High School band took the field, the district recognized the teachers of the year.
Here is a video of the celebration (my apologies, a big shaky from recording on a cell phone)…..
The 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was remembered in local places throughout America and the world on September 11, 2021. Fishers was one of those communities.
City officials here embedded some of the commemoration into already-scheduled events, such as the weekly Farmers Market and Safety Day. But faith leaders from throughout the city assembled in a special multi-Faith gathering at the Nickel Plate Amphitheater to speak about how their faith got them through the 9/11 attacks.
Fishers Deputy Mayor Elliott Hultgren spoke at the Multi-Faith event, describing what it was like being a first-year student at the Naval Academy and dealing with 9/11, as well as its aftermath.
Here are a few photos taken at the 9/11 2021 events in Fishers:
There was a football Mudsock Game played in 2020, but the crowd was limited and the atmosphere was nothing like the past. Over the years, this Friday in September has grown to one of the biggest (some say the biggest) event each year in Fishers.
Thousands of fans cram into one of the local football stadiums, this year Fishers was the home team. Home field advantage didn’t help the Tigers as the HSE Royals came up with a convincing win, 45-13.
The game is not all of what the Mudsock event entails. The teachers of the year in buildings throughout the HSE District are honored at halftime.
The weather was perfect and a sellout crowd enjoyed just being at the event after the lockdowns and limited crowds in 2020.
This was our new Superintendent’s first Mudsock Game. I asked Dr. Yvonne Stokes what she thought of the huge crowd. Let’s just say she was impressed.
There was a major glitch in the second half of the game. The scoreboard no longer worked, so game time was handled by the officials on the field, leading to a little confusion at times but it had no impact of the outcome of the contest.
The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board is looking at some options on how to redistrict building boundary lines and a committee is looking at all the choices board members will have. This will be needed when the new Deer Creek Elementary School opens, replacing Durbin Elementary school, but Deer Creek will have a much larger capacity for students.
A district-wide redistricting plan could be considered, or just looking at the district lines in the Deer Creek and Southeastern Elementary school areas could be changed, aimed at preventing overcrowding, with residential home growth continuing in that area. How the end of the pandemic will impact home values will be part of the equation.
“If we were to do a complete redistrict, what are the odds that we’re going to have to turn around and do it again if there is a stabilization that takes place in two years?,” HSE Chief Financial Officer Katy Dowling told board members. The board needs to consider how often students and parents will need to undergo a redistricting process, according to Dowling.
Dowling says the committee has no recommendation to present to the board as of Wednesday night’s meeting. However, it is hoped that a final vote on a redistricting plan could be approved by the board sometime during the month of December, allowing families enough notice to know where there children will be attending school in the upcoming school year.
In other school board items from the September 9th session:
–First reading was given to changes in school policies. Five people spoke on this issue, making various suggestions on changes to the policies. All but one policy will return at the next meeting for final approval.
–Superintendent Yvonne Stokes praised a mental health program funded by a grant helping some students adjust to in-person learning after a school year with mostly virtual classes. Also, HSE Schools received a $50,000 safety grant that will be utilized to partially fund salary and benefits for the School Resource Officers from the Fishers Police Department.
–The start of formal bargaining between the local teachers’ union and the school corporation means a public hearing must be held by the board as those talks begin, but no member of the public chose to speak.
–Fishers High School Senior Alex Horan was recognized by the board as a Snapshot of Success. Alex is the recipient of the Judge John Price Scholarship for the Outstanding Eagle Scout of the Year. For his Eagle Scout project, he redid his charter organization’s (The American Legion Post 470) deck.
The Fishers One organization issued a statement Thursday claiming Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools are not adhering to its own policy and state law in notifying parents of surveys being taken by their students. HSE Schools say they are adhering to their policy and state law.
“Fishers One has received reports from parents that HSES has not requested parental
consent for to have their children participate in the recent Panorama Surveys for quite
some time,” according to the statement. The group wants the school district to give notice and parental consent for “any personal analysis, evaluation or survey given to students not directly related to academic instruction.”
Fishers One also cites the Indiana Code, allowing parents access to educational materials used in the classroom.
The school district says it is following state law and providing parental notifications.
“HSE is acting in accordance with Indiana Code,” says HSE Spokesperson Emily Abbotts. “No students were/have been required to participate in the Panorama survey (which has been administered since spring 2019). Parents have been alerted via Skylert each year, a few weeks prior to the survey window, and offered an opportunity to opt their child out of the survey.”
School officials say the Panorama survey provides data leading to a safer and more supportive learning environment where students can see success in academics. They add that the Panorama survey results are shared with families upon request.
The HSE District is offering the community an opportunity to review curriculum and continues to build on the data available at this link.
Some people just cannot afford housing on the amount of money they earn, and that is sadly too often the case in places like Fishers and Hamilton County.
Andrea Davis is Executive Director of HAND Inc., a nonprofit headquartered in Noblesville that works to bring attainable housing to the local area.
I spoke with Andrea in this podcast about the Cumberland Cottage housing development, the first for HAND in Fishers, as well as a number of other housing-related issues.
Since Andrea is a former journalist at the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ), I could not resist asking about her reaction to the IBJ’s acquisition of Inside Indiana Business.
Food insecurity is found in nearly every community throughout the nation, and Fishers has food insecure people. A new community fund, Food For Thought, is being established locally. The Youth Assistance Program and the HSE Schools Foundation have teamed up for the Turnover Hunger drive through September 10th.
For more details, see the information provided below:
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In past years, Hamilton Southeastern Education Foundation has facilitated PastaBowl, a food drive where local students donated pasta that was distributed to local food pantries the same week as the Mudsock football game. This year, partnering with Fishers Youth Assistance Program, HSEF is excited to announce the new Turnover Hunger program.
From September 7-10, HSE students can bring in food donations to help stock local food pantries and assist with local programs that support food insecurity. There will be collection bins ready for donations at each school location!
To donate, use this link.
In my opinion, there is no better place in the world to see live theater than New York City’s Broadway. Director Oren Jacoby looks at how Broadway always finds a way to bring itself up once it is down.
The Fishers Health Department (FHD) says the 7-day look-back period for local positive cases is down by 10% compared to the previous 7-day period, but Fishers remains in a Level 3 COVID risk level on a scale of 5 (5 being the largest risk level). FHD Epidemiologist Josh Robinson describes the positivity decrease as “a slight positive note,” but there is more to the story.
“There is still a high level of COVID circulation in the community, so we do recommend that everybody still (take) every precautionary measure that they can,” Robinson said in a video update released late Tuesday. The best precautionary measure is to take the COVID vaccine, according to Robinson.
The Hamilton County rate for unique individual positivity is 12.7%, up slightly from the previous week. The local case incidence rate, a 14-day rolling average, stands at 42.07 new cases, up slightly. Fishers testing site positivity cases are down from the previous week at 6.24%.
FHD has expanded testing hours and increased staffing. You can get a test the same day you request an appointment. The antigen test is available, with results ready in about a half-hour. The PCR test results are normally available in 1 or 2 days.
Fishers contact tracing is current, keeping up with the number of cases, notifying those exposed to the virus.
Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed availability has gone up slightly compared to last week in our area. However, daily hospitalizations are showing an upward trend, in roughly the same place seen last January.
The number of Fishers residents getting the vaccination increased in August compared to July, with 2,500 people receiving at least the first dose. However, that still leaves about 16,000 citizens of Fishers eligible for the shot but still unvaccinated.
If you have any questions about the vaccination or COVID, contact FHD at 317-595-3211.
You can view the September 7th video below.
I have written about the state of local news countless times in this space and it is mostly bad news. For once, I have some good news.
The two most prominent sources of business news in Indiana, the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ) and Inside Indiana Business (IIB), are joining forces. More specifically, IBJ is buying IIB. Gerry Dick, the anchor of the weekly Inside Indiana Business television program, owns IIB and made the decision to sell.
In an IBJ podcast released Tuesday, host Mason King had IBJ co-owner Nate Feltman and Gerry Dick as guests and they talked about why IBJ bought IIB and why Gerry Dick decided to sell.
Both operations will stay with their current work force with no layoffs, according to both Feltman and Dick in comments made on the podcast. They will be housed in one location, most likely the current IBJ home on Monument Circle.
I have small connections to both operations. I wrote for the online version of Indiana Forefront for a few years, and authored a commentary on the first Fishers mayoral election back in 2014 published in the print edition of IBJ. I have had several IBJ reporters on my podcasts as guests.
When Gerry Dick decided to open an office at Launch Fishers, he graciously accepted my invitation to appear on one of my podcasts. We had a good conversation. Gerry Dick is a very affable yet professional news person.
The most important aspect of this transaction is this – both operations will remain local. Both will be owned by the current IBJ group – Nate Feltman, Mickey Maurer and Bob Schloss. They are all local people.
IBJ was owned by a national organization, American City Business Journals, in 1986 but Mickey Maurer bought the paper in 1990, believing local ownership of such a publication was (and is) important.
There is much each organization can gain from this new configuration. IBJ, which has focused on Central Indiana, now can use the IIB infrastructure than extends throughout the State of Indiana. IIB uses TV, radio and online presence. IBJ is a print enterprise with a heavy online operation and produces podcasts, as does IIB.
This arrangement will strengthen the business news reporting greatly in both Central Indiana and the entire state. Most importantly, ownership of this news organization will remain local.
In an age where large corporations own most media (the IndyStar is owned by national publisher Gannett) the business news in our area will be owned and operated locally. In today’s news business, that is very good news.