Six of the Ten Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board candidates accepted the invitation to attend a candidate Town Hall Tuesday night, Sponsored by the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association.  The Event, held at the Launch Fishers Huston Theatre, was moderated by Fall Creek Junior High Science Teacher John Cappello.

The moderator wrote the first and last questions for the candidates, the rest were gleaned from questions submitted by the large audience on hand.  Some of the questions from those at the Town Hall included targeting and bullying messages victimizing students, teachers & staff….whether school board elections should remain nonpartisan in Indiana…how to lessen the divisions in the community….and what does academic excellence mean.

I have about 15 pages of notes on all the candidate responses, so there is no way to summarize it all.  So, here is a snapshot of what the candidates had to say.

DISTRICT 1

Jackie Howell  She is a mental health counselor with 15 years in the local community. Her family, she says, moved to the Fishers area because of the highly-rated school system.  Teachers should be treated as professionals.  She is a big believer in utilizing data before making major decisions.

Brad Boyer He is completing his first 4-year term as a board member and seeking re-election.  He believes educators should concentrate more on the core subjects and not so much on other activities during the school day.  He does not think it is a good idea for school board members to be interacting on social media, admitting some may disagree.  The COVID pandemic caused some setbacks for the board, for obvious reasons.

DISTRICT 2

Janet Pritchett She is also finishing up her first 4-year term and is running for re-election. She moved to Fishers 18 years ago.  She has been active in PTO leadership positions.  She also believes many board initiatives were derailed by the COVID pandemic.  Being supportive of teachers is something she has always emphasized and strongly believes in getting staff input on decisions.

DISTRICT 3

Carla Cork Dr. Cork is a trained physician and best-selling author.  She believes the school district should be focused on the future of its students, saying she wants children to be successful.  She has seen the best-laid teacher lesson plans go sideways when things do not go as planned.  She emphasized the level of respect the staff deserves.

DISTRICT 4

Julie Chambers The current board president is seeking a second 4-year term.  She is a former deputy prosecuting attorney and now runs her own law practice.  She says she has loved being on the board during this first term and is running for re-election.  She is working toward spreading the good news about the HSE schools.  Visiting classrooms and speaking with building principals is something she believes in doing regularly.

Harry Delks After 21 years as head of facilities for the HSE School District, he is running for the board.  He says he can offer a perspective of a school administrator when making decisions, as someone that has experience working on the inside.  When designing the new school buildings constructed by HSE Schools during his tenure, he has always had teachers in mind on what they want in the building.

Four candidates were not in attendance Tuesday night – Tiffany Pascoe, Dawn Lang, Juanita Albright and Ben Orr.  Edward Gedeon’s name will be on the ballot, but is no longer campaigning in District 1 and supports Jackie Howell.

Once again, I have only scratched the surface on what was discussed at the Town Hall.  The event was live streamed on video.  HSEA says a video recording of the event will be available soon.