There had been anticipation that the Hamilton Southeastern School Board will vote Wednesday night on whether to join the 5 other Hamilton County school districts in the Pursuit Institute, but the issue was removed from the meeting agenda. School officials say there will be more meetings to clarify questions before the board votes on the proposal, likely in the next board meeting scheduled 2 weeks from now.
The Pursuit Institute is an idea with one-time funding from Hamilton County to form a Career Technical Education (CTE) program for the school districts in the county.
The board did receive a report from Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Katy Dowling estimating the total HSE Schools spending plan for 2023, including all funds, at $287 million. The largest fund is the Education Fund, which is expected to come in at $151 million. The school district’s share of the tax rate is expected to decrease from the previous year. Dowling told the board to expect a tax rate of 1.1954 in 2023, compared to the 2022 rate of 1.2376. A final vote on the 2023 district budget is expected at the next regular board meeting.
The school corporation continues to need more substitute teachers and has a marketing program to draw more people into the program. You can review the presentation to the board at this link
Food Service Director Karen Ogden told board members that all positions in the school food service operations are not filled, but she is making progress.
Finally, the Snapshot of Success featured the Fishers High School Tutoring Club. The club began about 1 year ago as a student-driven club, preparing middle school students for high school by helping them with their schoolwork and offering extra academic support. Fishers Tutors aims to help students academically as much as they can before students enter into the next phase of their academic career when their GPA begins to accrue. The pandemic put a lot of stress on students and caused some students to fall behind, so Fishers Tutors was created to provide support to students who need help with any subject. The group also was awarded a Project AWARE Student Led Engagement Grant in March 2022 to assist them in their work at the junior high school.
View a video about Fishers Tutors at this link.