Fishers Blues Fest will return to the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater for two nights of free live music over Labor Day weekend.

The all-ages festival is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 5, and Sunday, Sept. 6, at the amphitheater, 6 Municipal Drive. Gates will open at 4 p.m., with performances beginning at 5 p.m. each day.

Now in its 14th year, the festival will feature eight local, regional and national acts performing blues, soul, funk and rock.

“What makes Blues Fest special is the range of artists audiences can discover in one weekend, from internationally recognized musicians to emerging talent,” Fishers Parks Director Marissa Deckert said in a news release. “Keeping the festival free gives everyone the opportunity to experience great live music right here in downtown Fishers.”

Indianapolis-based Mojo Gumbo Band will open Saturday’s schedule at 5 p.m., followed by the JR Clark Band at 6 p.m. Blues Award winner Dylan Triplett will perform at 7:15 p.m.

Saturday headliner Judith Hill will take the stage from 8:30 to 10 p.m. The vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has worked with Prince, Michael Jackson and Elton John. Her solo music blends blues, soul, funk and rock.

The Blues Brothers Triumphant Tribute will begin Sunday’s performances at 5 p.m. King Bee + The Stingers will follow at 6 p.m., bringing a mix of original music, funk, soul and interpretations of blues standards.

Houston musician Mathias Lattin, who won the 2023 International Blues Challenge and its Best Guitarist award, will perform at 7:15 p.m.

Grammy-nominated musician Jontavious Willis will close the festival from 8:30 to 10 p.m. His music draws from his Georgia heritage and Delta, Piedmont, Texas and gospel blues traditions.

No tickets are required, and lawn seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Guests may bring chairs, blankets, outside food and nonalcoholic drinks. Food, beverages and alcohol will also be sold on-site. Outside alcohol is prohibited.

Free parking will be available in garages and along streets throughout the Nickel Plate District. Accessible parking will be offered at the south City Services Building lot, 3 Municipal Drive.

Hamilton Southeastern Schools will officially open the rebuilt Fishers Elementary School with a ribbon cutting and community open house at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20, at the school, 11442 Lantern Road.

Tours of the building will be offered following a brief ceremony. The district says current and former FES families, alumni, neighbors and community members are all welcome.

The event closes a chapter that began more than five years ago, when the future of Fishers Elementary was one of the tougher questions on the school board’s plate. The school sits on roughly 8.5 acres just south of downtown Fishers — every other HSE elementary school has about 20 acres — and by 2021 the district was looking at an estimated $12 million in deferred maintenance at the building. Then-Superintendent Yvonne Stokes put the choice to the board plainly at an October 2021 work session: was it worth putting that kind of money into a landlocked building, and if not, where would a replacement go?

The board ultimately chose to stay put and build out. In March 2024, trustees unanimously approved a maximum price of $45 million for a renovation and addition designed to house about 700 students. Wurster Construction was hired as construction manager.

Getting to that number took some trimming. A first round of contractor bids came in roughly $10 million over projections, and the district adjusted the plans — keeping synthetic turf under the playground equipment but using natural grass for the larger open area around it, thinning the asphalt in the staff and visitor parking lot while keeping the heavier surface for buses, and shifting furniture costs to a later funding source.

Fishers Elementary last saw a major renovation in 1988, with a refresh in 2003. The work wrapped up on schedule — students are already in the building, having started the 2026-27 school year there this month. The Aug. 20 event is the community’s first look inside.

Thursday’s open house is free and no registration is required.

Three Fishers-area elementary schools hit 100%

Hamilton Southeastern Schools’ third graders posted a 97.3% pass rate on the 2026 IREAD assessment, the district’s best showing in six years and a mark no other large district in Indiana matched.

Of 1,426 HSE third graders who took the Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination test, 1,387 demonstrated proficient reading skills. The result is up 1.3 percentage points from 96% in 2025 and more than three points from 2024. Among districts testing more than 600 students statewide, none scored higher.

Three schools — Hoosier Road Elementary, Geist Elementary and Southeastern Elementary — recorded perfect 100% pass rates. Eleven of the district’s 13 elementary schools met or exceeded Indiana’s 95% literacy goal, and every HSE elementary came in at 90% or better.

“Improving on an already strong result is not easy, and our teachers and school leaders deserve tremendous credit,” Superintendent Dr. Matt Kegley said. “They know their students and pay close attention to what each child needs. That means using the data, adjusting instruction and continuing to find ways to help students grow. Our students put in the work, families reinforced it at home, and together they made this possible. They should be incredibly proud.”

Well ahead of the state

The district’s number sits nearly nine percentage points above the statewide figure. The Indiana Department of Education reported this week that 88.7% of Hoosier third graders passed IREAD in 2026 — an improvement of about 1.5 percentage points over last year, the second-largest single-year gain since the test began, and the fifth consecutive year of statewide growth. Indiana’s literacy rates have now moved past pre-pandemic levels.

The stakes attached to those numbers have risen sharply. Under a literacy law passed by the General Assembly in 2024 and first enforced last school year, third graders who cannot pass IREAD after multiple attempts must repeat the grade. About 3,040 students statewide — roughly 3.6% of test takers — were retained in third grade following the 2025 administration, more than seven times the 412 held back two years earlier. A follow-up measure signed in 2025 guarantees students at least two chances to retake the exam over the summer before retention applies, and lawmakers have since moved to exempt some English learners.

Good-cause exemptions remain narrow: they largely apply to students in special education, English learners with fewer than two years of Indiana literacy services, students who have already been retained, and those who passed the ILEARN math assessment.

Second graders gaining too

HSE also tested its second graders, who can take IREAD a year early under the state’s optional administration. Their pass rate rose from 81% in 2025 to 83% in 2026. Eight of the district’s 13 elementary schools improved over their 2025 second-grade results.

Passing early takes pressure off both students and schools — a second grader who clears the bar has effectively banked the requirement before the retention clock starts.

District officials credited evidence-based reading instruction, regular progress monitoring and targeted intervention for students who fall behind.

“Reading touches every subject and every part of a student’s school experience,” Kegley said. “We are proud of this progress, but we are not finished. We will keep working with students who need more time and support.”

HSE serves roughly 20,000 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade across Fishers and parts of Noblesville. The district said it will release its 2026 ILEARN results separately once the state publishes them next month.

Hamilton County appears more likely than not to adopt vote centers for the 2027 municipal elections — and one of the reasons is that local school districts, which spent years asking to be left off the polling place list over security concerns, are signaling they are willing to come back.

Hamilton Southeastern Schools spokesperson Emily Abbotts told me on Aug. 10 the district is prepared to work with the county.

“This isn’t something we have had to navigate in recent years, but we’ll work with county officials to accommodate voting while keeping students and staff safe and minimizing disruptions to the school day,” Abbotts said.

That is a notable shift in tone. In April, Abbotts explained to Current Publishing why HSE had stepped away from hosting elections.

“Displacing P.E. classes from the gyms and having to barricade and man the adjoining areas of the building to keep the community from entering the school became a safety challenge,” she said at the time. “Couple that with the parking lot issues, particularly at arrival and dismissal times — it became too much.”

Westfield Washington Schools gave Current a similar answer in April. Spokesperson Craig Tierney said hosting elections conflicts with district safety rules requiring background checks and visitor check-in, and that “election site hosting brings with it more of an ‘open-door’ policy that does not align with those safety protocols.”

Where the proposal stands

The Hamilton County Election Board will hold a public hearing and vote at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, in the Commissioners’ Courtroom at the Hamilton County Government and Judicial Center, 1 Hamilton County Square, Noblesville.

The proposal on the table calls for 57 vote centers, replacing the 102 precinct polling places the county will use in this November’s general election. State law would require only 27 based on Hamilton County’s active voter count, so the plan roughly doubles the legal minimum.

Under the current system, a Hamilton County voter can vote early at any location in the county, but on Election Day must cast a ballot at the polling place assigned to the precinct where they live. Vote centers would let any registered county voter use any vote center in the county on Election Day.

If approved, the county would start with the May 2027 municipal primary — a deliberately low-turnout election — rather than waiting for the 2028 presidential cycle.

Nothing has been decided. The proposed list of 57 locations is a draft, and the Election Board has taken no final action.

Why 2027 looks more likely than 2026 did

Indiana law requires a unanimous county election board vote to adopt vote centers. That is what sank the proposal last September, when the three-member board split 2-1. Clerk Kathy Kreag Williams and Democratic appointee Greg Purvis voted yes. Republican appointee Ray Adler voted no.

Adler’s stated reason at the time was caution. “I just think we should let Allen County go through it and see what problems they have,” he said last year. “We’re changing voting for hundreds of thousands of people and I want to make sure it’s not an experiment.”

Adler has since told The Reporter he now intends to support the measure, citing Allen County’s rollout and the county Election Office’s work rebuilding relationships with every local school district. With Williams and Purvis both previously in favor, that would supply the three votes the proposal needs.

Williams, who authored Indiana’s original vote center legislation as a member of the Indiana House, has put the schools at the center of her case for the plan.

“One of the biggest reasons this proposal works is because our local school districts have stepped up as partners once again,” Williams said. “By opening their buildings as vote centers, they’re helping ensure voters across Hamilton County have a convenient place to cast their ballot close to home.”

The list leans heavily on schools

Of the 57 proposed vote centers, roughly three-quarters are school district buildings. Fifteen belong to HSE: 11 elementary schools, Riverside and Sand Creek intermediate schools, the district administrative offices and HSE Fishers Academy.

Two things stand out about that list.

First, HSE has offered no high school and no junior high. The same pattern holds elsewhere in the county. Noblesville Schools appears with two middle schools and six elementaries, no high school. Carmel Clay offers the high school stadium rather than the building. Only Hamilton Heights and Sheridan — the county’s two smallest districts — put high schools forward. Whether that was the compromise that brought districts back to the table is a fair question for the Sept. 29 hearing.

Second, there are no churches on the proposed list at all. That is consistent with what county officials have been saying about their shrinking pool of sites. Hamilton County Elections Administrator Beth Sheller told Current in April that churches were becoming harder to recruit.

“I call churches over and over asking them, and I’m not getting a very good response anymore on adding locations,” Sheller said. “I fear that we are going to lose more and more churches as it goes along.”

Sheller has also said she would like Election Day to become an e-learning day for students, ideally in time for the 2028 election year, which would remove much of the safety objection. Noblesville Schools has said it would discuss the idea if the county made a formal request. No district has announced such a change.

Cost is a secondary argument. The county estimates roughly $17,000 in savings from needing fewer poll workers, and about $20,000 from reduced rental fees, since public buildings are available to the county at no charge under Indiana law.

One caution from Fort Wayne

Adler cited Allen County, which used vote centers for the first time in the May 2026 primary after consolidating 110 polling places into 53 centers. Voters liked the convenience and turnout rose to 14.5 percent from 12.2 percent in 2022.

Counting them was harder. Allen County workers tabulated from the 6 p.m. poll close until after 3 a.m., resumed hours later, and did not release final unofficial results until roughly 12:45 p.m. Wednesday. Elections Director Amy Scrogham called it a “learning process” and said the board would “always place accuracy over speed.” Two races stayed unresolved for weeks: a state senate primary certified by 14 votes, and a county commissioner race that required a recount not finished until Aug. 3.

Hamilton County would be running a larger operation — 57 centers for more than 280,000 registered voters. How the county plans to avoid a repeat is worth asking on Sept. 29.

How to weigh in

Residents can speak at the Sept. 29 hearing, email comments to Clerk Williams at kathy.williams@hamiltoncounty.in.gov, or complete the county’s online survey before Sept. 25.

Fishers Event Center finished the first half of 2026 in the red, and management pointed to a single, unexpected culprit: a broken leg.

Billy Strings’ three sold-out shows, originally booked for April 24-26, were pushed to August after the bluegrass star broke his leg in a backstage skateboarding accident during an encore break at a show in Charlottesville, Virginia. Strings said he “tried to do a trick I’ve done a million times” and landed awkwardly. Moving the Fishers dates lifted three guaranteed sellouts out of the second quarter and dropped them into the third.

That swing accounted for much of the period’s shortfall, Event Center management told the Fishers Town Hall Building Corporation in an update Monday. Event income came in below projections. The venue hosted 65 events in the first six months against a projection of 74, and posted a net loss of just over $334,000.

General Manager Mitch List told the board the gap is largely a matter of timing rather than demand, and that the Strings revenue will show up in the third-quarter numbers.

A crowd that spilled outside

The rescheduled run finally happened Aug. 6-8, and it drew far more people than the 7,500 seats inside could hold. List said Forum Credit Union Plaza, the outdoor space at Fishers District just beyond the arena doors, filled with fans — many of whom had no tickets and simply wanted to be part of the night.

Opening night made national news for the wrong reason. Someone in the crowd threw a lighter that struck Strings in the head during “This Old World.” He was not seriously injured, but he stopped the show and delivered a profanity-laced response to the throw, telling the crowd he had been about to say how happy he was to be there.

List said arena cameras, along with help from fans seated nearby, identified the person who threw the lighter. The individual was escorted out of the building.

Strings turned the incident around the following night, walking onstage in a hockey helmet. He later worked the line “don’t let your lighters fly” into a song before trading the helmet for a ball cap.

A busier second half

Management expects the back half of 2026 to outperform the first, with 16 touring shows on the calendar compared to 10 in the second half of 2025.

The biggest addition isn’t a concert. The inaugural Big Ten Volleyball Tournament comes to Fishers Nov. 20-25, bringing 15 of the conference’s 18 teams to Stockdale Street for a five-round bracket. The winner takes the Big Ten’s automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. Tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster.

The Event Center opened Nov. 22, 2024, and is home to the Indy Fuel of the ECHL, pro volleyball’s Indy Ignite and the Fishers Freight indoor football team.

Residents have until Sept. 7 to apply for the free eight-week emergency preparedness course.

Hamilton County Emergency Management is accepting applications for its fall Community Emergency Response Team Basic Course, which teaches residents how to safely assist their communities during emergencies and disasters.

The eight-week Hamilton County CERT training begins Sept. 16 and meets from 7 to 9:30 p.m. each Wednesday through Nov. 4.

Through classroom instruction, hands-on activities and realistic scenarios, participants will learn practical disaster-response skills, including fire safety, light search and rescue, hazard assessment and basic medical operations. The training is intended to help residents provide immediate assistance and support professional first responders when emergency help is not yet available.

Organizers say the program also helps participants improve their personal preparedness while strengthening resilience in neighborhoods, workplaces and community organizations.

The basic course is free and open to the public. Participants must commit to remaining active in the program after completing the course. Graduates become Hamilton County Emergency Management volunteers and can continue developing their skills through monthly meetings, advanced training, drills, exercises, emergency operations and special-event support.

Hamilton County has more than 120 active CERT volunteers, according to the county. Local teams serve communities including Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Sheridan and Westfield.

Applications for the fall course will be accepted through Sept. 7. More information and registration instructions are available on the Hamilton County CERT webpage.

Janet Chandler is beginning a school year unlike any she has experienced in nearly half a century. For the first time in 47 years, she will not be returning to a Hamilton Southeastern classroom.

The recently retired Hamilton Southeastern High School teacher joined me for a LarryInFishers.com podcast conversation about her career, the district’s remarkable growth and the importance of preparing students to become informed citizens.

When Chandler began teaching at HSE in 1979, the high school enrolled about 500 students and much of the surrounding area was rural. Roads such as 116th Street were two lanes, and Chandler recalled driving past cows and horses on her way to school. Finding a nearby gas station was considered a welcome development.

By her final year, HSE High School had grown to nearly 3,500 students, and the district had added a second large high school in Fishers.

Chandler said that growth created more opportunities for students, including additional Advanced Placement and dual-credit courses. What disappeared, she said, was the small-school atmosphere in which nearly everyone knew everyone else.

During her career, Chandler taught French and social studies before moving exclusively to social studies. She also coached HSE’s We the People and Mock Trial teams, helping students research complicated civic questions, defend their conclusions and respond to challenging questions.

“I’m not going to tell you what to think,” Chandler said of her approach to teaching. “I’m not going to tell you what I believe, because that’s not relevant to you. What’s relevant is that I give you the tools so that you can figure out how to do research, how to support your beliefs — or change your beliefs.”

Chandler also served for many years as president of the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association, representing the district’s teachers. She first became association president during the 1983–84 school year, when HSE teacher salaries ranked near the bottom among Indiana school districts.

She recalled difficult contract negotiations, including years when teachers returned to school without an agreement and one bargaining session that continued from Friday afternoon into Saturday.

Our conversation also covers changes to Indiana’s collective bargaining laws, teacher compensation and retention, and Chandler’s concern that the teaching profession is no longer valued as highly as it should be.

Her advice to new teachers is to expect the first year to feel overwhelming and to establish a work-life balance, while recognizing that much of the preparation and grading cannot be completed during the regular school day.

Chandler is now considering volunteer opportunities and ways to remain involved in the community. She also plans to spend more time reading while remaining open to whatever comes next.

The LarryInFishers podcast series is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

Listen to my full conversation with Janet Chandler at this link or the link below.

Meijer will open a 75,000-square-foot grocery store at 15700 Southeastern Parkway on Sept. 30, the retailer announced Monday.

The location will be the second Meijer Grocery format store in Indiana and the company’s 45th store in the state.

Unlike the sprawling supercenters most shoppers associate with the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based chain, the Meijer Grocery format is built around food and weekly-trip essentials in a smaller footprint. The Fishers store will include full-service bakery, meat, seafood and deli departments, along with fresh produce, a pharmacy, health and beauty products, pet supplies, and a floral and greeting card section.

“We’re excited to open our second Meijer Grocery location in Indiana, continuing to bring this convenient format to more communities to help customers quickly find fresh foods and everyday essentials at consistently low prices,” said Jess Murray, vice president of the Indiana region for Meijer. “These stores are designed to provide customers with a great shopping experience, right in the communities where they live and work each day.”

Fuel station opens first

A Meijer Express fuel station next to the store is scheduled to open Sept. 2, nearly four weeks ahead of the store itself. The station will carry beverages, snacks and prepared food.

Customers enrolled in the company’s free mPerks loyalty program can apply rewards toward groceries or earn up to $1 off per gallon at Meijer Express stations. Sign-up is available at meijer.com/mperks or through the Meijer app.

The store will also offer Shop & Scan, home delivery and curbside pickup, and will carry the retailer’s exclusive Frederik’s by Meijer and True Goodness brands.

Jobs still open

Meijer is still hiring for the Fishers store, with hourly, part-time and full-time positions available. Applications are being accepted at jobs.meijer.com/stores.

The company has operated in Indiana since 1994 and employs more than 13,000 people statewide, including workers at its distribution and manufacturing facilities in Middlebury. Its community partnerships in the state include Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, the 500 Festival, the Indianapolis Colts, and athletic programs at Indiana University, Purdue University and Notre Dame.

Meijer is privately owned and family-operated, with more than 500 supercenters, grocery stores, neighborhood markets and express locations across the Midwest.

Hamilton Southeastern Schools will be one of five Hamilton County districts asking voters to approve an operating referendum Nov. 3, part of a record-setting year for school ballot measures across Indiana, according to reporting by Jake Allen and Marissa Meador of the IndyStar.

Statewide, 37 districts are putting operating referendums before voters — three times as many as any other election in the past decade. School officials told the Star the surge traces largely to Senate Enrolled Act 1, the 2025 property tax overhaul, along with a legislative change limiting which ballots referendums can appear on.

The HSE ask

Unlike Noblesville, whose referendum expires at the end of 2026, HSE is asking voters to replace its existing referendum with one carrying a higher maximum rate. Superintendent Matt Kegley told the IndyStar the district would have been content to continue at the rate voters approved in 2023 if not for SEA 1.

“It’s important to point out that we wouldn’t be having this conversation today if not for the impacts of Senate Enrolled Act 1 on our budget,” Kegley said.

The district estimates SEA 1 will cost it roughly $45 million less than planned over the final six years of the current referendum. HSE projects the median homeowner in the district would see about a $3 per month increase on their 2027 tax bill if the measure passes.

HSE has already made cuts, eliminating nearly 60 positions earlier this year amid declining elementary enrollment. Kegley said the district worked to protect programs through that round, but without new referendum dollars it would have to reevaluate which programs continue, potentially cut more staff, and would find it harder to offer raises that retain teachers. The money would also support school safety measures and student behavioral health services, including therapists in buildings.

Supporters have organized as Advance HSE, a political action committee that drew about 50 people to a July meeting and plans to campaign at football games, the Geist Half Marathon and other community events. “The opportunities our kids get are world class,” chair Laura Cole told the Star. “I want to make sure that we protect that.”

The countywide picture

Neighboring districts face similar math. Noblesville’s expiring referendum generates about $25 million a year; the district says a $350,000 home would pay about $2.30 more per month than under the current rate. Westfield Washington and Carmel Clay are also on the ballot, with Carmel seeking a rate nearly double its current one after folding its expiring safety referendum into a single question.

Opposition is organizing too. Americans for Prosperity’s Indiana chapter, which helped defeat a Northwest Allen County referendum last year, plans to engage in Central Indiana races, and Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith — a Hamilton County resident — has publicly criticized the measures.

Election Day is Nov. 3.

You can access the IndyStar story at this link, but will likely need at least an online subscription to access the full story. 

Fishers residents should be ready for several days of unsettled and potentially severe weather, according to the National Weather Service and Hamilton County Emergency Management.

Severe thunderstorms are possible late today into tonight across central Indiana, with damaging wind, heavy rainfall and localized flash flooding listed as the primary threats.

The threat does not end there. The Weather Service says thunderstorms will be possible at times through the week, with the potential for multiple rounds of severe storms through Wednesday night. Damaging winds and heavy rainfall again top the list of concerns.

Two ways to get warned

Hamilton County Emergency Management is using the extended stretch of active weather to remind residents to check how they receive alerts — both outside and inside the home.

Outdoor warning sirens are designed to warn people who are outdoors when severe weather threatens. They are not built to be heard reliably inside a house, especially with windows closed, air conditioning running or a television on.

For indoor alerts, the county recommends an all-hazards weather radio, which sounds an alarm when a warning is issued for your area, even overnight.

Residents are also encouraged to keep more than one way to receive warnings — a weather radio, alerts on a mobile phone and local media coverage — since any single method can fail during a power or network outage.

Before the storms arrive

A few steps worth taking before the first round moves in:

• Charge phones and any backup battery packs.
• Know where you would shelter: a basement, or an interior room on the lowest floor away from windows.
• Bring in or secure patio furniture, trash bins and other loose items that damaging wind could throw.
• Avoid driving through flooded roadways. Water depth is difficult to judge, and the roadbed underneath may be washed out.
• Check on neighbors who may not receive alerts, including older residents and anyone living alone.

Forecasts can change quickly. Residents should keep up with the latest information from the National Weather Service office in Indianapolis and from Hamilton County Emergency Management as the week goes on.