When some members of the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board raised the possibility of changing the name of the school corporation as part of a branding study, it triggered quite a debate locally about even suggesting such a thing.
That sparked a number of comments from HSE officials at Wednesday night’s regular board meeting.
First, school officials want you to know that the branding study is not going to consider changing the names of any one of the school buildings within the HSE School District. Hamilton Southeastern High School will remain just that. Fishers High School’s name will not change. Fishers Junior High School’s name will continue as is. You can go on and on with all the school buildings. No mascots will change. None of that is part of the branding study.
Superintendent Allen Bourff also wants to make it clear that any name change for the school district, if considered at all, would be a small “sub-set” of the branding study.
Dr. Bourff described the branding effort as a way to “communicate who we are as a district, what’s important to us as a district, and also hear from our constituents what is important to them.”
Board Member Terry Tolle emphasized that the Web site design, long overdue for update, will cost about $98,000. The branding study is budgeted to cost about $50,000. However, the branding study can impact the new Web site design, so there will be some overlap, even though separate companies have been contracted to perform the Web redesign and the branding project. The funding for both projects will not come from tax revenue, but from money received by the school system from corporate sponsorship.
One other note from Wednesday night’s session. It was held in the LGI Room at Hamilton Southeastern High School because construction is beginning at the HSE Schools Administration Building. Dr. Bourff indicated the sound acoustics are not good in that room (I had difficulty hearing the proceedings at times Wednesday night). Either the sound situation will be improved, or Dr. Bourff indicated another location would need to be found for regular school board meetings over the next few months.