Hamilton County Reporter

Hamilton Southeastern entered Hoosier Crossroads Conference play with a win, beating Franklin Central 57-46 Friday at the Royals’ gym.

Class 4A No. 7 Southeastern led 12-8 after the first quarter, then extended its advantage in the second period, taking a 30-17 lead into halftime. Sydney Parrish had another incredible game, scoring 32 points.

Parrish wound up with a double-double, as she pulled 10 rebounds, and also had four steals, four assists and two blocked shots. Jackie Maulucci came close to a double-double, with nine assists to go along with her 14 points.

The Royals are 4-1 and play another home game this afternoon, welcoming Fort Wayne Carroll in a 2:30 p.m. varsity tipoff.

If you have traversed State Road 37 lately, you can see some of the work has begun reconstructing the highway.  Watch for more lane restrictions.

Also, be in the lookout for lane restrictions on 131st Street between Parkside and Cumberland Road.

In additional, the closure on Lantern Road continues  and watch for the ongoing work on parts of 96th Street.

For the details, here is the weekly road construction update, as provided by the City of Fishers.

=======

STATE ROAD 37 
There will be lane restrictions on northbound SR37 for several hours this Sunday, November 24.  There are also lane restrictions on southbound SR37 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily. Southbound restrictions are expected to last for approximately 2 – 3 weeks. To learn more about the State Road 37 Improvement Project and sign up to receive text updates, visit 37Thrives.com.

131st STREET
There will be lane restrictions on 131st Street between Parkside Drive and Cumberland Road on Tuesday, November 26 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. There will be flaggers directing traffic.

On Monday, December 2, 131st will be closed to traffic for one day from Parkside Drive and Cumberland Road beginning at 7 a.m. Residents of Sterling Green will have access from the east to Cumberland Road.

LANTERN ROAD 
Lantern Road is closed to through traffic, beginning south of 116th Street to Fishers Pointe Boulevard, as part of the Downtown Infrastructure Improvement Project to improve the sanitary sewer underneath Lantern Road. Access to Lantern Road remains open from the north (via 116th Street) for local residential, business, and Fishers Elementary School traffic. The closure for this portion of the project is expected to last approximately 90 days. Check out the project Fact Sheet to learn more.

Hamilton County Reporter

On Tuesday, emergency personnel from the Noblesville Police Department, the Noblesville Fire Department and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department responded to a report of an injured person in the 100 block of North 8th Street.

According to police, Ryan Scott Herring, 21, fell while installing holiday decorations on a city light pole. Herring was a contract worker from Winterland Inc., the company hired to install decorations around the courthouse square.

According to the Noblesville Police Department, several sheriff deputies working security at the Judicial Center, as well as several citizens, immediately began providing aid to Herring until paramedics arrived.

Herring was transported to Riverview Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

A statement issued by the Noblesville Police Department on Wednesday indicated the investigation is ongoing and detectives are assisting the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office.

Fishers loss will be Noblesville’s gain, as Lindsey Bennett has been named the new City Attorney for the City of Noblesville by mayor-elect Chris Jensen, according to my news-gathering partner, the Hamilton County Reporter.  Bennett has served the past several years as Assistant City Attorney for the City of Fishers.

Before coming to Fishers, Ms. Bennett served five years as an associate city attorney in Fort Wayne, as well as having a broad background in contracts, real estate and utility issues. She received her JD degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law, is a Noblesville resident, and volunteers with the Hamilton County Youth Assistance Program and the Youth Mentoring Initiative.

Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness has made it clear that he has been focused on attracting high-tech firms to Fishers, and the city announced Thursday that PerceptIn, a company currently located in Santa Clara, California, is moving its headquarters to Fishers.  The firm plans to launch an autonomous vehicle pilot program and create up to 50 new well-paying jobs by 2022. PerceptIn will establish its headquarters at the Indiana IoT Lab located in  Fishers in preparation for the launch of its pilot program in early 2020.

Perceptin and the City of Fishers jointly announced the move Thursday morning.

”When we launched the Indiana IoT Lab in 2017, a company like PerceptIn is exactly who we had in mind to propel our city even further as a leading city for tech,” said Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness. “Fishers is a city made for entrepreneurs, and today we are happy to support the future of transportation technology through this pilot program and in support of our newest Fishers company, PerceptIn.”

A pilot program is planned to establish a transportation between Launch Fishers. IOT Lab area and downtown Fishers.  The service will be available 10:30am–2:30pm daily,  supporting short trips to restaurants and meetings in the downtown area. Routes are will expand pending results of the pilot program.

“We’re extremely excited to relocate our headquarters to Indiana,” said Shaoshan Liu, chief executive officer of PerceptIn. “Indiana’s commitment to growing and enhancing its technology sector, along with its business-friendly environment and collaborative industry partnerships, is why we chose to locate here. Additionally, we look forward to deploying our autonomous microtransit services in Fishers, and increasing our presence throughout the state, setting an example for the rest of the nation on utilizing advanced technologies to improve public transportation systems.”

PerceptIn will use the Indiana Headquarters Relocation tax credit program, which provides incentive for the relocation of small, high-growth companies to the state.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered PerceptIn up to $3.5 million in conditional tax credits based on the company’s job creation plans. These tax credits are performance-based, meaning the company is eligible to claim incentives as Hoosiers are hired. The Fishers Redevelopment Commission will consider approval of an agreement between the Indiana IoT Lab and PerceptIn on November 25, 2019.

Hundreds of teachers from the Hamilton Southeastern school district joined thousands of teachers from throughout the state of Indiana at the Indiana Statehouse for Red for Ed day.  The educators converged at the state Capitol building to express their views on how state lawmakers should enact changes in the way the state handles public education issues.

The president of the local teachers union, the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association (HSEA), is Janet Chandler, and she joined local teachers in downtown Indianapolis Tuesday.

“Teachers who participated indicated they had not done anything like this before,” said Chandler in an e-mail message to LarryInFishers.  “They also felt extremely inspired!  It was truly amazing to see the swell of people as we began our march around the Statehouse.”

Many teachers did not have a personal day to expend but were there in spirit, according to the HSEA president.

“We appreciate everyone’s support as we gathered to bring attention to compensation, I-Learn testing, and the 15 hour externship requirement,” added Chandler.

Externship hours are state mandated requirements for teachers to retain their teaching licences,

Leah McGrath became a deputy mayor for the City of Fishers in July of 2015, but will be leaving her city position in January of 2020.  She has been announced as the Vice President of Public Affairs for Knowledge Services, a firm describing itself as a technology and professional services organization with customers in the public and private sectors.

Knowleddge Services plans to relocate its headquarters to Fishers by the end of 2021.  It is currently located in the Castleton area.

In a social media posting, Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness describes McGrath as “an extraordinarily talented person who brought a real passion for engaging our residents. Her collective work helped organize and amplify many diverse voices in our city. Residents in the disability community, arts and culture advocates, and Spark Fishers volunteers to name a few. Beside her work on engagement, Leah worked hard behind the scenes to modernize a number of our internal processes for the betterment of our organization and our residents.”

The job McGrath will be filling is a newly-formed position within the company.

“Knowledge Services is an impressive technology company headquartered in Indiana, who is leading the way in cyber security and transformative solutions for government services around the country,” said McGrath. “They are an organization driven by a genuine passion to serve those who serve others. It is a mission that drives continuous innovation and better outcomes for the employees and citizens served, and it is a passion I share. I am excited to be joining the team at Knowledge Services.”

By Jane Lannan & Larry Lannan

Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Superintendent Allen Bourff promised a meeting to discuss the proposal to “flip” school start times, so elementary students would report for school earlier, and secondary students would start the school day later.  As it now stands in HSE Schools, secondary students report earlier than those at the elementary level.

Dr. Bourff held that meeting Tuesday night, asking the public to comment on this proposal, emphasizing that no decision on this idea has been made. If a change is made, the school board would need to make a decision no later than February of 2020, in order to implement any changes for the 2020-2021 school year.

More than 80 people nearly filled the HSE High School College & Career Academy cafeteria to listen to Dr. Bourff’s presentation on the pluses and minuses of flipping school start times.  It was then the public’s turn to comment, and 24 people spoke with a 2-minute time limit for each speaker.

A clear majority of those choosing to speak were against flipping the schedules and a number of reasons were cited.

Some parents want school officials to study and take into consideration the economic impact this change would have on families where both parents work and the younger children in elementary school would need extra time in day care, increasing the expense.

Some high school students would be getting up to prepare for their high school day after parents have left for work, and some are concerned their high schoolers may not get to school on time without at least one parent home to awaken them.

Other parents are concerned about the new schedule impacting family meal times, as well as impacting extra curricular activities before and after school.

One impact of the new schedule raises issues with high school students with part-time, after school jobs. They would be reporting to work later under this schedule, taking away money earning opportunities.

Dr. Bourff cited a focus group survey of 80 high school students showing a high percentage in favor of starting the school day later.  Many parents expressed the view that the sample size was too small to be representative of the student bodies of both high schools.

There were speakers supporting the proposal to flip elementary and secondary start times, citing the positive mental health impact on students when they have more time in the morning hours for sleep.  One speaker cited data showing that the later start time for high school students may reduce traffic accidents.

The main take-away from this community meeting centered on the thoughtful comments expressed by all speakers and the respect shown for the wide range of views.

Dr. Bourff told the crowd that the HSE school Web site (www.hseschools.org) will have all the slides presented at the community session, and will accept comments from the public as well as answer questions.  Go to “Happenings,” or just use this link.

There is much medical data to support a later start time for high school students, but Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Superintendent Allen Bourff told school board members there are other considerations to be weighed as the school district mulls changing start times for students.

During a Tuesday morning work session, Bourff explained how medical studies on sleep patterns of high school students have shown more sleep in the early morning hours is most beneficial to high school age students.  Schools have been setting up high school schedules based on adult sleep patterns, not schedules better suited for students of high school age, according to Dr. Bourff.

A survey of high school students in the district shows 46% currently sleep 6-7 hours per night, and 28% sleep 5-6 hours.  46% say they nap after school, with 68% responding say they are sleepy during their first two school periods.

When high schoolers were asked whether they would support a high school schedule of 8:55am-3:55pm if grades  K-4 had a 7:50am-2:20pm school day, 60% responded yes, but the results were a bit different in the two high school buildings – at Fishers, 66% said yes, at HSE 53% responded yes to the same question.

There would be several challenges if the secondary and elementary schedules were flipped, with scheduling extra curricular activities being one of them.  Another issue would be how this would impact students with part-time jobs after school, since they would be leaving school later than under the current schedule.  Other high school students may have family responsibilities to care for younger siblings.

Another aspect of this would be the bus transportation system, and the school board spent a long time during the work session looking at the various options in bus schedules under a flipped start time system.

Most of the school corporations near HSE either have already implemented later high school start times or plan to implement such a system next school year.

Dr. Bourff will be conducting a community meeting at HSE High School November 19 at 6pm to present information to the public about this issue and listen to comments.

During the same work session, the board was presented with a program called “Portrait of a Graduate,” aimed at evaluating students on more than standardized test scores.

The program is in the process of being established, and Dr. Bourff told board members he sees this as a partnership between the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association (HSEA) and the school district, with a committee made up of HSEA appointees and some administrators to put this program together.

Administrators say it should be near completion sometime in the spring of 2020 if all goes as scheduled.  Bourff says he will ask the school board to vote on a resolution supporting Portrait of a Graduate and board members appeared to be generally supportive of such a resolution.

It was the late Tip O’Neil, long-time Speaker of the House, that said all politics are local.  The most local political organization that exists is at the precinct level.

Democrats and Republicans have Precinct officials.  Those precinct committeemen and committeewomen  are elected to those positions.

A local conservative PAC is crying foul because their loyalty to the Republican Party is being questioned.

The Fiscal Conservatives of Hamilton County is a Political Action Committee (PAC) aimed at electing candidates the PAC defines as conservative.  Many of the people serving on the board of this PAC are also Republican precinct-level officials.

The PAC issued a news release Monday saying that four of the PAC board members received a notification from State Senator Victoria Sparks, Secretary of the 5th District Republican Central Committee, which asserts the four are being charged with “not being in good standing” with the Republican Party. 

The four Republican precinct-level officials receiving this notice are Gregg Feigh of Carmel, Lee Clark of Noblesville, David Giffel of Fishers and the PAC President Bill Smythe of Fishers.

This is just the start of the process of determining whether the four PAC board members will be removed from their precinct positions for being part of a PAC that endorsed Independent and Democratic candidates on the recently-held local elections.  Will the local Republican Party back down and allow the four to keep their precinct jobs?  Time will tell.