Hamilton Southeastern Education Association (HSEA) President Janet Chandler has been a teacher at Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) High School since 1979 and recalls the first year the local teachers’ union became active in school board elections during 1984, even though there were no formal candidate endorsements then. Since that time, HSEA has endorsed candidates for the board in each election cycle. 2020 will be the first time in recent history that the association is choosing not to endorse any school board candidate in this round of at-large school board elections.
HSEA believes it has fulfilled its responsibility to educate local voters with a candidate forum held via Zoom (you can view the entire forum video at this link). 8 of the 11 candidates chose to participate in the forum. HSEA also posted answers to questionnaires by the candidates, which can be viewed at this link.
The 12-person committee of teaching staff tasked with making the union’s endorsement decisions made the difficult choice, after what was described as a lively discussion, not to endorse any candidates in 2020.
HSEA President Chandler told LarryInFishers many committee members felt that in the current toxic environment, an HSEA endorsement could actually hurt a candidate.
Just a reminder that if you vote a straight party ticket, you must go to the end of the ballot, at the voting booth or on paper as absentee, in order to cast a vote for school board. In Indiana, school board elections are nonpartisan, meaning candidates do not run under the banner of any political party.
I think it’s worthy of noting that a couple of candidates declined to fill out the basic paper questionnaire that the Union provided. Those same people are all actively campaigning to the group that is directly responsible for the Toxic environment in our community. That group regularly blames the HSEA Union (mind you, the group leader is in a Pilots Union) with good ‘ol fashioned Union bashing and some strange conspiracy to keep the kids “out of school”. This is their way of blaming the teachers who are not comfortable with returning while still talking out the other side of their mouths saying they support the teachers. If they can’t even stomach filling out a basic questionnaire, how good of a job are they going to do when they actually have to work with the Union?
Hi there. I think you’re talking about me. Anonymously I might add. How brave!
I think it’s worthy of noting that you blame me of blaming the HSEA teachers’ union for not returning, then later say some teachers aren’t comfortable returning. Do you even think before you type? Yeah…didn’t think so.
So, do I blame teachers, that are working to keep kids out of the classroom, for keeping kids out of the classroom? Absolutely! Do I respect and appreciate the teachers who want what’s best for our kids and want to get them back in class 100%? Absolutely!!
Do you know if the board is sliding in a vote about changing school start times? I haven’t heard a word about this but it’s listed that the final presentation will be end of October. Will there be transparency and communication before that about changing school start times? Is this lost in the shuffle or hidden or on hold?
Larry, why would you not approve Greg’s rebuttal. You allowed an anonymous person to call him out specifically but didn’t let Greg respond?? There was nothing in Greg’s response that should be considered not proper or offensive. C’mon, if you are going to write articles about this issue and let somebody call out a specific person, you should be man enough to allow what was a very civil response.
There was no disapproval….just hadn’t had time to review and moderate comments. This is a volunteer activity for me, so things don’t always happen quickly.
Thanks Larry – This is just a little taste of how entitled and Toxic those people are. They are here to gang up on you and tell you what horrible person you are. They want it right now(!) so they expect you to do it all right this second, regardless of reality.
Just so you know why they are here, Greg posted a screenshot of my reply along with his to his group which clearly had the Bright Orange “Your comment is awaiting moderation…” with an exclamation point on it. Then a few minutes later must have refreshed and complained to them thatyou “removed his comment” – I guess because computers and reading is hard. His followers got all riled up that their voice was being silenced.
Thanks for everything you do, sorry for the few.
Coward. Just that simple. Crawl back in your hole!
FishersGeistResident I couldn’t have said this any better myself. Thank you for speaking for all of us watching silently in horror. All they have accomplished are more problems. And of course we aren’t going to put our names out there for them to come yielding their pitchforks at us, too…and they will act like we’re the cowards.
Anyone know if the board is sliding in a vote like they’re supposed to, about school start time changes? Haven’t heard a word on this but the timeline online says final presentation is end of October.
I also find it appalling that some will use any platform they can to throw anyone else under the bus for using their own platform to speak their own opinion. I believe we are still in America; the land of free speech. However, I’m a bit concerned when I see how hard we are having to fight just to get our children back in school full time. I’m not sure this is about he said or she said. Let’s put all politics aside and remember this is about choice and what is right for each person’s children. And while some may still choose virtual many may prefer full time in person; which has yet to be offered (or discussed) to the older grade levels.
It does seem to be a north side clout name reaching type of thing. Which is fine cause those of us who can freely choose to remain anonymous may just have a little bit more. Hehe. If people were really truly concerned with the direction of the school system in our community, well we’d probably just take it over from the top and then kindly tell them to play fair and be kind to those in our community. People are probably worried to confront him because they have to come from a place of caring, compassion and constant understanding. People always willing to do the right thing, even in the face of adversity. I applaud everyone in this school system who has given this their absolute all. The man in this group is truly pathetic, I don’t care what he has in life. He has no liberty, no pride, no understanding. Just a mouth. Truly interesting to me how he’s been allowed to make so much noise. Largely ineffective, zero marketing skills, no clout, no names, no PULL. He needs a friend, he needs to take a run, he needs to hit a heavy bag. The last thing he needs to be doing is speaking ANYWHERE in this community.