When Elwood Police Officer Noah Shahnavaz died in the line  of duty last summer, he had many connections to the Fishers community.  He continued to live here and graduated from HSE Schools.

At the time of his death, I expressed my deepest sympathies to Officer Shahnavaz’s family.

Then, in August, the HSE Schools issued a statement about an incident in a classroom where a poster saying “Defund the Police?” was visible to the officer’s brother.  The statement made clear that the school district does not believe police should be defunded and both HSE school officials and the classroom teacher apologized to the Shahnavaz family.

A few days after the HSE Schools issued the statement, the district announced that local attorney Dan Henke, also the Fishers City Judge, would be conducting a fact-finding investigation into what happened in that classroom with the “Defund the Police” poster in the classroom where Noah Shahnavaz’s brother was in attendance.

Starting in late September and into early October, I took every opportunity to ask HSE school officials when the report was expected and what the school board would choose to do with the report.  In other words, would any of the report be made public in any form, such as an executive summary or with names redacted.

As a journalist, I did argue that the district should make as much of the report public, while respecting privacy rights.

The answer came October 14, when HSE Schools announced actions it planned to initiate as a result of the report, but the report itself was not released at all.  Obviously, as someone interested in government transparency, I had my concerns.

Then, I closely read three key sentences in that HSE statement from October 14:

As a product of his inquiry, Henke developed a written report. The report has a significant amount of student information. The district does not have consent to release the report with this information.

It should be assumed any report on this incident would contain “a significant amount of student information.”  But, according to school officials, the families of the student (or students) involved chose not to consent to a release of Judge Henke’s report.

I would have much preferred to have some version of the report be made public, in some way.  But, I would presume that if HSE Schools released the report when the student(s) families did not provide consent, the school district would be subject to criticism for doing that, not to mention any potential legal exposure.

So, although disappointed about this decision not to release Judge Henke’s written report, I do understand why.

By the way, HSE is holding a school board election.  Early voting has already started.  Even if you vote a straight ticket for either major political party, stay with the ballot, the school board elections are non-partisan and you must stay with it to cast your ballot.  HSE has 4 districts and your choice of candidates depends on where you live in the district.

As colder weather slowly moves in, road construction in the Fishers area is slowing down as well.  Even State Road 37 is not on the weekly listing, the city just refers to the 37Thrives Web site.  The week will feature a couple of projects to watch along 116th Street.

Below is the full listing, as provided by the City of Fishers:

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PROJECTS NORTH OF 116TH STREET

During the week of October 24, the outside lane of eastbound 116th Street between Whistle Drive and Cumberland Road will be closed between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to allow for overhead utility work.

Road Resurfacing is currently taking place in Geist Overlook, Grey Eagle and Sutton Crossing as part of the 2022 Resurfacing Project. Homeowners will be notified via door hangers prior to any curb reconstruction near their home. After ADA ramp and curb reconstruction is completed, those areas will be restored with topsoil and seed. It is the responsibility of the homeowner to water the seed for the seed to germinate. Prior to road resurfacing, residents will be notified via street signage for street parking restrictions.

Fishers City Hall was vacated by the staff some weeks ago and has been the center of police & fire department training exercises lately.  Demolition of the center of Fishers municipal government since 1991 will begin Monday, October 24th.

City officials say there will be public viewing available on the north side of the construction site, with a limited number of bleachers on a first-come first-served basis.  Viewing will be available 9am-4pm October 24 & October 25.  The city reminds those planning to see the demolition that this is an active construction site and you may be subject to unexpected risk.

The building, originally the Fishers Town Hall when first opened in 1991, then City Hall once Fishers transitioned to a city, has been sinking into the water table beneath the building, which resulted in a decision by Mayor Scott Fadness and the City Council to construct a new Arts & City Hall complex, which is projected to be ready for occupancy by the spring of 2024

To preserve the history of the old City Hall, bricks and limestone from the 1991 building will be preserved and incorporated into the new building.

Fishers city staff is performing work in various locations around the city, including the City Services Building nearby, Launch Fishers and the First Internet Bank Building.

When the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board voted to provide video live-streams and recordings of regular meetings in March of 2019, the vote was 4-3 allowing the videos.  The current board will receive a recommendation to expand the meetings subject to video live-streaming and recording.

The HSE Schools Policy Committee, in a Thursday morning session, is sending a proposal to the board providing that all public school board meetings be video live-streamed and recorded.  Currently, board work sessions, where no action is expected, are not being video live-streamed or recorded.  Executive sessions will not be live-streamed or recorded.

The current board meeting room at the administration building is the only location where video can be live-streamed and recorded.  If the board chose to hold a meeting at another location, such as a school building, there would be no video setup.  However, the board has not had a meeting outside the board room since the administration building was renovated.

Jeff Harrison, HSE Director of Education Technology, told the committee expanding the video coverage to work sessions would result in some increase in the cost.  The contractor live-streaming and storing videos for later viewing allows 25 meetings per year under the current agreement.  Because the board meets only once in some months, HSE does not use all 25 meetings allowed.  HSE did exceed 25 meetings a year during COVID, but the contractor agreed not to charge extra under the circumstances.

In the past year, Harrison counted 35 meetings, including work sessions.  That would have required 10 meetings with video beyond the current contract.  The contractor currently charges “about $500 a meeting,” according to Harrison.

The current video contractor has been acquired by another firm since HSE entered into the contract, and that firm was acquired by a third company just last week, Harrison told the committee.  However, the new company has not indicated any changes in pricing to school administrators.

HSE Chief Financial Officer Katy Dowling says if, for example, the board went to two regular meetings a month and one or more work sessions each month, she estimates the additional cost at about $8,000 a year under the current contractor agreement.

“I wouldn’t say cost is a barrier,”  Dowling said, considering the district’s total budget for 2023 is expected to be about $287 million.  “The board has to weigh – is the cost worth the benefit to the public?”

This proposal will be brought to the school board for first reading October 26.  If the board chooses to adopt the policy change, final action could be taken at the November 9 meeting, and any work session after November 9 could be video live-streamed and recorded.

The nature of Fishers seems to change a bit during two weeks of the year – when Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools are on spring of fall break.  We are right in the middle of fall break week now and you can feel the difference.

As someone that tries to keep up with local government happenings, note that there are virtually no government meetings of any consequence this week.  The Fishers City Council moved-up its monthly session by one week to allow council members to travel with their families this week, if they so choose.

It is normally a slow news week when there is a local school break.

But one item has been reported by a couple of Indianapolis news outlets that is not exactly Fishers, but it could impact people living here.  Both the Indianapolis Business Journal and Fox59 have reported that the local Alcoholic Beverage Commission has issued a license to Costco for a store to bel located just north of 146th Street along State Road 37 (148th Street and N. Point Blvd) just north of Fishers in Noblesville.

B.J.’s Warehouse has already opened in the Hamilton Town Center area of Noblesville (13210 Tegler Drive).

So, those of us in Fishers frequenting the Costco in Castleton may have another Costco option soon.

Whether you are reading this while traveling away from Fishers or you are just enjoying fall break at home, please enjoy.  I say that particularly to the hard-working teaching staff at HSE Schools, very deserving of a fall break.

The District 31 Indiana State Senate race appears to be a competitive one, with Democrat Jocelyn Vare and Republican incumbent Kyle Walker .  I receive messages from both campaigns on a regular basis.  It appears Senator Walker has garnered the most campaign cash, just based on watching television lately and seeing his ads.

Both candidates have been campaigning hard throughout the district, which encompasses all of Fishers and a substantial part of Lawrence.

Walker has listed a number of endorsements, the latest from the National Federation of Independent Business and the Indy Chamber’s Business Advocacy Committee.

Vare, an at-large member of the Fishers City Council, has recently revealed she was the victim of domestic violence about 12 years ago.  In a television interview on Fox59, she explained how the local organization Prevail helped her and her two children escape from an abusive situation.

Many local pundits following politics in the General Assembly are following this election campaign.  It is generally thought to be a competitive district.

As a reminder, early voting has started in Hamilton County.  For more details, use this link.

Fishers Police made an arrest Monday in connection with an October 11th armed robbery at the Star Financial Bank on 96th Street.

Authorities say Quinn Kellam, 20, from Lawrence, was taken into custody without incident and transported to the Hamilton County Jail.  Kellam faces felony counts of armed robbery, criminal confinement, intimidation and theft.

Local police say the arrest came after an extensive investigation was conducted leading to the identification, location and apprehension of the suspect.  Fishers Police credit help in the investigation and subsequent arrest from the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force, IMPD Covert Robbery Unit and the IMPD SWAT Team.

Fishers detectives say they were able to find evidence linking Kellam to additional unsolved business burglaries in Marion County.

What do the following Indiana cities have in common – Indianapolis, Evansville, Spencer, Bloomington, Lafayette, Mooresville, Martinsville, Muncie, Richmond, South Bend and Bedford?

All those Hoosier cities have newspapers owned by the largest chain in the nation, Gannett.  Why is this fact important now?

Because, after a wave of recent job cuts, Gannett is once again lowering the boom on its own employees.

Just last week, the top brass at Gannett gave its own workers some very bad news.  Each employee must take one week of unpaid leave in December and the corporation is looking for volunteers to take buyouts and leave the company.  That’s just the start.

On October 24th, the 401(k) retirement program will no longer match employee contributions to the plan.   This was announced 2 months following layoffs of 400 employees and a decision not to fill 400 open positions.

My understanding is the only reason the Indianapolis Star did not have any layoffs 2 months ago was due to the number of unfilled jobs.  Although no one at the Star lost a job, the remaining journalists will be covering more news with fewer people.

It is clear the business of journalism is not doing well, at least not at Gannett.  According to the Poynter Institute, a well-regarded nonprofit covering American journalism, Gannett had a $54 million loss in the second quarter of this year.

Gannett became much larger after a merger with Gatehouse newspapers but it saddled the company with $1 billion in debt.

From everything I am reading, Gannett is doing everything possible to avoid more layoffs.  But with the numbers publicly known, this will be a large task.

The Indianapolis Star is the state’s largest newspaper and news organizations throughout the state look to that staff for leadership in Hoosier journalism.  With the number of journalists there going down over a number of years, that has an impact on how news is covered throughout the state.

I know many of the journalists working at the Star and there is no doubt in my mind that each and every one of them is dedicated to the profession of journalism.  The Star continues to produce amazing reporting.  I just wonder how long that can continue with a reduced staff at a time when there is so much news to cover.

I saw a Twitter post recently from a reporter I respect, and was dismayed at the message.  That reporter can no longer recommend a career in journalism to students in high school and college today.  The business of news is not good and there is no prospect at the moment to find a business model that works better.

There is something you can do to help get journalism back on its feet – subscribe to your local media.  Online subscriptions are not that expensive.

In the meantime, my hearts go out to the reporters and editors that continue to pursue the news as best they can against the financial headwinds of today.

Thanks for reading this.  I may just be a small local volunteer blog, but I try to make this journalism as best as one person can.

Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools released a statement Friday afternoon citing improvements planned after Fishers City Judge, and local attorney, Dan Henke submitted a report on a classroom incident, but local group Fishers One describes the statement as “vague.”

Fishers One Founder Diane Eaton says members of her organization “are simply appalled by the weak response of the HSE administration.  The lack of action items, accountability, discipline, sensitivity and transparency continues to demonstrate a lack of leadership and a school culture that fosters disrespect and contempt for law enforcement.”

The Friday HSE statement did not provide details of what Judge Henke included in the report that gave the results of his investigation into the classroom incident.  The school district said in the statement –  “The report has a significant amount of student information. The district does not have consent to release the report with this information.”

Instead, school officials laid out improvements it plans to implement as a result of Judge Henke’s report.

The classroom incident deals with Elwood Police Officer Noah Shahnavaz, who died in the line of duty.  Officer Shahnavaz’ brother was in a classroom at an HSE school and saw a “Defund The Police?” poster.  Judge Henke’s investigation was to determine what happened in that classroom incident.

Fishers One argues that HSE Schools has demonstrated a “lack of transparency.”  The organization is backing four candidates for HSE School Board – Tiffany Pascoe, Dr. Juanita Albright, Dawn Lang and Ben Orr.

If the City Council approves in November, sometime in 2023 you will begin to see placards in Fishers restaurants with a grade attached to their latest inspection by the Health Department

The Fishers City Council gave first reading October 10 to the plan that has already been presented to the city’s Board of Health and explained at a recent City Council work session.  The Council is expected to take a final vote on the proposal in November  The Fishers Health Department has held two Webinars explaining the plans to restaurant owners and managers.

If the City Council provides its final stamp of approval on the plans, the Health Department will begin to utilize the state inspection grading system for restaurant inspections, convert that to numbers and convert the numbers to a letter grade – A, B or C. An eatery with a grade of less than a C (or 60 points) would be temporarily closed and would re-open after all priority violations have been corrected and imminent health hazards eliminated.

How often an establishment is inspected depends on the grade.  For example, a restaurant earning an A grade  would likely be inspected again in about 12 months.  Those with a B grade should expect 1 or 2 more inspections in the same year.  A C grade would result in 3-4 inspections per year.

Fishers Public Health Director Monica Heltz says the Health Department will begin gearing up for the inspection program, if enacted by the City Council, in November, in 2023.

So it is possible you will begin to see those placards at Fishers restaurants with the grade from their Health Department inspection in 2023.

For more details on this program, use this link.