The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board voted 4-3 June 8th, adding language to school policies on handling “microaggression.”  At the July 13th school board meeting, President Julie Chambers defended the board’s action on that policy.

Here is the policy approved June 8th:

Microaggressions can be defined as everyday, subtle, intentional
or unintentional interactions or behaviors that communicate some
sort of bias toward historically marginalized groups. While
Hamilton Southeastern High School understands those
individuals communicating a microaggression might not intend
to express bias, the school recognizes the responsibility to educate
students on the reality of bias perceptions. Issues regarding
microaggressions may be addressed through restorative
conversations led by school administration, teachers, and/or
guidance counselors rather than punitive measures. Habitual
occurrences could lead to consequences applicable to
inappropriate conduct as defined in Section 28.

(Section 28 refers to a part of the discipline handbook)

“The recent update to our student handbook provides staff the opportunity to hold restorative conversations about how an intentional, or unintentional, interaction, communicates some kind of bias between students, can be effectively addressed,” Chambers said in a statement read at the July 13 session.

According to Board President Chambers, the policy language was requested by students and has the support of the local teachers’ association, the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association.

Chambers says the policy language “does not include punitive punishments associated with these behaviors and any suggestion to the contrary is inaccurate.”

Ms. Chambers went on to say, “While Hamilton Southeastern understands these individuals communicating microaggression may not intend to express bias, the school recognizes the responsibility to educate students on the reality of bias perceptions.”

School officials will have “restorative conversations” with students not abiding by the policy, but habitual offenses could lead to punitive measures, Chambers said.

Superintendent Yvonne Stokes also emphasized that this is not punitive in nature, and she made clear her goal continues to be keeping students in the classroom with the goal of academic achievement.

The statement was an apparent response to a number of comments made on social media and by people announcing their plans to run for the school board in the upcoming election.  Many have made comments critical of the HSE Schools policy on microaggression.

Candidates for seats on the HSE School Board may begin officially filing July 27th, with the end of the filing period at noon August 27th.

Board member Suzanne Thomas said Chambers’ statement was not shared with other board members in advance.  Chambers responded this was her part of the meeting and the statement was on behalf of the school corporation.

The Youth Mentoring Initiative (YMI) is gearing up for their biggest fund raising event of the year with the Annual Mayor’s Breakfast, set for September 1st, 7:00am, at Heritage Gardens, next to the historic Ambassador House.

Fishers movers and shakers will be on hand for the event, along with mentors and other friends of YMI, celebrating the impact of school-based mentoring in Hamilton Southeastern Schools.

In the next school year, YMI expects to provide mentoring for over 250 students, providing them with a mentor that will listen, support, and connect them to another caring adult in their community.

Tickets are now available for individuals at $50 each and several levels of sponsorships are available as well.

To register, use this link.

When the Hub & Spoke building was finished, it was not only home to the Fishers Parks & Recreation Department, but also provided a “Maker Space.”

That Maker Space is now award-winning, and will host an important competition.

See Fishers the city news release below for more details.

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The Maker Playground, a maker space created and managed by Fishers Parks, was awarded ‘Best Innovation in Design’ by the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA). The Maker Playground was also recently announced as host of the 2022 Make48 City Series Competition, the subject of Make48 docuseries currently syndicated by PBS.

The Maker Playground opened in 2019 as an interactive park property with equipment and programming for woodworking, metalsmithing, and technology to build and create projects in a collaborative space.

The NRPA Innovation Awards recognize park and recreation agencies nationwide that improve and strengthen their communities through innovative practices in park design, health and wellness, conservation, and social equity. The Maker Playground was selected as top in its category.

The Maker Playground was also unveiled recently as the host for the national Make48 competition. The celebrated docuseries brings its 48-hour collaborative inventor and maker challenge to Fishers after a successful run in 2021. The Fishers Maker Playground will host the event, scheduled for September 9-11, 2022. Now open to teams nationwide, competitors from Indiana and beyond will be able to participate in the unique maker competition, which helps participants discover what is possible in just 48 hours.

The winning team will win $2k and advance to compete at the national competition, slated for March 2023, where one team can win $10k. This year’s challenge theme is Food Preservation & The Supply Chain – Food at the Right Place at the Right Time, as determined by United Way of Central Indiana. The event is sponsored by Corteva Agriscience.

Corteva Agriscience™ will serve as the competition’s Challenge Sponsor, helping craft the teams’ competition objective. Corteva is a leading, global pure-play agriculture company headquartered in Indianapolis.

The Innovation in Design award will be officially presented to Fishers at the 2022 NRPA Annual Conference, in Phoenix, AZ in September 2022.

For more information about the Maker Playground, visit this link.

Fishers motorists navigating the construction on State Road 37 should only have a few more weeks of pain.  Hatem Mekky, Assistant Director of Engineering for the City of Fishers, told the Board of Public Works and Safety Tuesday morning that the current construction projects should be completed and open in early September.

That includes the work on 131st Street and 146th Street.  The roundabout at 131st is nearly completed and the traffic signal configuration on 146th Street should also be open at about the same time.  135th Street will open then as a right-in, right-out design.

Mekky told LarryInFishers that his department continues to work with design teams and county officials, along with other stakeholders, looking for a way to complete the roundabout at State Road 37 and 141st Street.  The city is expected to reject the bids submitted as too costly, but Mekky says Fishers officials continue to look for ways to get that project completed.

In other news from the Board of Works meeting, Fishers has approved a contract to provide fire protection and emergency services for the unincorporated areas of Fall Creek and Delaware Townships.  This is an agreement that has been renewed each year for a number of years, between the city and the township boards.

Fishers Police credit alert neighbors in the 11400 Block of Timberlane Drive (south of 116th St. near Hague Rd.) for an arrest made in the early hours of Sunday morning for vehicle theft.

Authorities received 911 calls reporting two suspicious men in the neighborhood.

“As police arrived in the area, they observed two men standing outside of a vehicle matching the description given by the resident,” according to a police department news release. “The two men quickly entered the vehicle and drove away. The officer initiated a traffic stop however the suspect vehicle refused to stop. Fishers police officers pursued the suspects until their vehicle became disabled on 82^nd Street. Three suspects fled on foot. Police searched the area and located one of the suspects. The suspect was taken into custody and transported to the Hamilton County Jail without incident.”

Police found 18 victims and were able to return stolen property to the owners.  Two handguns were found in the suspect’s vehicle.

Under arrest is Joshua Morilla, 23, from Indianapolis.  He faces several charges, including felony and misdemeanor counts of theft, several counts of unauthorized entry into a vehicle and possession of marijuana.

Fishers Police add a reminder that residents should remove all items of value from unattended vehicles.

There is no question America is very divided.  I have lived through the Kennedy assassinations in the 1960s, as well as the Democratic Convention in Chicago during that period.  I have seen how the Vietnam War split our population.  I experienced what happened in Watergate.

Yes, we are divided now and have had splits on many issues during my lifetime.  I fully understand all that.

However, a story posted on the news Web site axios.com reminds us that there are important moments when we come together, when “normal people” come through to make a difference.

The biggest example is how regular folks came to the aid of the Highland Park shooting victims during that July 4th parade.  Had those citizens not quickly responded, the death toll would certainly have been higher.

There are a few other examples in that story.  It is all about “normal people” rapidly responding to an emergency and making a difference.

You can read the Axios story at this link.

It feels good to sometimes have good news to report.

There are far fewer journalists covering news at the Indiana Statehouse than was once the case, and that is true in many state capitals around the nation.  A nonprofit organization is setting-up statehouse news operations in a number of states, and has just opened the latest here in Indiana.

In this podcast, I talk with Niki Kelly, Editor-in-Chief for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, about the nonprofit concept used to finance the operation and how she and her staff plan to cover Indiana government.

Find their work at this link (Note:  There is no paywall, this is a free news source)

The Fishers Police Department Citizens Academy is gearing-up for its 40th year.  In 2022, academy sessions will be on Wednesdays, 6:30-9:00pm.  Anyone living in Fishers, age 16 or older, may apply.

The first gathering is August 17, with graduation set for November 16.  If interested, do not wait too long, the class is limited to 30 people.

According to a news release from Fishers Police, “The purpose of the academy is to provide participants with an opportunity to better understand the role of police officers and, more specifically, to strengthen the relationship between the officers of the Fishers Police Department and the community.  Officers will provide an overview of the roles and responsibilities of FPD Officers and insight into some of the specialized units and skills within FPD.  Topics will include how to make a traffic stop, how the K-9 Unit works within the agency, the role of the Fishers Dive Team, how Crime Scene Investigators process scenes, and how to safely navigate social media and the internet. Students will have some classroom instruction and practical role play training each day.”

There will be a screening process for anyone applying.  You must register online only at this link.

When the background check is completed, those approved will be notified via e-mail, with more details on the classes.  Registration ends July 22, or when the class if full, whichever comes first.

The move to Fishers happened once I was married  in 1991.  It was a town of less than 10,000 people, based on the census numbers available at that time.  It was a very different place then, a small farm town with a subdivision or two.

That began to change quickly.  As a resident of Fishers for 31 years, there is one statement of fact I can write here.  The only thing in Fishers that has remained the same is the fact that everything is always subject to change.

I have seen massive change in Fishers during my time here.  The local school district began taking on over 1,000 new students every year for many years.  Building a new elementary school every year did not always keep up with the growth.  The amazing part of that story is the way the school corporation was able to handle that massive growth and keep academic achievement generally very high.

When I arrived in Fishers, that small building across from the Depot building on 116th Street was the Town Hall.  A few months later, the town moved into the new Town Hall, our current City Hall.

We are about to lose our current City Hall mainly because it is sinking into the water table beneath the structure and keeping that building going is costing taxpayers so much money it is more financially prudent to build a new one.

We have gone from a time that you only knew you were in downtown Fishers when driving over the railroad tracks, to a developed downtown where the tracks have been transformed into a trail with a tunnel underneath 116th Street..

City Hall will see the wrecking ball in a few months, causing city staff to find other places to work until the new building is complete.  But I have a question about the new building.

An artist rendering of the new facility (see above) has a sign that does not mention the words City Hall.  It is the “Arts and Municipal Complex.”

My question is – why drop the phrase “City Hall” in favor of “Municipal Complex?”

I have no problem giving “Arts” top billing.  Mayor Scott Fadness told me in a recent podcast that he considers this to be a few floors of office space above an arts center.  He believes the arts center is the key part of the building.

In speaking with some city officials, I get the idea that the phrase “Municipal Complex” could be changed, but no one is sure to what.

We still have some parts of Fishers that have historically been here.  We have Conner Prairie.  Sahm’s still has restaurants here.  Reynolds Farm Equipment is still in business here.  Please don’t attack me for leaving something or someone out, this is not intended to be a comprehensive listing, just a few examples that come to my mind while writing this.

There are still some people in Fishers unhappy with the growth and changes in our area.  They say Fishers has lost its small town feel.  I understand where they are coming from but Mayor Fadness has an answer for that.

Some time ago, in another podcast interview, he made clear that, in his view, a city is either moving forward or backward.  In this day and age, it is not possible to just stand pat, according to the mayor..

So, our mayor has clearly chosen the path of moving forward.  Fishers has had massive commercial and residential growth, and Fadness has had a hand in getting that done.

When I married Jane in 1991, we moved into the house she had recently built in Sunblest.  Our twin daughters attended HSE Schools grades K-12 and received a first-class education.  Both are college grads and have grown into outstanding young women.

Jane & I are in our third Fishers home and have no desire to move again.  As retirees, Fishers suits us just fine.

That one fact will continue for the foreseeable future – Fishers will have what remains the same – everything is always subject to change.  That is not always a bad thing.

It was 1962, I was about 11 years old, and my dad was away.  Turns out, he and a group of his friends, all Butler basketball fans, had decided to take a road trip south to Lexington, Kentucky.

The Butler Bulldogs, under legendary coach Tony Hinkle, were about to play in the NCAA basketball tournament for the first time ever.  The Dogs had gone to the NIT a few times, but never the biggest show.

In those days, only 32 teams were invited to that tourney.  Butler had to play Bowling Green, a team from Ohio with two players that later had stellar NBA careers, Nate Thurmond and Howard Komives.

The reason that all came to mind was a June 30th article in the Indianapolis Star by reporter David Woods.  Two players from the team, Gerry Williams and Dick Haslam, have recently died.

Once I was old enough, my brother Tom & I started going to Butler basketball games with my dad and a neighbor.  Butler had some tough years after 1962 but it was always fun to watch the Bulldogs.

They always had some top-tier teams come to the Fieldhouse early in the season.  Hinkle had a reputation for having well-disciplined teams and made a good adversary for teams looking to prepare for the conference season.

I remember seeing Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Notre Dame and Ohio State face the Bulldogs during the 1960s.  Butler once beat Michigan by 20 points at a time the Wolverines were ranked 3rd in the nation.

The Brad Stevens era brought new glory days for Butler basketball, but the history of that program is worth retelling.  Thanks to David Woods for bringing back some great 1960s memories for me.