The novel coronavirus is changing most of our lives, but school systems are presented with very specific challenges.  Brooke Lawson coordinates the mental health and counseling programs for HSE Schools.  She talks with me about some of those challenges in this podcast.

Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools took a hit in this school year’s enrollment, losing about 400 students compared to the previous year.  District Chief Financial Officer Cecilie Nunn told the school board Wednesday night that school systems throughout the state are seeing the same reductions in student population, likely related to the novel coronavirus.

The state funds local school corporations based on the number of students enrolled, so with fewer students, HSE Schools will be facing a $5 million budget deficit.  In an effort to deal with this, administrators are forming a task force to make recommendations for the board.  The members of that task force can be found at this link.

The task force will look for actions to reduce the funding deficit for the 2021-2022 school year.  The guiding principles for the group are to look at all programs and how they are delivered, look at innovative ways to deliver the programs and conduct any required staff reduction-in- force through attrition.

The group is scheduled to have its report to the school superintendent by late February and the board will see the recommendations in early March, 2021, with action projected by the end of March.

In other school board news from Wednesday night:

–The board had a preliminary discussion on naming the new elementary school in the works for Wayne Township.  Board President Michelle Fullhart suggested naming the building “Deer Creek Elementary.”  The board discussed how to move forward and no decision was made.

–Superintendent Allen Bourff says graduation ceremonies are already being planned, but admitted uncertainty about the COVID-19 situation makes such planning difficult.  Administrators will be looking at all the options.

Student class start times will change in the coming school year based on a vote Wednesday night by the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board.  The schedule is the same that was recommended by the committee and revealed publicly at the previous board meeting.

The vote was 5-2, with board members Amanda Shera and Sylvia Shepler voting no.

The new class start times will begin in the 2021-2022 school year.

Junior High and High School students in the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School District will be on an all-virtual class schedule beginning Monday, November 16 at least through December 18, when Christmas Break begins the next day.  Grades K-4 (including pre-school) will remain in-person, while grades 5 & 6 will stay on a hybrid schedule with 50% of the time in the classroom.

The vote by the board was unanimous.  It is a reaction to an increase in COVID-19 positive cases in the Fishers area and Hamilton County.

Administrators told the board staffing has been a challenge.  All classrooms have been staffed, but it has been difficult with teachers giving up preparation periods and others, such as principals, deans and counselors, filling-in .

Superintendent Allen Bourff said only 4.1% of the positive cases within the school district came from school activities.  According to Bourff, there have been 245 positive cases in the school system and 2,263 instances of close contacts requiring quarantine.

The Fishers City Board of Health is scheduled to vote on a series of recommendations in response to the increase in COVID-19 cases locally.  They include doing away with school extra-curricular activities, including athletics.  It would also call for mask wearing the entire school day, with no breaks.  That Board of Health vote is expected at a meeting set for Friday at 4pm.

When The City of Fishers announced the Veterans Day celebration, set for outside at the Nickel Plate Amphitheater, had been switched to a virtual event Wednesday morning, I knew something was up on the COVID-19 front.  Then the word came down that the Fishers Health Department had increased the risk level to Level 4, Red, the highest risk level.

That was the subject of discussion at the Fishers Board of Health meeting Tuesday night.  The board took no action, but will mull over specific recommendations presented by the Health Department and meet again Friday at 4pm to consider taking action.

The recommendations for action would limit indoor gatherings outside a personal residence to no more than 10 people, and that requires wearing masks, social distancing and washing hands.  For outside activities, the limit would be 25 people with the same mitigation requirements as indoor events.

Special events would require a plan subject to approval by the Fishers Health Department.

The recommendations include eliminating school extra-curricular activities, in an effort to preserve in-person classes.  This would include athletics.

Mayor Scott Fadness, presiding over the Board of Health meeting, says the public may make comments on the recommendations before the board takes a vote on any actions Friday.

The board asked the Board of Health staff to look into guidelines for businesses other than restaurants and retail food outlets as part of the recommendations.

Here is a part of the Tuesday night meeting where City Attorney Chris Greisl reviews the details of the recommendations, followed by a discussion with Mayor Fadness and Monica Heltz of the Health Department.  Below that is the city news release with more details on Tuesday night’s Board of Health meeting.

At the Tuesday Fishers Board of Health meeting, Monica Heltz, Public Health Director, presented findings to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases experienced in Fishers.

As part of the proposed recommendations, Heltz outlined several key areas:

• Social gatherings are a primary source of spread according to reporting from contact tracers
• COVID-19 infection is widespread across the Fishers community with no one concentrated area.
• All ages appear to be equally affected
• Strong indication that schools remain a safe space for students in terms of case-to-case transmission

These key findings informed the following proposals that will undergo consideration for adoption during Friday’s scheduled Board of Health meeting.

Recommendations

• Avoid gatherings in homes, workplaces, churches
• Stay at home except for essential services (i.e. school, work, healthcare, and groceries)
• Utilize curbside delivery, carryout services and/or home delivery
• Work from home if possible
• Increase sanitation protocols
• Gyms and retail establishments should have special hours for high-risk individuals
• Mask up; distance; sanitize

• 5 Core requirements for Orange and Red
• All school-sponsored extracurriculars canceled in Red
• Enforcement via environmental inspections by FHD
• One case in a class quarantines the entire class

Public Health Order

• Cancellation of school-sponsored extracurricular activities

• No bar seating – patrons must sit at designated tables
• No more than 8 people at a table
• Masks must be worn at restaurants until food arrives, however can be temporarily removed for drinking beverages before food arrives

• Confined entertainment spaces: No more than 8 in group

• Indoors: 10 maximum
• Outdoors: 25 maximum
• 1 spectator per participant at sporting events

Mask Mandate Modification

In addition to the potential implementation of the public health orders, the Fishers Health Department asks all residents to make Every Action Count. Every Action Counts in the fight against COVID-19. We’re counting on you to make a difference. Every time you wear your mask. Every time you attend virtual meetings. And every time you keep your distance—your choices help keep everyone healthy.

• Wear a mask
• Distance
• Sanitize
• No outside visitors to your household

Once the 2020 general election votes were counted by the Hamilton County Election office in the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board election, only 22 votes separated two candidates in the Delaware Township at-large race.  The vote count shows Sarah Donsbach was the winner over incumbent Amanda Shera by a narrow margin of .05% of the votes cast.  So the question is, will there be a recount?

Indiana law does not provide for automatic recounts, but a candidate may request a recount no later than 14 days after the election.  Hamilton County Clerk Kathy Williams says the county election office will certify the election numbers this coming Friday, November 13th.  That total will account for provisional ballots, as well as the unsigned and mismatched signature ballots.   The numbers could change after that process, providing a smaller or larger margin to recount.

If Ms. Shera wishes to request a recount, she must file with one of the Hamilton County courts and post a bond, along with additional fees, depending on the number of precincts to be recounted.  The judge would then appoint a recount commission to conduct the counting.  Any recount must be completed no later than December 20th.

(NOTE:  The City of Fishers announced Tuesday morning that this event will be held virtually, with an online video feed)

The City of Fishers has traditionally held its annual Veterans Day ceremony indoors, due to the normal weather we find in an Indiana November.  However, we are in the middle of a major pandemic, so the city will have this year’s Veterans Day event outside at the Nickel Plate Amphitheater.

It will be held on Veterans Day, November 11, at 10am.  Plans include a warbird flyover, pin presentation, remarks from Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness, local veterans, and keynote speaker Colonel Charles F. “Chuck” Bragg, IGR and more.

Here are more details, as provided by the City of Fishers:

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I do not often comment on national elections, but a new president is a big deal for everyone.  There are so many aspects of this election I do not know where to start.

The first comment deals with polling.  We had this problem 4 years ago and it isn’t going away.

This issue centers on state polls.  Many were on target in places like Texas, Georgia and Iowa.  But when you look at polls conducted in the states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the data did not match up to the final result.

As I have written many times before, polling is a geeky exercise in statistical analysis, evaluating data and vast arrays of numbers.  Polls that meet the standards of the polling industry ended up with data that were way out of the margin of error looking at some of the final results.  Those with the responsibility of polling need to look at the practices of their industry and do a better job.

It should be noted that this is not related to any media bias.  Media companies hire polling firms they believe follow the best practices in the industry…..the media companies themselves do not do the polling.  The media hires a polling firm to provide solid data.  That didn’t happen in every state in this election cycle.

It should also be noted that political campaigns poll all the time just to know where they stand with the voters.  If the campaigns are getting bad polling information, they cannot know where they stand with voters at any particular point in time.

Bottom line, those involved in polling need to take a deep look into where things went wrong in the 2020 presidential race.

All the major media organizations have declared Joe Biden the new president-elect.  It is true every vote has not been counted, but that will take weeks in many states.  The bean counters hired by the media have determined that the numbers now are such that President Trump has no chance of winning enough electoral votes to win re-election.

The president has been Tweeting that he alleges fraud in the vote count.  He is entitled to file lawsuits and ask for recounts if he so desires.  But he and his attorneys will have the burden to provide proof of fraud and so far no evidence has been presented providing that proof.

With that in mind, it looks like Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States.  Let’s watch what happens now.

by

Richie Hall

Sports Editor

Hamilton county Reporter

WESTFIELD – Since the present format of the IHSAA football post-season began in 1985, Westfield has played in every single class, from 1A to 6A.

The Shamrocks won a sectional championship in the smallest (1A) class back in 1986, its first-ever sectional. Now in 2020, Westfield can claim a title in the biggest class, as the ‘Rocks beat Fishers 31-0 Friday night at Riverview Health Stadium to win the Class 6A Sectional 4 championship. It’s the first time Westfield has ever won a sectional in Class 6A.

“We did make a big deal of that,” said ‘Rocks coach Jake Gilbert. “When you’re a part of a great program, the longer the program has success, the less likely you can make history. You’re just building off something that someone else has already done before you. This was an opportunity for us to do something no one’s ever done here.”

In claiming their 10th overall sectional championship, the Shamrocks continued three streaks. First, Westfield won its 10th game in a row. Second, the ‘Rocks scored over 30 points for the sixth straight contest.

“We’ve been hot on offense and special teams, too,” said Gilbert. “We just got to keep rolling. It takes that level of execution, though, to beat teams when you get this far in the tournament.”

Westfield got its first touchdown early, when Maximus Webster threw a 28-yard pass to Mason Piening, who took it into the end zone. The Shamrocks had to wait until almost the end of the first half to get their second touchdown, but Micah Hauser got the ball in with nine seconds left in the half, rushing 14 yards into the end zone.

The second half began just like the first half did: A touchdown pass from Webster to Piening. This one was from 51 yards, and the ‘Rocks were up 21-0 with 10:25 left in the third quarter.

“We’ve worked hard and finally had the chance to prove what we’re made of and made it happen,” said Piening. He credited “very strong” chemistry as being the key to Westfield’s success on offense.

“Every day at practice we’re always clicking,” said Piening. “It shows on the field.”
Webster added one more touchdown near the end of the third period, running in from four yards. Sean Sullivan kicked the extra point after each touchdown, then provided the final points of the game late in the fourth with a 38-yard field goal.

Webster had another outstanding game, going 10-of-14 through the air for 158 yards. Reid Scheppers had the most catches with three, while Piening’s two touchdown receptions totaled 79 yards. Micah Hauser led the rushing with 92 yards.

Kyle Pape totaled 16 tackles (four solo and 12 assists) for Westfield’s defense. McGuire Graybill and David Frey both made 10 tackles, while Popeye Williams had a sack. Pape and Bryson Hoover both made 1.5 tackles for a loss.

The Shamrocks have not given up any points since Week 8 of the regular season, which also happened to be their first game with Fishers. The Tigers scored a touchdown in the first quarter of that game, but since then, Westfield has gone 15 consecutive quarters without allowing a point.

“It feels amazing,” said Carson Voorhis, who made one catch for 12 yards and four tackles on defense.

“Just playing with my brothers and just going out there every week, it just feels great. We just want to prolong our playing time with my family, because I love them. We all love each other.”

Fishers quarterback Lucas Prewitt also had a solid game, completing 14 of 22 attempts for 102 yards. Carson Dunn, the sophomore running back, continued his run of strong play with 76 yards rushing and six receptions. Luke Valerio had four catches. On defense, Seth Dunnuck made 12 tackles (nine solo and three assists), while Joel Coston had a sack.
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“We had to make sure that we controlled the clock and ran the football, and I thought we did a good job of that,” said Tigers coach Curt Funk. “We just struggled finishing some drives against them.”

Fishers finished the regular season 3-7.

“We knew we were going to have to play a perfect game,” said Funk. “Our kids fought and battled the whole time and I think we showed improvement from where we were at four weeks ago to now.”

Westfield is now 10-1 and will host Homestead next Friday for the Regional 2 championship. The Spartans were 30-22 winners over Warsaw in the Sectional 3 title game.

Preparations continue to fully open the interchange at 126th Street and State Road 37.  That means there will be ramp closure Sunday.  For details on that, and other road construction projects around Fishers, here is the weekly report, as provided by the City of Fishers:

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