Letters to the Editor do not reflect the opinions of The Reporter, its publisher or its staff. You can submit your own Letter to the Editor by email to News@ReadTheReporter.com. Please include your phone number and city of residence. The Reporter will publish one letter per person per week.
Dear Editor:
I am disappointed in the decision of the four Fishers One-backed HSE school board members who voted on March 8 to throw away nearly $90,000 of taxpayer dollars. These candidates ran on a platform of being fiscally conservative, but wasting almost $100,000 is not being fiscally conservative, let alone fiscally responsible.
HSE School District has used Panorama Ed to survey its students about school culture in order to implement school improvement plans, as required by the Indiana Department of Education. However, at the most recent meeting, and without any explanation, Board members Suzanne Thomas, Ben Orr, Tiffany Pascoe, and Juanita Albright voted to cease using the platform immediately. However, they brought forward no viable alternative, and because the contract has already been paid in full, the district loses out on the $90,000 in services it has already paid for.
Additionally, this vote leaves our administrators having to scramble to find or create a new platform in order to obtain the information necessary to comply with state law, which will likely cost the district even more money. This vote shows a complete lack of respect for both our school staff and the taxpayers.
Historically, only about 5 percent of families opted their students out of the survey. These Board members made a decision without explanation or discussion that will hurt our students, teachers, and taxpayers not based on facts, but seemingly based on campaign promises to their donors.
This is not how public servants should lead. Decisions should be made based on facts and feedback from our teachers, administrators, and parents, not politics.
With 95 percent of our families choosing to allow their students to participate in this survey, it is clear these Board members are only listening to very small minority in our community instead of doing what is best for HSE Schools and our students.
They should be ashamed.
Julie Chambers
Proud HSE Parent and Taxpayer
As a taxpayer of HSE schools I am glad the status qou is changing and “PROUD” faux concerned parents like the above writer are no longer hurting our children with twisted progressive policies. Good riddance lady
As a taxpayer and parent of HSE schools, I’m appalled the board would waste money instead of being fiscally conservative and just letting contract expire to give time to admin instead of blindsiding them