The Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board enacted an administration recommendation to continue an Honors Biology program in the junior high schools, allowing those students to be transported to the high school laboratories for class. The action also allows plans to move forward with enhancing 7th & 8th grade science classes to conform with the rigor of the new state standards.
The vote was 4-3. Mike Bottorff, Sylvia Shepler and Amanda Shera cast the no votes.
As board comments became more critical of the proposal presented by school administrators, President Matt Burke urged his colleagues to support the measure.
“When we have a strong recommendation coming from our administrators, that have spent considerably more time than us evaluating this, and we call into question their judgment, we need to think about what message we are sending to our administrators,” Burke said. “We have to decide, are we going to trust our administrators in some of these types of situations?
In other school board items from Wednesday night:
A series of resolutions passed unanimously clearing the way for the financing of renovations to the Cumberland Road Elementary School and the HSE Schools Administration Building.
There will be a new alternative school for HSE students in the fall of 2017. The school district will end the arrangement with a group in Noblesville. Administrators are close to a decision on leasing space locally for the facility. Alternative Schools are for students unable to function in a regular school setting.
HSE will become a GoOPen District following the board action. GoOpen is a national Department of Education effort to share educational materials.
Minor changes to the student handbooks were approved by the board. Those handbooks are now available online only.
HSE Schools will be migrating Learning Management Systems from the Blackboard program to one called Canvas, after board approval of the contract. Canvas has not yet agreed to all the contract language, but any changes would come before the board for a vote.