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School board seeks support for approved referendum
January 20, 2010 by Hannah Davis
Filed under Latest News, News
School board members, students, and neighbors gathered at the Noblesville Schools administration building annex last Wednesday night, January 19, to move forward on the 1058 motion, a referendum to increase property taxes in an effort to financially support system-wide improvements.
The referendum, which passed unanimously, will appear on the May 4 ballot. The project consists of building a new elementary school to replace Forest Hill, adding over 20 classrooms for elementary schools, upgrading the intermediate school to become a second middle school, and adding additional science labs and health and physical education classrooms at the high school.
However, the improvement will come at a great cost to the administration – over $63 million dollars. Adding further stress, the state education department’s new budget cuts will force 15% of the system’s spending in 2010 to be eliminated.
“I’m not sure [the department of education] had growing school corporations in mind when they crafted these budget cuts,” board member Chris Hamm said.
This year’s new proposed budget, just over $48 million, is notably less than the budget of just three years ago, even with the addition of 1400 students since then.
Per-student spending has been slashed by $428 in those three years, eliminating many after-school and summer activities and all field trips, superintendent Dr. Libbie Conner said.
“We’ve frozen spending everywhere we can freeze it,” Conner said.
Nevertheless, the proposed improvements are necessary to accommodate the educational standards of the community, she said.
Consequently, if the referendum is passed by voters in May, taxes must be imposed.
The board’s financial expert, Randy Ruhl of City Securities, Inc., said that the project’s $63.6 million price tag would be distributed among three different years’ property taxes.
“Staggered payments allow us to stagger tax impacts,” Ruhl said.
But the board feels that the taxes, no matter how great, are necessary.
“To achieve a lesser level of education will cause the community to die,” Hamm said in a passionate explanation of the new taxes.
Before the big vote on May 4, Noblesville residents have the opportunity to review forum dialog, the 2009 Demographic Study, and frequently asked questions on the school district’s website at www.noblesvilleschools.org.
Noblesville citizens think little of 2012
December 9, 2009 by Molly Crump
Filed under Latest News
Story by: Reed Stoerck, grade 9
Many theories are circulating right now about whether or not on December 21, 2012, the world will end in some spectacular fashion. From copious amounts of television and media coverage, to a feature film, 2012 is having quite an affect on today’s culture.
The most common and accepted theory among believers and the one featured in the film is that the Mayans, an ancient Central American civilization, created a calendar that predicted the end of the world. This is true, as well as the part about the calendar ending on the aforementioned date.
The mainstream theory states that since the Mayans were such an advanced civilization for their time, and that their calendar went so far ahead, that they must have known when the world might end.
Freshman Conner Tucker doesn’t think so.
“That theory is dumb. If the world is gonna end, we’re gonna do it.” Tucker said. “The world right now is like a chain-smoker, we are just destroying ourselves with all kinds of stuff.”
“I think the movie is going to be hilarious.” He said. “The plot is going to be just like every disaster movie, bad. It’s all about watching stuff go boom.”
Freshman Ben Austin takes a religious point of view on the theories.
“Revelations [in the Bible] talks about the end of the world,” Austin said.“It says that no mortal man can predict the end of the world, and shouldn’t. When God decides to bring the end, he will. Hopefully at some far off date.”
Freshman campus World History teacher Andrew McCormick said that there is some logic to the theory.
“Based on what I know of the Mayans and their calendars, they were very advanced,” McCormick said. “But I don’t think they predicted the end of the world. They probably just ran out of stone for their calendar.”
Noblesville earns students and a good reputation
September 3, 2009 by Katie Souders
Filed under Archives
Every year schools around America gain a few new students and lose some old ones. This year Noblesville High School gained three students who all came from the same place. Two of which are no strangers to its hallways. Both junior Taylor Mckiernan and junior Austin Mace have attended Noblesville Schools, but after eighth grade they enrolled at Guerin Catholic High School. Their reasons for leaving Guerin and returning to Noblesville were almost, if not exactly, the same. Sami Brown, the third new student, attended Our Lady of Grace before she enrolled at Guerin Catholic High School, but now she has been transformed into a Miller. Noblesville High School has been competing with itself and other schools to be the best.
“Noblesville has a better ‘High School’ atmosphere,” junior Austin Mace said. According to him, both schools hold a high academic integrity, but NHS offers a better student life. Noblesville has more to offer than its dances and extracurricular activities; all three of the new students claimed that they have learned more while attending NHS. Noblesville gives its students the option to choose their own classes. The student body bears more responsibility and has to take the initiative to put themselves in the higher level classes.
NHS is very similar to a private school, but it also has some significant differences. Unlike private schools, Noblesville is more affordable and doesn’t require any prerequisites; it gives everybody the chance to succeed. The high school promotes self expression.
“I did not like wearing uniforms, I prefer to wear what I want,” junior Sami Brown said. Students claim that wearing uniforms is extraneous, and it inhibits them to represent themselves.
Junior Austin Mate commented on Noblesville supporting and practicing the zero tolerance policy; which is defined as a policy of not having a toleration for transgressions regardless of mistakes or ignorance. It states that any infraction of laws or regulations will be met with full punishment. He claims that it is more beneficial to the students for the school to be more strict because of the number of students.
NHS has longer breaks throughout the school year for holidays and uses block scheduling; also, the grading scale at Noblesville is more beneficial to the student body because gives every student a fair chance to be successful.
“The grading scale at Guerin was nearly impossible,” junior Taylor Mckiernan said. NHS is as close to a private school as a public school can get. It offers a high academic accountability, a variety of school functions, and extracurricular activities. Noblesville High School has earned its good reputation, and in turn has gained new students.
