Northwest Indiana Discussion

Here are the highlights of the meeting:

All board members were present.

The regular meeting was briefly adjourned to have the Board Of Finance Meeting. Mrs. White was elected president, and George Janiec was elected Secretary.

Recognition/Presentation:

The O'Bannon Choir sang 2 songs this evening. The O'Bannon Robotics Team was honored this evening.

Calender:

The next regular meeting will be on Monday February 9th, 6pm 41 Williams Street. The other regular meeting in February will be on Monday February 23rd 6pm at Harding.
There will be a change in the days of the meetings, starting in March all the School board meetings will be on the 1st and 3rd Mondays, instead of the 2nd and 4th Mondays. This change was made as the SCH meetings are the same day and basically the same time as the City Council meetings. This gives residents the opportunity to attend both the SCH and the council meetings, instead of having to choose which one to attend, because of the conflict.

Public Expression 2nd Session(no speakers at 1st session):

Ms. Janet Workman thanked the SCH for the use of Gavit for the annual "Relay For Life" which benefits the American Cancer Society.

Mrs. Gray expressed her concerns about the number of students who have been given tickets for jaywalking, and the large fines being assessed. She was upset over the racial statistics of the students who were given tickets. According to what she said, 21% of the students were white, 21% of the students were Latino, and 51% of the students were black.

My Take:

Congratulations to the O'Bannon students honored this evening !!!

FTR, I live right between Eggers and Hammond High. Some of these kids act like idiots, darting in and out of traffic on Calumet Avenue. Just the other day, I saw a girl almost get hit by a car right in front of HHS. Some of the kids block the streets over here, walking right down the middle, like they own it. Many of the residents here, myself included, try to stay at home, and not even bother to try to venture out, when the schools here let out. Between the horrid traffic jams, the parents parking wherever they feel like, blocking driveways, double parking, etc, and the behavior of some of the kids, we feel almost like we are being held prisoner every day the kids get out of school. Just last week, a HHS student, walking home from school, broke into my neighbors car across the alley from me, and was rifling through it, when my neighbor caught him and called the cops.

The DOE statistics on the SCH ethnic/racial composition are as follows:

Hispanic 48.3%
Black 29.8%
White 17.7%
Multi-Racial 3.8%
The rest are Native American or Asian, very small percentages.