Starting Tuesday, November 3, 2009 there will be ten public forums concerning the proposed building projects for Noblesville Schools.  We need representation at all 10 of the open forums to show the importance of all of the items in the current referendum proposal. You may view the complete referendum package by clicking on the following link: http://www.nobl.k12.in.us/Nobweb/CurrentChallenges.pdf. All ten of the open forums will be run by our school board members and superintendent.  We need your help to convey to them as well as whoever attends the meetings that, with the support of the academic/athletic families in our community, the referendum will pass.  We need to give our present and future students every opportunity to be successful while attending Noblesville Schools at every level. 

All components of the current plan need to stay intact to allow our students the chance to reach their full potential.  History is a great teacher, and we need to learn from the past so that we do not repeat the same mistakes.  The last time we had the opportunity to vote on the referendum, we allowed only 11% of our community to decide what was best for the present and future students of our community.

                We are taking a proactive approach this time, and getting the facts out to the community is an important aspect of this approach.  Listed below are facts that convey the importance of keeping all parts of the current building proposal intact for the community vote in May.

• 49% of our students at the high school take some sort of physical education class and we have no more room for growth due to lack of PE classrooms
• We have no lockers presently left to allow this area of the curriculum to grow.
• We do not have enough health classrooms.
• We cannot properly train our students in the weight room due to the limited space and overcrowding and are forced to use 2 hallways to train our students wanting to achieve athletic scholarships.
• The goal of the PE department is to have 80% or more of the students enrolled in physical education.  We cannot meet this goal with our current facilities.

One reason for the need for additional instructional space is simple population growth.  In September 2009 the number of students at the NHS Main Campus in grades 10-12 was 1779.  That is 99 students higher than the official enrollment in grades 9 -12 in the fall of 1996.  Another reason is changes in course offerings and student course selections which have created needs that did not exist when the Main Campus was designed.

The NHS Main Campus portion of the proposed building projects has been expanded to include badly-needed science classrooms and labs.  The second-story addition across from rooms 250 - 252--projected when NHS first opened--is included in current building proposals.  The greatest need is for chemistry and physics labs.  Currently room 135, designed as a business lab and formerly used as an art room, houses six sections of physics, while rooms 246/247 have been converted from math classrooms to a science classroom/lab space (that is inadequate especially for use as a chemistry lab).

The other NHS component of NS building projects remains in the Main Campus Wellness area.  It is not widely known that 49% of current Main Campus students are in a Health or Physical Education class.  More people are aware of the healthy enrollment in summer PE:  421 PE credits were earned in summer 2009, up from 366 in 2008 and 406 in 2007.  Summer school enrollments, however, do not alleviate overcrowding in the two health classrooms at the Main Campus or the facilities for physical education.  317 students are taking Health at the Main Campus, and 436 are in Advanced (Elective) PE.

Our goal is to have attendance (we mean great attendance as well) at the public forums so our school board understands that this community does want expanded facilities.  Our fear is that there will be the "negative" voters at the forums that speak against the high school piece, and ultimately the school board could remove the wellness project from the referendum.  If this were to happen, it would be a tragedy to our community's children. Listed below are the dates, times and locations of all of the forums.  We need you to attend at least one forum and to voice your support of the current referendum by speaking up when given a chance at each and every one of the ten forums.  Feel free to use the facts we have listed above when speaking at the forums.

Forums are as follows:     All Forums begin at 7:00 p.m.

Tuesday, Nov. 3 - North Elementary School

Wednesday, Nov. 4 - Noblesville Intermediate School

Thursday, Nov. 5 - Noblesville High School (Large Group Instruction Room, Main Campus)

Tuesday, Nov. 10 - White River Elementary School

Wednesday, Nov. 11 - Hazel Dell Elementary School

Monday, Nov. 16 - Stony Creek Elementary School

Tuesday, Nov. 17 - Noblesville Middle School

Wednesday, Nov. 18 - Hinkle Creek Elementary School

Thursday, Nov. 19 - Forest Hill Elementary School

Monday, Nov. 30 - Noble Crossing Elementary School