CHS will donate 0.5 acres of property to City of Carmel for roundabout at the Fourth Avenue and Main Street intersection.

At the Oct. 26 board meeting, Carmel Clay Schools (CCS) approved the donation of about 0.5 acres of CHS property to the City of Carmel to allow for construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Main Street. CCS is also currently managing the transition for students who are changing schedules from hybrid to all-virtual or vice versa for next semester.

According to Superintendent Michael Beresford, the roundabout will likely begin construction within the next couple of years, and the donation merely involved “small corner pieces of our property” at the edges of the CHS parking lot near the intersection, and does not actually extend into the parking area.

“The city of Carmel is going to put in a roundabout right there at Fourth (Avenue), so that’ll be a big change for Carmel High School because it’s in our main intersection with the (Carmel Clay Public) Library, which is under construction,” Beresford said, “So it’s probably not bad timing, while everything’s getting worked on.”

Regarding students who are changing schedules, Beresford said the numbers right now roughly indicate a net change of an increase of 40 students changing to a hybrid schedule at CHS, as around 160 students indicated they would like to switch from virtual to hybrid and around 120 students indicated they would like to switch from hybrid to virtual.

Senior Connie Zhang is one of those students switching from hybrid to virtual, having completed the form that was due Oct. 23. She said CCS did a good job managing the option to transition although there is room for improvement as well.

“I think (CCS) did a good job, generally, but there is one thing: I don’t think they notified the parents consistently (about the form to switch schedules). I know some people who have missed the form or they missed the deadline,” Zhang said. “I almost missed the deadline because my parents never check their emails. I think that’s the same thing for a lot of other students, but the email is not just not sent to the students, so we don’t know—that’s something that I think that the school could do better.”

Zhang added she chose to switch schedules mainly out of concern toward rising COVID-19 cases in Indiana.

Beresford encouraged students to “sustain the effort” in preventing the spread of the virus, saying this has been one of his key messages at every board meeting.

“I think this is true that you have pandemic fatigue is setting in because we’re just tired of doing all this stuff all the time, but we have to work together and sustain the effort to stop the spread,” Beresford said. “Don’t let down your guards, and hopefully, we will get a vaccine soon, so we can get back to normal, or more normal.”