The cloud of speculation around the fate of Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) high schools was cleared up Wednesday afternoon when the district’s recommendations to close or repurpose Arlington, Broad Ripple and Northwest high schools became public.
The closures and facility reuse recommendations are included in the 50-page Reinventing IPS High Schools report. Under the proposed plan, Arlington, a school that remains under state control after being operated by EDPower for the 2014-15 school year and being returned to IPS, would be turned into a 500-seat middle school for seventh- and eighth-grade students, pending Indiana State Board of Education approval. Broad Ripple, a school whose graduation rates have increased over 9 percent from 2014-2016, would be sold for an estimated $6-8 million. Northwest, which serves a high population of immigrants and refugees, would house a 600-seat middle school.
The facilities maintenance department would be sold for $3-5 million, and the staff and functions would be relocated to Northwest High School and Francis Bellamy Preschool Center. The IPS Professional Development Center, housed in the former Forest Manor Middle School, would be sold, as well, with the staff being relocated to Arlington.
The report goes on to state that through right-sizing, selling and repurposing IPS assets, the district could garner up to $13 million in one-time revenue and create operating savings of more than $1 million annually. Additionally, the district hopes the reinvention process will save $4 million in high school expenditures from its general fund.
In a closed-door meeting with the media earlier this week, IPS Superintendent Lewis Ferebee reiterated past sentiments that the proposed changes are being made in the best interest of students to provide them with higher quality options.
“We cannot continue to shortchange our students,” said Ferebee.
Howe and Manual, which are not currently being run by IPS, were included in the plan, as well. According to Ferebee, the fate of those two schools comes down to a “stalemate” between the State Board of Education and Charter Schools USA. The organization has asked for additional funding to operate both facilities; without the funding they are threatening to no longer operate. A discussion is planned for the next board of education meeting, and though IPS has no plan to operate the facilities themselves, Ferebee stated that the district has a contingency plan. “We are prepared to absorb those students,” he said.
The closure decision follows the release of IPS’ Facilities Utilization Taskforce’s report in April, which reported that high school enrollment is trending down district-wide, with five of the seven district-run high schools projected to operate at less than 50 percent enrollment in the 2017-18 academic year.
Closing criteria
Prior to this most recent announcement, a number of community meetings were held around the city to encourage public comment. Private meetings with students and staff of each high school, moderated by Radio One personalities B-Swift, Tony Lamont and Jerry Wade, were held as well. IPS estimates that of the 21 meetings, there were 3,000 attendees and more than 2,000 verbal, handwritten and online stakeholder comments.
That input, along with internal analysis and information from the Facilities Taskforce weighed heavily in the decision making. A scoring rubric, which ranked each facility on 12 criteria — such as the school’s academy model, proximity to other quality districts and charters, ability to sell or reuse, neighborhood growth and development, operation costs and building condition — was used to rank the schools. Those with the lowest ranking were recommended for closure or reuse. Arlington, Broad Ripple and Northwest all ranked high in proximity to quality districts and charters and ability to sell or reuse; their transportation costs per student were also among the highest.
David Rosenberg, a member of the Facilities Taskforce and IPS director of operations, said the group heard from parents that students “didn’t want long bus rides” and that the reallocation of transportation services under the new plan would potentially make bus rides no longer than an hour one way.
Intended outcomes, next steps
Ferebee noted that over the past three years, the district’s graduation rates have increased by 8 percentage points, and many students are leaving the district with post-secondary plans. This is a trend he hopes will continue under the new reinvention. Currently, 60 percent of students, according to the district, make their own choice of where to attend high school. Under the proposed plan, the district would turn to an all-choice model, giving more students this option. No choice programs would be closed, and all career-themed academies would be moved to the remaining schools: Arsenal Tech, Crispus Attucks, George Washington and Shortridge. The career themed academies would focus on the following areas: health sciences, advanced manufacturing, teaching, construction, finance, information technology and military.
The district will continue to gather public input throughout the months of July and August before the board of commissioners votes on Sept. 28. The following day, a member of the IPS leadership team is scheduled to hold a series of meetings with students and staff at each of the schools to be closed.
Ferebee said not only is the board of commissioners fully “on board with rightsizing,” but the administration also “does not anticipate losing students” they currently have.
In regards to the overwhelming amounts of dissent from certain members of the community, including rumors around the intent behind school closures and perceived input from forces outside Indianapolis, Ferebee said he is “not too wound up about conspiracy theories.”
A teacher’s perspective
Currently, IPS employs 267 staff members collectively at Arlington, Broad Ripple and Northwest high schools. When asked what the district plans to do with staff who may be displaced following closures, Ferebee noted that “right now the focus has been on students,” but that a more concrete plan would be rolled out following the board vote this fall. The Indiana State Teacher’s Association told the Recorder that the Indianapolis chapter has engaged the district and is working to make sure displaced staff would be assigned to other roles within IPS.
Andrew Gatza, a former IPS teacher and current volunteer at George Washington Community High School, said that throughout the process, he feels communication has been lacking.
“Communication has been limited between administration and teachers and just broadly speaking,” he said. “The task force that is deciding the fate of traditional public schools is pretty heavy charter school leaning … it doesn’t seem like traditional public schools will get a fair shake.”
Jonique Brooks Burton, a former IPS employee, said that as a leader she would also consider school closure a viable option given the state of the district.
“As an aspiring superintendent, I understand the need for school closure. When you’re lacking students, it doesn’t make sense to keep a building open with just 800 kids when that building can occupy 2,000. I understand the need from that perspective,” she said.
Burton said it is “disheartening” to know that some teachers may leave or be without a job pending the change, but all parties involved should take an introspective look. “Why are the students leaving the district? Why are they going to township schools? Being in an IPS building for two years and coming from township, I saw different teaching styles. Teachers must be passionate about it; it cannot be about a paycheck. There are reasons why students are leaving the district and parents are taking their children out of the district and put them somewhere else.
“Washington Township, which is just a couple of miles up the road from Broad Ripple High School, is busting out at the seams. Why aren’t those students coming to Broad Ripple? That should make teachers think. What is it that we’re doing as a district that’s not drawing kids to us? It’s time for IPS to do a self-reflection.”
Ultimately, Burton feels that the focus for now should be on proactive measures. “IPS needs to do some hard serious recruiting this school year to bring those students back into the district. I think that we should have centralized this concept of trying to recruit more students into our building before this talk about just shutting them down,” she said. “IPS could be the best district in this state, but every employee needs to do a self-reflection; it is necessary in order for progress. We need to learn how to go from being building- and district-level administrators to being instructional leaders.”
Community response
On Tuesday night, a number of protesters gathered outside IPS headquarters on Walnut Street to voice their disdain for the pending announcement. Chants of “You can’t make choices without community voices,” rang out through a set of portable speakers.
Jasmine Rodriguez, a former IPS student, was in attendance. The 2012 Arsenal Tech graduate is a member of a loose collective known as We Are IPS, comprised of community residents, former and current students, teachers, parents and members of other organizations like Parent Power, the Concerned Clergy, a local Black Lives Matter chapter and Our IPS. “The whole point of the protest is for them to recognize a community-led coalition or task force.”
Star Adita, of Parent Power, said she hopes the closure announcement serves as a cautionary tale to the community.
“I’m hoping that this will be a wake-up call that they can do it and (here is) the reasoning why. Unfortunately, people will see it too late when they realize that they got played.”
Following the protest, attendees filed into the building for the board of commissioners’ agenda review session. Doutonia Batts, parent of an IPS student, was the first to make public comment for the evening. Batts called for an end to the school closure process and asked that a “new community-centered task force” be formed to address the issues with underutilization in IPS facilities. She went on to say “there was no community input” in the formation of the current facilities task force. More than a dozen speakers rose to speak in a similar fashion, each imploring the administration to halt the closure process and form a new task force.
Antonio Alexander, assistant pastor of Purpose of Life Ministries, shared that he was concerned that there seemed to be “no active promotion” for enrollment to potential students by IPS under current leadership. “We need leadership that will resurrect and not let die. Before any changes are made in IPS, change needs to happen at the top.”
Board commissioners will hold their regularly scheduled July and August meetings on the road to each of the schools recommended for closure. Each meeting will include a period for public comment. Those who plan to attend can go to www.myips.org (Click on the School Board tab) to sign up to speak. Deadline for sign-ups is noon on the day of each meeting.
Upcoming meetings:
Tuesday, July 18 – 6:00 p.m.
Broad Ripple Magnet High School for the Arts and Humanities
115 Broad Ripple Ave.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Thursday, July 20 – 6:00 p.m.
John Marshall Community High School
10101 E. 38th St.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Tuesday, August 29 – 6:00 p.m.
Arlington Community High School
4825 N. Arlington Ave.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Thursday, August 31 – 6:00 p.m.
Northwest Community High School
5525 W. 34th St.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Star Adita, of Parent Power, joined other protesters in a demonstration held prior to Indianapolis Public Schools’ announcement of a proposal to close or repurpose three of the district’s high schools.
