Charter school moving to former Children’s Guardian Home

City leaders will announce Wednesday morning that Irvington Preparatory Academy has agreed to occupy the former Children’s
Guardian Home on the east side.

The charter high school is currently located at 6040 E. Pleasant Run Parkway South Drive near Arlington Avenue. Its space,
in turn, will be taken by Irvington Community Middle School, now part of a K-8 school at 6705 E. Julian Ave. Irvington Community
Elementary School will remain at that location serving students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

A media advisory release the city issued Tuesday said Mayor Greg Ballard will be joined by City-County Councilor Benjamin
Hunter and representatives of the charter schools to announce the reuse of the children’s home, which closed in 2009.
The home is located at 5751 E. University Ave., also near Arlington Avenue.

The release provided no other details, but the prep school already announced the move on its website. The school in May signed
a 15-year lease for the building.

The move will delay the start of the charters’ school year from July 26 to Aug. 2, President and Founder Timothy P.
Ehrgott said in a letter to parents posted on the site.

“This move is not being made just to get hold of a beautiful facility,” he said in the letter. “This expansion
of our school will allow us to educate our students better.”

Irvington Community School was founded in 2001 as an elementary school. The high school opened in 2006, and it graduated
its first senior class in 2010.

Founded in 1898, the children’s home closed in June 2009. Local property taxes had paid to operate the home until 2008,
when the state took control of its finances as part of the state property-tax relief plan. But the county still assumed a
large part of operating costs and couldn’t keep the 68-bed facility open.