The announcement on Thursday builds off of the groundbreaking program IU Indianapolis and IPS announced in September that grants automatic admission to seniors with a grade point average of at least 3.0.
The charter authorizer also approved the expansion of GEO Next Generation Academy, which is on the same property as Indy STEAM.
The split between Andrew J. Brown Academy and National Heritage Academies involves facilities, finances, and more. One is looking for a new home and has a new operator. The other wants to start a new school.
The special task force approved by the board Thursday will be led by independent community leaders and mental health professionals, board member Hope Hampton told parents after their comments.
The school board will vote Thursday on a plan to transfer ownership of the Julian Coleman School 110 building to KIPP Indy.
Board President Angelia Moore said in a statement at Tuesday’s board meeting that the board was shocked and upset by what the video showed.
Parents are demanding more transparency from Indianapolis Public Schools following a lawsuit alleging that a former teacher at George Washington Carver Montessori School 87 encouraged “acts of violence” against a 7-year-old student with a disability.
The approval is another lifeline for the charter school, which was initially named Ignite Achievement Academy and tasked by Indianapolis Public Schools to improve an underperforming school near the city’s Riverside neighborhood.
Families in the school district will be required to opt in to transportation for the next academic year. IPS hopes this move will create more efficiency as it switches to four broad enrollment zones.
The move by the Genius School comes after the charter authorizer overseeing it put it on probation and another authorizer rejected its bid for a new charter.
Higher education officials and school districts have pushed to boost college enrollment, including through an automatic admissions program between Indianapolis Public Schools and IU Indianapolis.
The projected spending plan adopted by the Indianapolis Public Schools board Thursday is $10 million more than projected spending for this school year.
Purdue Polytechnic High School West is now expected to open somewhere on the west side of Indianapolis within Indianapolis Public Schools borders, but the exact location remains unclear.
The newcomer program, which the district launched in 2016, currently serves 232 students in grades 7-10 who have been in the United States for one year or less and don’t attain a certain score on an English proficiency exam.
Senate Bill 270 clarifies language added in the last legislative session that led to two different interpretations of the law by Indianapolis Public Schools and the state.
The operators of the now-closed schools allegedly inflated the enrollment by thousands of students and accepted more than $44 million in state funding, per a federal indictment from last week.
The defendants face a combined 76 charges including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
Under the legislation pitched by Democratic state Sen. Andrea Hunley, a former Indianapolis Public Schools principal, only two authorizers would be allowed to approve charter schools in the county.
The Genius School in Indianapolis has lost its bid for a charter from a second authorizer.
Banned from selling any of its closed school buildings through a court order, Indianapolis Public Schools will instead lease Francis Bellamy School 102 to a local not-for-profit that serves youth.
