The Warren Township district is asking voters for an $88 million property tax increase over eight years, in part to maintain the support it received from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding that the state says must be spent by the end of 2024.
The state law requires school districts to notify the state Department of Education if classroom buildings are left “vacant or unused.”
Proponents characterize the strategy as funding students instead of systems, while opponents argue it leaves fewer resources for students in Indiana’s traditional public schools.
Speedway joins two other Marion County school districts in asking voters in May to approve more funding.
Families were sent scrambling by a charter school that initially failed to win permission to open, fell short of enrollment projections, cycled through multiple principals, and lacked timely financial oversight from its authorizer.
Indianapolis Public Schools plans to implement only part of its massive Rebuilding Stronger overhaul after the school board failed to place an operating referendum on the upcoming May ballot.
IPS is the first district in the state to partner with the National Education Equity Lab to allow Crispus Attucks High School students to enroll in college-level courses at the country’s top universities.
As students in grades 3-8 prepare to take the ILEARN again beginning in April, the district is focusing on tactics to continue its progress and reach that goal, with the help of federal COVID relief funding.
The business advocacy group questioned how the effort would improve academic performance and why students in the district’s Innovation charter schools wouldn’t receive an equal portion of the funding.
A revised revenue-sharing plan from Indianapolis Public Schools to increase the amount of funding affiliated charter schools would receive from a potential tax hike is still inadequate, charter-friendly groups say.
The shift in the board’s makeup comes at a critical moment, right as the district implements its Rebuilding Stronger revitalization plan adopted unanimously by the board last year.
The complaints claim that the school board failed to alert the state Department of Education of its available buildings slated for closure within 10 days of voting to close the schools on Nov. 17, as required by law.
A statewide charter school group has filed a complaint with the Indiana Attorney General’s Office against Indianapolis Public Schools alleging that the district failed to comply with a state law requiring it to offer unused school buildings to charter schools for $1. The complaint stems from the district’s passage of its reorganization plan, known as […]
IPS heads into the new year amid public disagreement between district officials and some charters over how much funding from the referendum should be split up between different schools, if voters approve it.
If approved by voters, the referendum will authorize the district to issue bonds, which will yield an estimated $410 million for construction projects.
The announcement early Tuesday came a day after the school board adopted his recommendation to end elementary school choice in a controversial vote that spurred parent opposition.
The Perry Township school board voted on Monday to end school choice for elementary students effective next school year to help alleviate a severe bus driver shortage, despite significant opposition from parents.
Parents and their children argued in a public comment session on Monday that it would be better for the district to improve driver-recruitment efforts rather than force hundreds of students to attend a new school next year.
Dozens of charter school parents and students packed the board room before the vote and called on the board to share more of the referendum money.
Leaders from 52 charter schools argued that the annual amount from the tax proposal IPS has offered to share with its innovation network charters would still leave a big funding gap between charter students and those in the district’s traditional public schools.
