A month after its bid for charters was rejected by a state authorizer, a not-for-profit with ties to Charter Schools USA appears to be looking for another backer—raising concerns that Indiana law makes it too easy to shop around for a friendly overseer.
Christel House Academy, a politically influential charter network, wants to relocate its south-side school to Manual High School if oversight of that campus is returned to Indianapolis Public Schools.
The Indianapolis Public Schools board decision comes just weeks before the Indiana Charter Schools Board is set to decide whether to grant charters to CSUSA to continue running Donnan and two other Indianapolis campuses—Howe and Manual high schools—that were also taken over by the state.
A 2018 voter-backed referendum funded the latest round of pay increases. Some teachers will see their salaries go up by as much as $9,400 this year, a significant increase designed to account for years of recession-era pay freezes.
Potential partners include one of the city’s earliest charter networks, a campus with a mindfulness focus, and a school for teens who have struggled with drug and alcohol addiction.
Thrival Academy, a program that took a year-long “pause” to overhaul its approach—will reopen as a four-year high school with a first-year enrollment of about 75 ninth graders who will prepare to study abroad as juniors.
Teachers across the district would see substantial pay increases under the proposal, with the district’s starting salary for teachers rising to $45,200 this school year, according to a union official.
The newly released data, which comes from annual state-mandated disclosures, is the first indication of how members have responded to the Indianapolis Education Association’s tumultuous year.
The Relay Graduate School of Education opened a campus in Indianapolis this year and is training its first class of 10 students, with plans to expand locally in the coming years.
Hope Academy, which opened in 2006 inside the Fairbanks Addiction Treatment and Recovery Center in Lawrence Township, aims to move closer to downtown and develop stronger partnerships with Marion County school districts.
When students are recorded as leaving for home schools in Indiana, they’re left out of a school’s graduation calculations, as though they never attended at all.
School 43 has gone through at least five leaders in five years. But its latest principal, Lauren Johnson, wants parents and neighbors to know that she’s here to stay.
The new schools have various focuses, such as project-based learning or educating students with autism, and most are expansions of existing Indianapolis charter networks.
After years of being managed from afar by the charter network that started it, the local board that oversees Victory College Prep is betting that it can operate independently.
Marion Academy, which enrolled about 120 students in grades 6 to 12 last year, was created for students who have been in the juvenile justice system, were expelled or were at-risk of expulsion.
