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 proposed operating referendum would provide $50 million annually over an eight-year period to expand student programs and increase teacher pay through the program.
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.
The move comes as Indianapolis Public Schools plan to introduce two ballot measures in May to increase taxes to support more than $800 million in capital and operating expenses. The district has said the additional money is critical to its reorganization plan.
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.
If approved by voters, the referendum will authorize the district to issue bonds, which will yield an estimated $410 million for construction projects.
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.
Indianapolis Public Schools will close six buildings and reconfigure elementary and middle school grades throughout the district following the school board’s approval of the plan Thursday night.
Hope Hampton, a small business owner who previously worked as a dean and school counselor, received endorsements and significant campaign donations from charter-friendly groups and their affiliated political action committees.
Potential stipends as high as $10,000 might not be enough to stave off a significant number of teacher departures.
The tax referendum—which would be on the May 2023 ballot—would increase the median homeowner’s bill by $6 per month, IPS officials said.
Many community members remain critical of a plan that doesn’t specify how much it would cost the district, what the district will do with closed buildings and the amount of money IPS would save long term.
District 3 includes a diverse population, from the mostly white area of Meridian-Kessler to the neighboring Fairgrounds area, where nearly half of the residents are people of color.
District leaders have so far declined to discuss the cost of the significant proposal or how they will fund plans that include constructing two new elementary school buildings and improving 14 school facilities.
The school’s change in plans comes as IPS prepares for a multitude of changes under its Rebuilding Stronger plan, which would close seven schools and reconfigure grade levels throughout the district.
The four candidates for three seats in the November election said Wednesday they haven’t seen enough information about the plan to support it and also expressed concern about the level of parent input.
If their innovation agreements end, Urban Act and Super School 19 would be the third and fourth schools to be removed from the innovation network by the district since the creation of such schools under state law in 2014.
The Indianapolis Education Association is pushing Indianapolis Public Schools for more transparency around how it will relocate staff under the district’s Rebuilding Stronger reorganization.
