Bloomington Charter School Withdraws Its Application

The organizers of the proposed Green Meadows Charter School sit on stage at the Monroe County Public Library during a public hearing.

A proposed charter school in Bloomington is withdrawing its application.

The Green School’s founders had applied for a charter with the Indiana Charter School Board in hopes of starting a school in 2015. But the charter board told them there were too many issues that still needed to be resolved—their budget was too small for example and they weren’t offering teachers enough money.

Green School education director Mary Goral says they haven’t decided whether to reapply.

“We’re tired. We’re tired and worn out from the process,” Goral says, adding that the people who have been working to form The Green School have been volunteering on the project for three years,

But she urges parents not to give up.

“I feel like if there’s ever going to be any kind of change, people need to organize and come together and really be willing to take a risk,” Goral says.

If The Green School does want to reapply, they could do so in September.

Many public school advocates have been critical of The Green School. They say creating a charter school would only pull resources away from public schools that are already struggling financially.

Monroe County Community School Corporation board member Sue Wanzer says she hopes The Green School’s supporters can work with MCCSC to incorporate some of their goals into existing public schools.

“A lot of the things that they were advocating are things that were already being done in MCCSC. Now, maybe we need to talk to them and found out if we need to do it differently or better,” Wanzer says.

This is the second time the school has withdrawn its application. It withdrew its first application from to charter authorizer Ball State University last fall, then reapplied with the Indiana Charter School Board.

The school was meant to focus on the liberal arts, including music, art and “environmental and social justice.”

A member of the Indiana Charter School Board said they are focused on evaluating the two other proposed schools around the state that still have active applications—those include the York Academy of Discovery in Clarksville and Dugger-Union CSC.

Dugger’s public elementary and junior/high school is closing after this school year in an effort to save the school district money.