Gary Superintendent To Recommend Closing Several Schools

Lew Wallace

Lew Wallace Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Academy is one of the Gary schools that the superintendent is recommending to close.

The Gary Community School Corporation will discuss closing schools district-wide at Thursday’s school board meeting.

This decision comes after the State Board of Education gave the school corporation an “F”, one of only four school corporations to get the lowest rating.

nwitimes.com reports that Superintendent Cheryl Pruitt will recommend closing the following schools at the meeting:

The recommendation calls for Brunswick, Bailly and Webster elementary schools to close. Dunbar-Pulaski Middle School also would close. The Lincoln Achievement Center, which houses some severely disabled students, would close as well.

Lew Wallace STEM Academy would close and be reconfigured as a city-wide middle school for students in grades seven through nine. There would be a separate wing for a freshman academy.

The New Tech High School, now housed at at the Gary Area Career Center, will be housed in a separate wing at West Side.

Pruitt hopes these moves will eliminate a $13 million deficit for the 2014-15 school year. The district expects a fall enrollment of about 7,400 students.