(Photo courtesy of Indianapolis Public Schools)
The Broad Ripple Village Association surveyed residents and local business owners about possibilities for re-using the closing Broad Ripple High School. Longtime resident and board member of the association Gary Price says the reuse needs to be community-driven.
“It’d be nice to have a community element built into it. Something like a community hall or a community meeting place,” Price says.
Barb Foley’s son Kyle, a graduate of the school district, died from an overdose in July.
“Meth and heroin are killers,” Foley tells the students. “Don’t think you can just try them one time walk away from it. Heroin stole my son’s last breath. It left a big hole inside of me. A big part of me is gone that can never be replaced.”
Samantha Taylor, formerly addicted to drugs, dropped out of high school when she was in 10th grade. She shared her story and didn’t hold back.
“I started doing heroin at 16, and it just went on from there,” Taylor says.
In the last few months, two Brown County High School graduates have overdosed and died. Superintendent Laura Hammack says it sent shock waves through the community and the hallways where the students walk to and from class.
“It’s surreal to go to those funerals, to see pictures of these students who lived such vibrant lives and now are lost,” Hammack says.
MCS CFO Bob Coddington talks about restructuring the district’s debt. (Tony Sandleben/IPR)
After the school board voted on a fundraising plan Tuesday night, Muncie Community Schools will be able to cover $3.7 million in bills through the end of 2017.
However, superintendent Steven Baule says the district is not out of the woods yet.
“This is not the long term solution. It’s a mid-term solution,” Baule says.
Muncie Schools CFO Bob Coddington says the school district is rearranging its debt, by way of restructuring bonds, in order to pay what it owes in December.
The number of teens working a part-time job has dropped significantly since the late 1990s. Education experts say a part-time job can give students a competitive edge when it comes to college admissions, but they’re also expected to volunteer, participate in clubs, and more, all while keeping their grades up.
Standing in front of the Distressed Unit Appeals Board in Indianapolis, Administrator Assistance founder Steve Wittenauer praised the administration at Muncie Community Schools for already making some significant cuts to staffing. But he says that will have to continue.
“They did a lot of the heavy lifting. We’re probably to the point now where it’s going to become more painful because staffing reductions are still in order,” Wittenauer says. “But they were very, very successful in their staffing reductions. And certainly closing those three buildings had an impact.”
State Board of Education member Byron Ernest, chairman of the board’s graduation pathways committee, explains possible pathways during a meeting Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017 at the Indiana State Library. (Eric Weddle/WFYI News)
Members of a State Board of Education committee tasked with proposing new ways for students to qualify for graduation began sketching their plan Tuesday.
There’s still a lot for the dozen-plus members to sort out before their last meeting next month.
But a list of nine alternative ways students could become eligible for a diploma has begun to take shape. It includes: earning industry-recognized credentials; passing the military entrance exam plus enlisting; and work-based learning with job experience.
“We came a long way today, I hope you agree,” says state board member Byron Ernest, who is leading the committee. “But we’ve got a long way to go.”
Students are currently required to pass math and English end of course exam to graduate with a Core 40 or Honors diploma.
Naomi Caseras, an eighth grader at East Chicago Urban Enterprise Academy, was one of the students whose samples were tested. Hers came back negative. (Annie Ropeik/IPB News)
Children at the East Chicago Urban Enterprise Academy school learned how to test air, water, and soil samples for lead Tuesday with help from the NAACP.
The school sits right across the street from the USS Lead Superfund site, a federal toxic waste clean-up site contaminated with lead and arsenic.
Principal Veronica Eskew says the lead testing let her students take ownership over how lead poisoning affects them.
“Giving them the opportunity to have a voice, to have a better understanding of what is happening in their environment, was heart-stopping for me,” she says.
“The board is undertaking a thorough review of its district leadership and believes that its action today will enable it to complete this review more quickly and in a manner that respects the confidentiality of its employees’ personnel matters,” Spanenberg said at the start of a work session at the district office. “Because of these confidentiality concerns, the board will not make further comment on this until it has finished its review.”
PLA @ Francis Scott Key School 103 is on the city\’s Far Eastside. The schools earned an A from the state for 2017. (Indianapolis Public Schools)
Three years ago School 103 on the Far Eastside was struggling, more than most city schools. Few students were learning at grade level and the state would soon consider intervention.
In response, Indianapolis Public Schools Board used a new law that allows struggling schools to contract with a charter school company and run independently of district policies. The board has ultimate oversight of the schools.
School 103’s new manager, Phalen Leadership Academies, was given freedom to remake the school’s curriculum and set staff expectations without a union-negotiated contract.
Indiana\’s Legislative Services Agency, a bipartisan legal analysis group, created a possible dashboard-style system that could use various financial indicators to weigh a school corporation\’s fiscal health. (Photo courtesy of Legislative Services Agency)
State lawmakers want to figure out how to identify and help school corporations before they fall into financial distress.
Monday a study committee heard about possible ways to evaluate a district’s income and debt.
The state’s Legislative Services Agency, a bipartisan legal analysis group, offered different indicators and methods to analyze those indicators, such as outstanding bond debt and income, to figure out if a district is fiscally sound or trending into trouble.
The analysis, the LSA report says, could be used as an early warning system for school corporations that may be heading toward financial distress.
The report found that 40 percent of public school corporations operate with deficits. The largest deficit found is 34 percent of the district’s total expenditures.
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives.
Learn More »
