Breaking down the sweeping changes proposed for IPS students, schools

IPS officials tell us they had four main goals when developing this program. 

1. Improve achievement for all students
2. Show dramatic gains for Black and Latinx students. 
3. Increase graduation rates
4. Increase enrollment 

IPS is also trying to tackle serious challenges. 

• IPS has too many buildings that are in poor condition and too small for current needs. 
• Some schools have too much enrollment, others don’t have enough. 
• The district cannot afford to keep its current mix of buildings and programs. 
• Students in different schools can have wildly different experiences, with larger schools having many more resources than smaller ones. 
• While IPS students are improving their scores faster than the state average, they are still not meeting goals. 
• There is a significant achievement gap between students of color and their white peers. 

IPS officials hope that the “Rebuilding Stronger” plan will help them meet those goals while addressing the district’s challenges. 

There are seven main changes the district is planning to make: 

1. Reorganizing elementary and middle schools
2. Consolidating & closing schools
3. New enrollment zones & eliminating proximity priority
4. Upgrading and renovating facilities
5. Expanding & replicating high-performing, high-demand schools
6. Expanding free pre-K access
7. Increasing access to high-ability programming

The plan calls for keeping IPS high schools the same, but all other schools will see changes. Every elementary school will have at least 350 Kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Every middle school will have at least 500 sixth- to eighth-grade students. 

There are a few changes here: Right now some IPS schools run from kindergarten through eighth grade, while some middle schools are only for seventh and eighth graders. Additionally, the number of students will be higher than some schools have now. That will allow the district to offer more consistent options across schools. 

“We have an incredible diversity of academic program options in our district — options that provide our students with great experiences,” said Johnson. “But today, they’re not available at many of our schools — especially traditional neighborhood schools.”

The goal is to change that moving forward. According to the plan, every IPS elementary school will offer:

• Art
• Music
• Physical education
• Technology
• Dedicated reading programs
• Library access
• College & career preparation
• High school connections

Every middle school will offer: 

• An option to learn to play an instrument, join a choir, or study visual arts
• Dedicated student athletics training
• Advanced math programming
• College and career preparations
• Foreign language classes
• Civics and social studies classes

IPS also plans to close its only existing pre-K center and open five new ones at schools across the district. The new pre-K options would come to the following schools: 

• Carl Wilde School 79
• Charles Fairbanks 105
• Brookside 54
• James Garfield 31
• Daniel Webster 46

In order to get the enrollment numbers IPS wants to support programs, the district plans to close and/or consolidate a number of schools across the district. Some schools are also too small, or are in such bad condition, that it’s not cost-effective to keep them open. IPS spends an extra $1,500 on each student at a small school versus a student at a large school – and 40% of IPS students attend those small schools. 

The number of schools also presents an insurmountable maintenance problem. 

“Today, less than a third of our buildings are rated in ‘good’ condition,” said Johnson, “and 2 out of 10 are in poor or worse condition. The cost to fix them all and bring them to that 'good' rating would approach more than half a billion dollars.”

Here are the schools IPS wants to close: 

Francis Bellamy PreK Center and Step Ahead Program

• Why? The building is in very poor condition and enrollment is low, in part because it is far from home for many families. 
• What next? Students will be able to fill the new pre-K seats available at five schools around the district. The Step Ahead program will move to the Emma Donnan facility. 

George Buck School 94

• Why? The school has low enrollment in an area where the population is going down. 
• What next? Students may choose a new school. They will be provided transportation. They will also have a higher priority in the Enroll Indy Lottery in the 2023-2024 school year. 

Floro Torrence School 83

• Why? Enrollment has fallen by almost half since 2016. 
• What's next? Students may choose a new school. They will be provided transportation. They will also have a higher priority in the Enroll Indy Lottery in the 2023-2024 school year.

Raymond Brandes School 65

• Why? The school has low enrollment which is expected to continue falling through 2030. 
• What's next? Students may choose a new school. They will be provided transportation. They will also have a higher priority in the Enroll Indy Lottery in the 2023-2024 school year.

Francis Parker School 56

• Why? The building is in very poor condition. 
• What's next? Students will move to Russell Lowell School 51 and switch to Montessori programming. Students at either school who don’t want to stay can choose a new school and will have a higher priority in the Enroll Indy Lottery in the 2023-2024 school year. 

CFI 2 Benjamin Harrison facility

• Why? The school is in poor condition and overcrowded. 
• What's next? Students will move to Washington Irving School 14, which will switch to Center for Inquiry programming. Students at either school who don’t want to stay can choose a new school and will have a higher priority in the Enroll Indy Lottery in the 2023-2024 school year.

Paul Miller School 114

• Why? Enrollment has fallen by more than half since 2016 and the building is in very poor condition. 
• What's next? Students will move to Frederick Douglass School 19. Students at either school who don’t want to stay can choose a new school and will have a higher priority in the Enroll Indy Lottery in the 2023-2024 school year.

“None of this is easy,” said Johnson. “But it’s what it takes to align resources and values. Remember: We can do anything, but we can't do everything. And we’re committed to making this the smoothest possible process."

IPS will institute four “enrollment zones” across the district. 

K-5 students will be able to attend any school in their enrollment zone, with free transportation. 6th-8th grade students will also be able to attend any school in their enrollment zone. 

If a student moves within the zone, they don’t have to change schools. 

When new children enroll in kindergarten, families will have to pick a school – they won’t be assigned one. 

School choice enrollment has gone up by 15% in the last few years, but enrollment at neighborhood schools has gone down by 6%. 

Students at choice schools tend to stay at their school more than students at neighborhood schools. IPS hopes this will also allow more students of color to enroll in high-demand schools. 

Here are what the 4 enrollment zones will look like:

IPS is proposing upgrades to a number of facilities to let them serve more students and improve the programming available. 

Here are the schools that would be upgraded or renovated: 

• Carl Wilde School 79
• George Washington Carver School 87
• Northwest Middle School
• Butler Lab School 55
• James Whitcomb Riley School 43
• Broad Ripple Facility
• Arlington Middle School
• Washington Irving 14
• Harshman Middle School
• Longfellow Middle School
• Eleanor Skillen School 34
• George W Julian School 57
• William Penn School 49
• Thomas Carr Howe Middle School

IPS is also proposing to build two new schools.  

Francis Parker 56 would be a new elementary school with room for up to 650 students. It would be built at the corner of Columbia Avenue and East 24th street. The goal is for it to be built by the summer of 2026. 

Joyce Kilmer 69 would be a new elementary school with room for up to 650 students. It would be built at the corner of Keystone and East 34th street. The goal is for it to be built by the summer of 2026.

IPS has several high-performing programs that families are eager to use. Unfortunately, there are not enough seats to meet this high demand. IPS hopes to double the number of seats in these programs as part of the “Rebuilding Stronger” plan. 

They picked programs with two or more applications for every open seat. They also picked programs where students have a higher performance than peers in other schools. IPS also says they are building supports to help close achievement gaps in these programs. 

Here are the programs that are expanding: 

Montessori 

• Will expand capacity at Rousseau McClellan School 91, George Washington Carver 87, and Francis Parker 56. 
• Will add to Eleanor Skillen 34

Butler Lab

• Will expand capacity at Eliza Blaker School 55 and William Bell 60

Cold Spring STEM

• Will expand capacity at Cold Spring at Marian
• Will add STEM at William Penn

Dual Language Immersion

• Will expand capacity at Theodore Potter
• Will add to Global Prep Dual Language Academy at Harshman Middle School

International Baccalaureate

• Will expand capacity at Center for Inquiry 84, Center for Inquiry 27, and Center for Inquiry 70. 
• Will be added to Center for Inquiry 79 (Carl Wilde 79) and Center for Inquiry 57 (George Julian)
• Will start at Northwest IB World Middle School, Longfellow IB World Middle School, Howe IB World Middle School, Broad Ripple IB World Middle School.

STEM and Environmental Science

• Will move to STEM Middle School @ William Penn, STEM Academy @ Arlington Middle School, Garfield Elementary School 31, Robert Frost School 106

IPS said it's committed to helping families transition through all of the changes.

Johnson said every school slated for closure will have a "navigator" who will have, or find, the answers to every question parents have.

Also, the district is setting up sessions this month and next month, where parents can share their feedback. Those begin Sept. 19.

Then the board is set to give final approval to the entire plan in November.

RISE INDY, a nonprofit that works to build opportunities for Indianapolis students, released the following statement in response to the IPS Rebuilding Stronger plan:

“Families across the district have been anxiously awaiting this plan, and now comes the hardest part: reviewing, understanding and listening.

Every family, student and educator will connect with this plan differently—and all of those perspectives are critical as we move forward. That’s why RISE INDY has launched an easy-to-use feedback form on our website where anyone affected by Rebuilding Stronger can submit their comments or questions. This information will be shared with IPS without identifying respondents.

We want to applaud the district for more than 12 months of hard work creating a plan intended to right-size our district and improve equity for our students. We look forward to working with IPS to continue to bring community voice into this conversation as the plan is refined and enhanced in the coming weeks. 

We know a successful school district must be equitably resourced, and we share a vision of safe, world-class schools for every student in Indianapolis. The conversations in the coming weeks may be challenging at times, but I hope we all will be able to show grace to one another as we contemplate what this plan means for our children, our teachers and our city.”

MORE: RISE INDY community feedback form