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‘We tried everything we could’ | Founder talks about closing of Him By Her school

Harry Dunn said the school simply ran out of money in the end.

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indianapolis charter school closed its doors for good Friday after two years of operating.  

The Him By Her Collegiate School for the Arts in Martindale-Brightwood told families the news just days after Christmas. The abrupt closure left more than 200 families scrambling to find another school in the middle of the year. 

One of the founders spoke exclusively to 13News about the decision.  

“It’s been tough,” said Harry Dunn, who founded the school with his wife.  

On Christmas at 2:37 in the morning, Dunn said the pipes burst in the building. It flooded all three floors of the school.  

At the same time, leaders were preparing to announce the upcoming closure. Instead, Dunn found himself in the basement of the school, scraping ice off the floor and getting the plumbing fixed.  

It’s that same dedication he said he had when it came to saving his dream school, but even that couldn't fix the problem.   

Dunn said the school simply ran out of money in the end.

“We went out of business because we tried everything we could. We took every budget number that we could cut to squeeze it in to go another month. At the same time, I have all these supporters saying, ‘We are coming. We are coming,’ and I am going, ‘I am running out of gas. I’m running out of gas,’ and I ran out of gas,” Dunn said. “We ran out of money. It’s nothing more than that. Not enough enrollment and that’s just the bottom line. Everything I could possibly talk about would lead back to enrollment.” 

Dunn, a retired IMPD detective, opened the school in 2020. After a couple of years, enrollment grew to more than 200 students in grades K-6. 

The goal was to create a school that served the students in the community and kept them on the right track.  

“We got involved and we loved upon those babies and change was happening,” Dunn said. “It was so impactful to have a community school that was built for the community and by the community.” 

As the bills piled up, he said he had no choice.  

“I don’t have the money to pack up this building and we are struggling right now, day-by-day and minute-by-minute, fighting the light bill,” Dunn said. “We ran into a system that was bigger than us, that said it was time to close.  

Dunn and his team have worked to place every student in a new school and find jobs for all their teachers.  

“I’m sad and I’m hurt because I hurt for all the families that got displaced. I’m a parent of a 5-year-old who goes to this school. We too were displaced,” Dunn said. “We set us aside, to make sure we got every student placed 100%. Then we went a step further and said we want to make sure every staff member got better jobs.” 

Despite the devastating defeat, Dunn isn’t done serving the community he loves. He said his focus will remain on the students, which are the very reason he opened the school in the first place. 

“They deserve to have a community school, that’s built by them and for them. It can’t be us any longer, but it has been us for the last 2 1/2 years,” Dunn said. “People approach me and ask what’s next and I say, ‘It’s the same thing I was doing yesterday, serving.’ That’s the responsibility I have, and it comes with thrones. It gets your Superman cape torn, but you dust yourself off and you get back up again.” 

Now, Dunn hopes someone else can come in and pick up the pieces.  

“I hoped that we would get the enrollment that we needed, but I hope for the next school that comes into this building, that you reach the numbers and give the kids the opportunities that we gave and do it 10 times better,” Dunn said.  

As of Friday, Dunn said every student was placed in another school and all the teachers have received another job.  

The HimByHer Foundation will continue to operate.  

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