INDIANAPOLIS — A unanimous approval of a massive reorganization plan for Indianapolis Public Schools.
The school voted Thursday evening to approve the plan that will see some schools close, students and teachers moved to different schools, and an overhaul of the programs the district offers. Now it’s up to the voters inside the district’s borders to give their stamp of approval.
“When we went for our community last fall, what we heard from them was clear,” said IPS Superintendent Dr. Aleesia Johnson during Thursday’s board meeting. “More opportunities for our students, more access for students who hadn’t previously had it.”
She feels this plan will accomplish those goals.
The plan will set minimum enrollment numbers for all IPS schools, which means six schools will be closed based on low enrollment numbers. It will also set new parameters on which schools students will attend, not based on geography for K-8 students but for specific schools dedicated to elementary and middle school students.
The board is asking the voters within the district to approve a referendum that would raise their property taxes from 19-cents for every 100-dollars of assessed value to 25-cents per 100-dollars of access value. That’s expected to generate around $800 million in funding for the plan. The district will also use $410 million it already has secured to capital investments. In the end, this will result in $50 million spent every year by the district through 2031.
The plan has not been without pushback from the community but also teachers. The teacher’s union in the last few months has been critical of the plan due to the requirement that some teachers will be reassigned to different schools under the plan.
“I recognize that in this plan there are recommendations that will change how schools are configured,” Johnson said addressing the concerns. “The reality is that we can do anything, but we cannot do everything. Trade-offs are real and they are necessary.”
Johnson believes the plan will move the district forward, adding that “maintaining the status quo is unacceptable.”
The referendum being requested by the district will be voted on during the municipal elections coming up in 2023.
