The Components

*Guiding Principles Addressed: No. 1, No. 3

The plan recommends that we increase access to our Pre-K programs by redistributing seats across the Zones.

Why:

• Our Pre-K facility, Francis Bellamy, on the far east side, has a building condition score of 62, which is very poor. 
• We will maintain the same overall number of seats, but provide access closer to all neighborhoods and within each zone, based on birth rate data.

What it means: 

• Students will not enroll in Francis Bellamy for next year and beyond. 
• Most parents will have more IPS Pre-K options closer to their home.
• There are increased opportunities for our developmental Pre-K students to be educated alongside their peers in gen ed Pre-K classrooms.

2023-2024 Implementation: Specific Changes

We will close the Francis Bellamy Pre-K Center and redistribute Pre-K seats across the IPS district landscape. Pre-K seats will be redistributed to existing programs at the following locations:

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

*Guiding Principles Addressed: No. 4, No. 5, No. 6

Why: 

• Our choice school enrollment has increased by 15% over the last 3 years, while neighborhood school enrollment has decreased by 6%.
• On average, students at our choice schools experience 96% stability rate, and neighborhood school students only 70%.
• Moving to a 4 Zones model is predicted to reduce student mobility by up to 76%.
• High demand choice schools are serving fewer students of color over time because of sibling and proximity priority.

What it means: 

• K-5 families will have access to any school in their Zone with transportation provided. 
• 6-8 students will also enroll based on Zones.
• If a student moves within their zone during the school year, they do not need to move schools (reducing mobility and stabilizing schools).
• Families have more options. 
• All families must actively choose a school for kindergarten, and will no longer be assigned a school.

Specific Changes

Starting in School-Year 2024-2025, our district map could look drastically different. What was a mix of neighborhood boundaries and choice proximity boundaries will come much simpler, and aligned to Zones.

Current state: different kinds of schools use very different boundaries.

Future state: All elementary and middle schools use Enrollment Zones as boundaries. 

Our Zones were drafted based on three plus years of mobility data. Grouping schools in this way allows us to reduce student moves by up to 76%. 

Reference Maps

• Proposed Equity Zones

*Guiding Principles Addressed: No. 1, No. 3, No. 5

The plan recommends increasing accessibility of special education programs by zone.

Why:

Our IPS special education continuum includes but is not limited to full inclusion in a general education environment, pull-out and push-in services, and special programming like: Developmental Pre-K, Life Skills, and Intensive Intervention, to name a few. Students are able to access these programs based on needs discussed by a case conference committee.  Geographic location of programs can result in longer bus rides for some students.

What it means: 

• Every school, in every zone, will continue to offer full inclusion, push-in, and pull-out services as part of the special education continuum.
• Nearly all special education programs will exist in every zone.
• All special education programs will be accessible to every student whose case conference committee has agreed upon the need.
• Increased opportunities to place special education services and programming in higher-performing schools with better facilities conditions. 
• Improved pairing of programs to offer enhanced student supports.

2023-2024 Implementation: Specific Changes

Special Education Programs in Schools

Nearly all special education programs like Life Skills, Intensive Intervention, and Programs for Young Children, will exist in every zone which will, in most cases, increase equity and convenience of access for students by distributing program seats across the district and provide shorter travel distance to school. 

The array of services and supports provide students access to curriculum and learning experiences across the district, including nonacademic and extracurricular activities. 

Additionally, we’ve paired our developmental PreK programs with at least one general education PreK program to ensure access to the least restrictive environment. 

In many locations, programs have been paired intentionally to allow for fluidity in services across programs and access to unique learning opportunities (Example:  Life Skills and Autism programming located in a Center For Inquiry, IB, Montessori or STEM school).

*Guiding Principles Addressed: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 6

Increasing access via eligibility and siting the High Ability School more centrally. 

The plan recommends we expand access to students who qualify in either math or English Language arts, and move the school more centrally.

Why:

• Our data shows that students who identify as high ability reside across the district landscape.
• Many students decline a seat at the current high ability school, in part because the location is so far north.
• Our current high-ability school, as a 2-8 grade configuration, doesn’t have the number of students to support a strong K-5 or 6-8 experience.

What it means:

• We will build a new facility at the site of School 56, anticipated to be complete for the 2027 School Year. 
• We’re changing the entry grade from 2nd grade to 1st grade.
• We’re changing the eligibility requirements to allow students who are high ability in either math or ELA to enroll rather than the current requirement of being high ability in both math and ELA.

2024-2025 and 2026-2027 Implementation: Specific Changes

The plan recommends we update the grade configuration of Sidener in SY2024-2025, move the middle grades to Harshman, and eventually move the K-5 school to a new build at the site of School 56 upon completion of construction.

2024-2025 School Year

• Expand eligibility at the Sidener location to students entering 1st grade (rather than 2nd).
• Expand eligibility for high ability to students who qualify in one area (rather than both ELA and Math).
• Move grades 6-8 to Harshman as part of grade configuration changes. 

2026-2027 School Year

• When new facility is built, move the K-5 students to their new centrally-located campus.

*Guiding Principles Addressed: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, No. 7

2024-2025 Implementation: The plan recommends expanding seat access when we re-configure grades, as well as by establishing new program sites across the district.

Why:

• We have more applicants than available seats at many of our higher performing schools.
• We have the opportunity to expand access to high-demand programs by geography.
  • Our current choice options are largely concentrated in the north part of the district.

What it means: 

• More kids have access to more choices.
  • When RBS is fully implemented, we will have doubled the number of high-demand program seats across the district. 
• More kids have access to our highest demand options.
• More kids have access to models that have shown to have some of the highest academic outcomes. 
• More families who seek one of these programs will have one closer to home.

How did you decide which programs to expand or replicate? 

• High demand – Existing IPS schools with two or more applications for every open seat.
• Higher performing – These IPS schools or programs have higher absolute performance relative to similarly situated schools typical for all students, and particularly for students of color.
  • There are achievement disparities for children of color in some of these models, and we recognize that. We commit to putting the appropriate supports and professional development in place to ensure all IPS students are performing at the highest levels.

2024-2025 Implementation: Specific Changes

The following program expansions would provide more equitable access to our most demanded, higher-performing seats across the district.  

Specific Expansion/Replication

Montessori

• Rousseau McClellan School 91: Expand capacity at the K-5 level via grade configuration changes in SY24-25.
• George Washington Carver 87: Expand capacity at the K-5 level via grade configuration changes in SY24-25 and completion of a building 17,400 square foot building addition for the 2026-2027 school year. 
• Francis Parker 56: Increase access to students at James Russell Lowell school 51 and ongoing through larger facility.
• New site: Eleanor Skillen 34: New site proposed for the 2024-2025 school year.

Butler Lab

• Eliza Blaker School 55: Expand capacity at the K-5 level via grade configuration changes in SY24-25 and completion of a building 27,200 square foot building addition for the 2026-2027 school year. 
• William Bell 60: Expand capacity at the K-5 level via grade configuration changes in SY24-25.

Cold Spring STEM 

• Current Cold Spring @ Marian: Expand capacity at the K-5 level via grade configuration changes in SY24-25.

Dual Language Immersion

• Theodore Potter: Expand capacity at the K-5 level via grade configuration changes in SY24-25.
• New site: Dual Language at Harshman: Increase access to the programming at Harshman for grades 6-8th in the 2024-2025 school year. Current students from Global Prep @ Riverside 44 in the middle grades can move to Harshman, and additional seats will be offered via Enroll Indy Lottery. (Subject to OEI approval)

High Ability

• Sidener Academy:  Expand capacity at the K-5 level via grade configuration changes in SY24-25. 
• New site: High Ability @ Harshman: Increase access to the program at Harshman for grades 6-8th in the 2024-2025 school year. Current students from Sidener in the middle grades can move to Harshman, and additional seats will be offered via Enroll Indy Lottery to qualifying students. 

Visual and Performing Arts

• Note – 2024-2025 Implementation. New site: Riley School of the Arts

International Baccalaureate – Grades K-5

• Center for Inquiry I (CFI 2): Expand capacity at the K-5 level via grade configuration changes in SY24-25. 
• Center for Inquiry II (CFI 84): Expand capacity at the K-5 level via grade configuration changes in SY24-25.
• Center for Inquiry III (CFI 27): Expand capacity at the K-5 level via grade configuration changes in SY24-25.
• Center for Inquiry IV (CFI 70): Expand capacity at the K-5 level via grade configuration changes in SY24-25.
• New site: Center for Inquiry @ Carl Wilde 79 (CFI 79): Replicate at existing school for SY24-25. Currently enrolled students can stay at the school. 
• New site: Center for Inquiry @ George Julian 57 (CFI 57): Replicate at existing school for SY24-25. Currently enrolled students can stay at the school. 

International Baccalaureate – Grades 6-8

These new sites are part of our middle school reinvention, and will serve as middle schools for the existing K-5 programs at our Center for Inquiry, IB candidate, Montessori, and Butler Lab elementary programs. 

Students from those programs have guaranteed pipeline, and additional seats will be offered via the Enroll Indy Lottery. 

Existing middle school students at Northwest and Longfellow in the 2024-2025 school year can stay at the school or choose another school with closing school priority via Enroll Indy.

All new IB sites:

• Northwest IB World Middle School
• Longfellow IB World Middle School
• Howe IB World Middle School
• Broad Ripple IB World Middle School

*Guiding Principles Addressed: No. 5, No. 6, No. 9, No. 10

Reducing the number of students who attend small schools or schools in poor condition.

The plan recommends the consolidation of seven schools, and eventually two schools that will no longer operate for student instruction once new buildings are complete.

Why:

• All students at all schools deserve a high-quality experience – from programming, to facilities, to extracurriculars and beyond.
• The consolidation of schools enables us to use our resources more strategically and invest in the student experience. 
• We considered a combination of factors when considering facilities for consolidation:
  • building condition
  • enrollment trends over time
  • current and future population changes in the area
  • school size

What it means: 

• Students from proposed school consolidations will either be assigned a new school with guaranteed seat (mergers) OR, students may choose into another new school and will receive the “enhanced school priority” for next school year in the Enroll Indy Lottery. 
• Students will have access to stronger academic programming, more scaled schools, and a better facility as a result of consolidation.

2023-2024 Implementation: Proposed School Consolidation List

The following schools are proposed for no longer operating for student instruction at the end of the 2022-2023 school year.

School	Rationale
Francis Bellamy Pre-K Center and Step Ahead Program	This facility is rated a 62, one of our lowest. Our Pre-K seats in K-6 and K-8 schools fill in the lottery, but this site does not. Pre-K students will be educated in a better facility, closer to home.
George Buck School 94	The school is considered small in enrollment size with a 2021 ADM of 263 students and has lost 32% of its school population since 2015-2016. The building has low student utilization. The location of the school is in an area with declining population growth based on census data and a demographic study.
Floro Torrence School 83	The school is considered small in enrollment size with a 2021 ADM of 157 students and has lost 45% of its school population since 2015-2016. The building has low student utilization.
Raymond Brandes School 65	At 182 students, this facility has low student utilization rate and has declined in enrollment by 24% since 2015-2016. A demographic study also found that the forecasted resident students for this school would continue to decline to through 2030.

2023-2024 Implementation: Proposed School Consolidation List

The following schools are proposed for no longer operating for student instruction at the end of the 2022-2023 school year.

Francis Parker School 56	The facility has a score of 61, one of our lowest, and a low student utilization rate. We propose moving this program and students to a building with a condition score of 84.
Paul Miller School 114	The school’s enrollment has declined by 51% since 2015-2016. With 230 students, this building has a low student utilization and has a score of 60, our lowest rated remaining building. We propose moving these students to a building with a facility condition score of 76. The location of the school is in an area with declining population growth based on census data.

2023-2024 Implementation: Student Options

Schools proposed for no longer operating for student instruction with no direct merger

Francis Bellamy Pre-K Center and Step Ahead Program

Pre-K students who are there now will move to Kindergarten at a school of their choosing for 2023-2024 (just as they always would). Step Ahead programming will relocate to the Emma Donnan facility to co-locate with Adelante beginning next school year.

-George Buck School 94 -Floro Torrence School 83 -Raymond Brandes School 65

Students may choose a school in their future-facing zone (and be provided transportation) with the closing school priority in the Enroll Indy lottery for the 2023-2024 school year.

Schools proposed merger

No Longer Operate for Student Instruction Building

• Paul Miller School 114 —> merges with Frederick Douglass School 19
• Francis Parker School 56 —> merges with James Russell Lowell School 51 (Becomes Montessori programming)

Student Assignment and Options

All students will have a seat at merger school, and the sending school program. Staff who are currently IPS staff will transition with their school leaders to support the new program. Those who are Innovation school staff will receive a questionnaire to share their professional development preferences, and receive priority in all vacancies available in their current buildings or within IPS.

If a family from either a no longer operate for student instruction school or the receiving school would not like to stay, they may choose another school in their future-facing Zone for the 2023-2024 school year and beyond and will receive the “closing school priority” in the Enroll Indy Lottery.

Schools with Special Considerations: Student Options

Impacted School and Grades	Special notes
William Penn – Grades K-5	In School-Year 2023-2024, no change. For School-Year 2024-2025, you will need to choose a new school in your Zone via Enroll Indy and will get the “enhanced school priority.”
William Penn – Grades 6-8	In School-Year 2023, no change. For School-Year 2024-2025, your school will become STEM. You have a guaranteed right to stay at the school. If you don’t want to stay, you can choose a new school in your Zone via Enroll Indy and will get the “enhanced school priority.”
Harshman – all grades	For the 2023-2024 school year, Harshman will not accept new 7th graders. 8th graders at the school can remain. New 8th graders can be accepted to open seats.
James Whitcomb Riley – all grades	Starting in the 2023-2024 school year, we propose an Arts Integration model at the school. All students in all grades can stay at the school. In SY 2024-2025, James Whitcomb Riley will begin serving grades K-5 and Edison will begin serving grades 6-8.

Building Reuse: Our approach

For any building that will no longer be used for classroom instruction…

• We recognize that
  • a school is more than just a place where kids go to learn.
  • this is a painful process for school communities and neighborhoods.
  • school buildings are treasured neighborhood assets and 

• Therefore…
  • We will work alongside the impacted communities to thoughtfully determine the future use of any facility.
  • To the extent possible, we will ensure school facilities continue to add value to the community, perhaps in a different way, for years to come.

Pending board approval of the plan, we will begin a process to take community input on next steps for each impacted facility.