Rebuilding Stronger – Questionnaire #6 Survey – Detailed Responses

IPS Affiliation

148 parents
18 IPS staff
12 IPS staff & parent
7 Future/potential parent
3 students
2 community member
55 not specific/didn’t respond

Pre-Read Reflection

“Book Review: Race, Power, History, and Schools” (https://www.carnegie.org/news/articles/book-review-race-power-history-schools)

I agree completely. I actually believe strongly in the power of neighborhood schools. Children should be able to walk and bike to school, not spend hours on a bus everyday. They should have friends and classmates from their neighborhood. There should only be pride in ones neighborhood, not embarrassment or shame.
It sounds like an important book to read.
I’m not a fan of requiring a litmus test or reading pre-req for voting of any kind.
None
“If you believe this part, “Schools aren’t merely the sum total of their test scores and attendance levels; they’re spaces that
facilitate an under- standing of a shared past and

What were your initial reactions or thoughts to the pre-read?

culture.”… then you’ll respect I vehemently disagree with this plan that IPS has proposed.
K-8 at School 91 is a community and a culture of positivity. Jr. High is a rough age. I stayed in IPS for School 91’s culture and community for the K-8 atmosphere that embraces ethnic and economic diversity in the promotion of Montessori methods. Children are flourishing in 91. I suggest your plan instead revamps failing schools who lack funding and parental support. I’d likely move out of IPS district if this plan comes to fruition.
IPS definitely has an equity problem in schools
I agree schools are more than test scores.
It’s true. There’s a lot inequity in education that usually results in poorer outcomes for children of color and poor children. The change that is required to make these changes will be hard, and people who are most able to independently able to make changes to how and where their child is educated will likely scream the loudest, but the focus needs to be on ensuring all children have access to an equitable education.
Love, love, love that you’re getting rid of the proximity zone. I do hope you’ll keep sibling priority just to make transportation easier on families. I am open to the idea of consolidating and making separate middle schools instead of K-8 but it would be nice if curricula were continued at designated middle schools ie CFI middle school, Montessori middle school, etc. Also I’ve heard a lot of negative feedback about what happened in the 90s when IPS tried to do separate middle schools. Lots of disorganization and families fleeing to private schools. That does make me a bit nervous.
People value their strong communities. The community is an extension of home.
That closing k-8 schools to divide them up makes no sense as the writing supports not closing schools and keeping people/communities together.
Interested, but not terribly informative for this activity and the proposals being considered.
I want the schools to be more equitable. I do NOT want to move away from the K-8 model!
Very interesting read and makes me want to read the entire book
I don’t want to model anything after Chicago, it is a corrupt, broke city that is currently under siege. That comes from a former resident of the city.
While schools provide great access they are created and fostered by the community around them.
Sounds like an interesting book, not sure this particular article really offers any ideas of actual action…?
That my level.of education about the subject is far away from offering anything genuinely constructive to this conversation
I think it sounds similar to what IPS has been encountering for several years. A lot of schools are struggling and definitely need refigured
How can we improve the schools that we have and encourage attendance instead of closing them
Honestly, I’m a bit frustrated after reading that. I taught at Fuller School, a Chicago Public School, in Bronzeville from 2004 to 2006. We were a school on the chopping block for a long time. We fought for our school and for our children, but were never given the tools or leadership we deserved.
I’m frustrated because I’ve watched IPS since arriving in Indianapolis in 2014. They have turned over so many schools to charters in the name of “innovation,” without school and community support (Stand for Children doesn’t count and we all know that). IPS does whatever they want and pretends like the community has a voice. Bring the real issues that Indianapolis is dealing with and let’s make decisions together.
No one wants their neighborhood school to close. Having read The Bee Eater ( a true story of a really good and reform minded principal who gets hosed by her DC school system) and having been in IPS for 55 years I understand the importance of great leadership by principals and how school systems can and do screw good things up.
It’s true that people don’t like change and that I understand it’s a scary thing to close down a neighborhood school, even one that has been failing for a while.
It seems vague- the author seems to indicate closing schools is bad for the culture and history of a neighborhood, but also sometimes necessary. I fully agree that schools for a huge part of a neighborhoods identity and often reflect it back into the community. But if they are neglected, physically or educationally, what is to be done?
Why are you giving a reading assignment for a survey?
She looks into the 50 Chicago school closings in 2013 from the perspective of students and family most effected. This a necessary perspective to more fully understand the situation. It’s not a comprehensive look into the school closings and thus does not include other reasons and effects of the school closings. Eve Ewing didn’t intend to study the whole picture but instead and correctly so looks deeply into one aspect of the closings.
I think that anyone who doesn’t think that racism, money, power, weaponized Christianity and white supremacy doesn’t impact public schools isn’t paying attention
Schools are vital neighborhood anchors that help communities stay connected.
I feel it’s a bit leading toward a particular mindset you’re looking to cultivate.
I thought this was a survey?
There are major inequalities with the education system as it stands and this needs to be changed. Those are structural and stem from centuries old policies that intend to keep the poor right where they are so their time and resources can be exploited. Schools are more than an education, they are a space for shared learning, community, and connection.
I thought this pre-read is a barrier to many families being able to provide input and give their opinion.
I feel there are some interesting and valid points. However, without actually reading the book and in-depth points, speaking on those points would be elementary in my thinking and/or opinions.
Honest answer: You expect me to read an entire book to fill out this survey? Ok but this might take awhile… real answer: I think this is a real concern and even the article touches on the fact that the problem is bigger than what just the board and school district can address. Funding, shifting populations, and unreasonable rules and laws all play a part as well and are even harder to change. I’ve been part of a closing school and I’ve watches my elementary school be bulldozed and rebuilt. It is HARD to see your school close even if you knew it had problems.
Answering the question of what school reform is appropriate is difficult and entails factors that stakeholders within the school district may be uncomfortable addressing.
That IPS has been challenged in some areas of the city, which area reasons we have charter schools and innovation schools
That the traditional school model doesn’t work
You’re using a book review as background or the actual book? This doesn’t make sense.
It tracks with my experiences as a school teacher at a second-chance high school in the South Bronx, and working with students from the South Side of Chicago. Education outcomes often are blind to the multi-faceted nature of the factors that create them. Excellent schools can be considered failing when compared against their more affluent peers. And the best schools, especially in under-resourced communities, are more than merely a place for learning, but double as community centers becoming an open-access gathering place for all. Whether to close a “failing” school is a decision that must be undertaken with great care, and the impact on the community needs to be determined holistically.
I’m a little surprised because it does not feel like communities always value school except as a place for free lunch and childcare.
I believe that equity in schools/school systems is a real problem but am not sure there is one way to fix it.
No! As an educator and parent we chose our Montessori school because it taught the whole child AND it was a k-8 opportunity. We value that our kids get to grow and learn with the same educators and peers for 9 years. If you are looking to build schools that are safe and welcoming for students and families there isn’t a better opportunity than this. Replicate the k-8 program in buildings rather than giving families the opportunity to jump ship from IPS during Middle School, like they often do for their high school choices.
Another race baiting article from IPS
?
That people fight for “failing” schools?
Schools are connected to their communities and should continue to be supported to encourage broad acceptance and attendance to them from those who live around them and throughout the broad community. However, schools have been inequitably impacted based on political, social and economic prejudices, therefore leading to unfortunate evaluations based on standards written by the same individuals who are deciding those inequities.
That closing schools robs communities of a key component of their child’s stability
Very interesting.
Closing schools is a travesty. It uproots a core sense of stability for any child in attendance. I very much understand the sense of a school being more than just test scores. Schools are indeed a core part of the neighborhood culture.
It made me pause and think further about the implications of closing neighborhood schools.
na
did not read
I agree schools are more than tests and grades. But without achievement on tests and grades they are failing their fundamental purpose in society.
It captures the challenge we face with public schools today
Schools are personal places where students, parents and community often find a sense of belonging. Closing schools is difficult for communities and can strip them of a place that is essential to their identities. At the same time, there are practical reasons it should be considered.
I think it is a powerful example of how there are not easy answers. Most often issues cannot be confronted in a simple binary way. There is going to be a lot of nuance to solving the issues that any school system finds itself in, including IPS.
I do not feel qualified to answer questions about the review because I haven’t read the book.
Closing schools that are homes to neighborhoods and families can be detrimental to the entire community.
Closing schools is not necessarily good
It’s only a book review, not a book. It is not particularly clear what your point was in including it, as you are suggesting closing schools, and the subject of the book is families fighting against the closing of schools. I find it particularly interesting that the review mentions the intersection of power and politics in our communities, and suggest that we should all be fighting to keep out-of-state big-business charter school power out of our schools and our school board elections.
I’ve taught in IN public schools for 19 years. There is disparity within more affluent nearby districts. Parent involvement, monetary support, quality instruction are all important but a sense of community within neighborhood school is strongest factor.
That parents want schools in their neighborhoods that their children can attend.
Right on
Only a person who is new to race and to Chicago, the most segregated city in the U.S. for decades, and one that has had failed public schools for at least 50 years, would think this instructive for Indianapolis. This is insulting to use in this context.
My initial reaction was feeling sad for the students whose schools were closed and had that safe space in their life disrupted. The question posed in the article is valid – what should be done to schools that fail to educate their students? I was hoping for some solutions to be offered but it was more of a statement that no one knows the answer to that question.
I was sad to see that IPs is considering grade reconfiguration. Our school, CFi2 and other K-8 schools offer very special bonds between the older and younger grades. If we decide to strip all schools of this grade configuration, we are damaging unbroken systems that parents know and love about our school and others like this. I have two kids, 3rd and 5th and they both enjoy having the mentorship of older students and also enjoy the ability to offer or eventually offer the same mentorship to kids you get at some point in their k-8 experience. We have many broken systems but this is not one of them. This solution would be detrimental to those students thrust into a new building or system and cause great strain on parents to serve on committee or volunteer in schools when kids are split by building due to their grade. I would be deeply sadden if this decision is made without consulting with students, faculty and parents of schools this model serves well.
Schools are vital to our communities and parents will do whatever we can to protect our schools and children’s education.
Unfortunately, it appears to be yet another misguided attempt to inject racial politics and racial division into our schools.
I appreciate the approach of seeing schools as more than just test scores and attendance. How can we evaluate the success of schools differently?
No matter what changes are made it going to be a hard road for many.
N/a
I thought it was insightful to learn how parents and families are often devoted to their schools. It’s not as simple as test scores and facility condition.
Curiosity about the different ways society reacts to a lack of contributions to the community and the way our own personal lenses about our collective identities often are more dependent on satiation of our own adult egos than embracing evidence-based practices centered on improving the lives of children. Another reaction I had was one of ironic laughter remembering when our superintendent ran on the premise of being a proponent of school choice. Having lied to gain power and influence, believing whole heartedly she was doing the right thing, I think about parallels to injustices of generations past. I think about how people with loyalty devotions over justice devotions regularly exhibit behaviors and opinions history typically doesn’t look down fondly on, and I think about this strange idea that the standards that shouldn’t have mattered to measure public schools and how they now matter when comparing charters to public schools. I think about this bizarre belief that it is somehow freedom to force children to attend their school district even when they may face physical danger doing so. I think about how we frame this as an issue predicating in the freedom and free exchange of ideas, and not many people find the obvious lack of freedom in telling someone “if you don’t like it but you’re rich, you have options. If you’re poor…..you better learn how to like it.” I find it interesting the same people acting as if it is about democracy and not money are the people who “raised” about 3x the median wage of an average Hoosier for the school board campaign. I am fascinated about how my fancy friends with master’s degrees and PhDs feel as if they’re making an impact by sending their kids to public school as if it is some great sacrifice, and in the same breath hiring private teachers and tutors to make up for the lack of information and critical thought abilities their kids miss out on BECAUSE THEY CAN AFFORD TO DO THAT. I, for one, find it disingenuous to subsidize public schools and make children feel less than by pretending the school did its job when I paid private school tuition to a private tutor and skewing the data. I am lucky enough to have the self-awareness to find this all amusing in spite of having a child having to live through the travesties of what we decided counted as education during covid. Because I’ve been poor, because I work full time, and because I grew up in a family who experienced poverty until my mother was lucky enough to catch a break finding a job in a union that invested in her education (as they simultaneously stole her membership dues to pay for their 3rd vacation property), I understand that it’s not realistic to get a ‘good’ (read: desired) result without being as dirty as the lying politicians who typically call the shots. I see the benefits of providing what someone out there considers valuable, I see the importance of public education, but I am also not so full of myself to believe that my child’s sacrifice will save the world (I remember going to public school with a kid whose mom was a judge….she actively fought to keep ‘new kids’ out of the gifted and talented program because ‘this group of kids is a community! They grew up together! They’re like family!’ in spite of superior test scores than the students who were currently enrolled—this is kind of like what charter schools are now, but this is HUMAN NATURE. I do not believe we can change human nature. That same urge to have a nice brand of shoes or a fancy bag is the same urge people have to dominate others, and pretending not to be guilty of it just makes you look like you have NO self-awareness at all. I am FULLY aware that people do NOT like opening their circles to other socioeconomic classes regardless of ability, and this was one of my first intense lessons in the power of knowing important people, which was taught to me over and over throughout my adult life). As you, writer of this book, sit in your ivory tower writing with the alphabet soup after your name from one of the biggest engines of political power in the nation, rubbing shoulders with people who have power and control, and lecture us lowly mortals about how important it is that we give power and control to you because you know better than us and are smarter and better, you are not fooling anyone. Nearly every adult realizes the world isn’t meritbased, and we all know everything is driven by relationship. Everything is based on who you know and whether they like or respect you. It is human nature to prioritize and protect those we like over that which is right, and loyalty is obviously more valuable to most people than truth. I can’t help but chuckle when I put this all into the context of the fact that the only people who really get to participate in the public school “democracy” still somehow wind up being the wealthy stay at home parents or the perpetual students who haven’t ever held—or needed to hold—a real full time job, speaking for us lowly know nothings about what is good for the brains of our children. It’s almost as if it has always been about money or class or something?!?! Insane! Who could have ever predicted that all of this was about money…. The funny part is that with the advent of the internet, the only thing now aside from degrees and certificates that separates the haves from the have nots is their interpersonal relationships and ability to ask good questions—and it seems like so few anymore have self-awareness. With information so widely accessible, easily available, it is becoming clear that what you all have convinced yourselves was hard-won merit (earned through your superior abilities and blood, sweat, and tears) is actually just inheritance of relationships, and people realize it, and you don’t have to keep acting so self-important. Out of curiosity, can you name one singular example of a time where forcing a citizenry to do something after lying about the intentions was looked upon as good or necessary after the fact? Would I have considered the shuttering of my first ever job in high school an erasure of my history of the business not only lost money but also maybe even actively harmed the population it was supposed to have been serving? If the ice cream shop I worked at served lead-laced ice cream, but meant well, would people have the ability to recognize that my intentions are irrelevant to the actual impact that would have on the people buying the ice cream? Also, there is a direct link between economic stability and math abilities. Inability to think critically and, from evidence-based research (whether people put the subjective label of racist on this or not), in a linear, mathematical fashion is a great way to increase the likelihood your children experience poverty. I can’t help but wonder why there are schools in areas with high levels of poverty that actually help develop pro social behaviors in children—what do they know that we don’t know? Is it possible our desire to control kids and call memorization of facts (that anyone could look up with WiFi access or a library card) “education” when we ourselves have no interest in thinking critically outside of our own egos and desire to be important, right, or good? Is it possible that Chicago’s tradition of political corruption is the perfect example of what people think the uneducated are unable to see, when all along, they’ve actually just been too grossed out by the prospect or not shallow enough to care about the feelings of importance you place value on by knowing the right people? Maybe creativity, likability, business acumen is actually more important than intelligence? Is it possible the people who don’t devote their lives to chasing money or power aren’t less enlightened than you, but just different from you? Can self sustainability be the goal so that our kids aren’t forever a slave to this system you and your friends at these prestigious institutions pretend to be victimized by but continue to engage in the same loyalty and personal relationship-driven approach to exclusion that happened by those who don’t look/talk/act like you? Teaching kids to play the weird long game, pretend to value merit, and suck up to the right egos can be the band-aid, but please for all that is good and holy, keep the condescension to a minimum. The only thing that will save our society is the acknowledgement that life is a series of tests about how willing to engage in relationships with people you can’t stand being around for large sums of money so that your kids can learn how to do the same thing without experiencing the constant existential dread that comes from mandatory participation in the theater of it all. Our world will be a better place when you quit pretending your cause is more noble than that and just admit it.
interesting and disheartening
Raises important questions but doesn’t suggest answers
Unsure
That schools can perpetuate inequity and systemic racism. But ultimately, do choices benefit students are what “looks” good.
I think any education has to be given the right time and not rushed and kids should have all the info.
Schools have multiple reasons for failing students, it’s complicated and closing schools in order to merge into larger schools is not an improvement for students.
Irritated
I would love to dig in more. I think inequitable schools is a hot topic right now and as I read this it did resonate and remind me of what is happening at IPS/
N/a
That you want to influence peoples’ opinions before asking them to share them.
I found it interesting!
I want to learn more about the experience in Chicago. What happened to the families and students of Dyett High School? We’re the closures successful in improving Chicago’s schools?
Good read
I feel like combining schools would be a good idea. I come from a school that was combined my senior year of high school it’s stressful and a lot of work but at the end of the day it was a better put come then keeping 2 high schools open in a small town! Our sports teams got better we had more money and opportunities come from combining the schools together. If you combine there is a lot that goes into but with the right mind set and resources it could happen. I live by bethel park and I can count in my neighborhood area there are at least 5 different schools we could make it into one school and put all those resources into one school instead of 5 schools in one area. The biggest thing about recovering is to know the plan or plans and move towards them and not let it just be something we talk about for years. I feel like all kids deserve the best education no matter where they life what color they are or what ethnicity they come from. Our children’s eduction is the number one thing that needs to be the focus then everything else.
I have listened to and read many things like this over the last 2 years. I see both sides of the importance of community for a school but also as a district successful educated students.
Schools aren’t merely the sum total of their test scores and attendance levels; they’re spaces that facilitate an under- standing of a shared past and culture. Or as Ewing puts it, a school is ‘a place of care, a home, a site of history.’ ” —– I agree wholeheartedly with this and see and feel how much of an inclusive community our school is.
There are many things to consider when closing school buildings that I can’t understand as a white male.
How can one read this brief article and not see the strong evidence that points to systemic racism? It make so much sense, and it is grievous.
I was not present for Meeting 6 and have not yet read this link -but will!
It makes some good points and keeps the questions if race and schools at the forefront of decision making.
I don’t feel it is necessary to require a pre-read to fill out an input survey. I do think this is a very complex situation that one short article cannot even begin to tackle.
That schools are under-resourced, completely inequitable, and then demonized when they fail to produce the only measure of success that the government (and this the public) look at – test scores.
The importance of listening to families when it comes to their schools.
Good points, I would be interested to read the book the article discussed if I could find time
My initial thought is that school reform is a very complex and delicate issue.
Didn’t read it
There are challenges with closing schools
School closures should be carefully considered not just based off of test scores but by community impact and history especially in underserved communities.
Upset over the idea of splitting k-8 school. Staying in the same school until high school was important to us when choosing a school
The community changes that drive school closures are often rooted in racism, classism, and other power dynamics where the experience of and impact upon powerless groups are dismissed.
Great article
Closing failing schools and redistributing the students to other schools isn’t necessarily the answer to the problem nor is it necessarily wanted by the parents of students at the failing schools.
Very enlightening. Saddened by the reality of school for so many of our children.
It left me appreciating the complexities and nuances involved in decisions regarding public education.
How structural inequalities that can undergird our public education system.
Closing public schools is complicated and should be carefully, thoughtfully, and slowly perhaps.
Good article but not new information.
Public schools and their teachers, staff, etc provide incredible support to their families. The idea that schools would be closed in the United States- the “richest” country in the world -or in Indianapolis our capitol city with plenty of money- blows my mind. It makes me realize how much people do not understand about what public schools and their teachers actually do, contribute, and dedicate themselves for – the kids they love.
I think within IPS, we can improve poor rated schools so that there’s not such a significant difference between schools.
I thought that it would probably be helpful if I read Ewing’s book, but it gave a hint at some of the issues plaguing our district and the challenges that are before us.
That it brought up some really important points. And it reminded me of all the ripple effects those closings had in Chicago.
This is a complex problem and sometimes the best thing we can do is choose from an array of choices we don’t want to have to choose. Our kiddos need us to do this hard work.
Schools should not close due to low test scores, and that is not what IPS is doing, so I am grateful for that.
The approach of not making blanket statements and addressing how politics play a part in this process
Absolute horror and disapproval. The K-8 model has been praised to be extremely successful. 91 especially, as a past student of the school, I made it a priority to make sure my children were able to attend as well. When 91 was made into a k-5 school when I was in 5th grade it forced us to move out of district to attend Washington township for 6-8 middle school. Changing communities to a huge population was a detriment to my school experience. If this change were to be made again, our family would no longer attend the school and attend a different district, thus causing more of a problem of low enrollment and I believe this to be the case with many families. I have worked as an educator for 2 decades and we have “bussed” children of minority to our schools to have more diversity and not priority of the neighborhood. All this causes is a longer commute for children that are possibly already at a disadvantage causing even more concerns and behaviors to occur.
That we should be thoughtful in when and how to reorganize schools, knowing that the children and families that attend those schools are a part of an important and valuable community, in spite of what test scores might be at the school.
These are my thoughts around the proposed phase 6 direction. The k-8 model is highly effective. I truly believe the path to this key goal of the project- “Supports that see every child as a whole child with a full range of human needs” is much more attainable in small middle schools. I have experience or witnessed many of the other approaches over the years as a student and parent. I went to Shortridge when it was just 7-8 and remember trying 6-12 there as well. There were too many students and the community was not as strong as k-8. Reviewing the spreadsheet for many of the current k-6 schools it seems clear that most have the space to add 7-8. If the middle schools are failing we should expand the k-8 model to all students. The middle school at #91 is diverse and produces capable, confident students who excel in schools as big as North Central and as small as Riverside. I agree that proximity preferences should be eliminated and the zone concept implemented. The zone will help with transportation and the proximity preference elimination help with increasing access for students across the district. I also think that we should strongly consider a replication specifically of Montessori across the district. You know the history of the philosophy so it makes sense that it would be effective in a district like ours-especially in k-4. Also, I have witnessed our middle school and elementary have so many opportunities mostly driven by our athletic director (also MS teacher-best teacher ever Ms. Rebecca Pfaffenberger) and parents. If we dedicate funds to support positions that can focus on extracurricular as a primary role, the opportunity expansion will be easier to achieve in the k-8 model. Perhaps the money is best spent to support small enrollment schools in communities that need more school based support. Add middle school to these buildings, hire support staff in the form of teacher’s assistants and extracurricular/sport managers, partner with community supports and work to make the budget meet the needs.
Very interesting. I agree that schools are so much more than just test scores and attendance data.
Interesting.
I think the challenges IPS is facing are complex and there is not an easy answer, which may have been similar to the situation in Chicago.
I feel really strongly that the K-8 model works – to avoid the transition to a new school in already difficult years lifts a huge burden off of students and parents alike. I would be frustrated to see my child’s K-8 school split.
This will be a mistake.
As a Black parent of two Black sons at IPS, I do share the concerns of the author.
There is a lot that can be learned from missteps made in our history.
As a first generation American myself, I do value the public education and service IPS provides to tens of thousands of children and young adult who live in the district or chose to be a part of the district. It’s not clear to me that in the pre-read, it points out “steers clear of offering blanket solutions” and the district seems to have proposed a blanket solution to many faceted needs of each school and each student in the district. Like the pre-read mentions, schools are “spaces that facilitate an under- standing of a shared past and culture”. I believe Sidener Academy has represented that to my family. We chose to move our son into a school that seemed more equitable and more representative of the student/teacher body of IPS. Also the school has served many twice exceptional students in many different ways while keeping their accelerated academic needs which seems to be deep rooted in the students’ twice-exceptional needs. Anyhow, I find the pre-read interesting but the district seems to be proposing something that’s flying in the face of the pre-read rather than being sensitive and understanding each school and community’s purpose and trying honor what’s working and individualized approaches to make every school and student in the district better.
I was impressed by the statement about schools being so much more than test scores and attendance numbers. This is especially important as this work comes to fruition.
Why would we follow what CPS has done? They are not a great example to look at.
Interesting book review. What was purpose in sharing?
Community schools matter to the stakeholders in that community
I know there is not a “blanket solution” but we cannot take away our neighborhood schools. We also need to look at why families are leaving their schools that were created in the neighborhood that they grew up in. Look at Haughville, or the near Northside neighborhoods that have changed several times over the last seventy years.
The decision to close a school is extremely personal to those involved with the school on a daily basis. Their perspectives should hold as much weight as the budget.
I think we always need to think about how we can best teach our students, all students within the district. That might mean making restructuring changes and we need to consider the needs of all families.
This is an important reminder that we can’t simply close schools as a way to achieve excellent education. Schools matter– community and family integration matters.
I find it hard to understand the inequity because I have not experienced inequity of color. I do recognize it as a historical situation that is held onto. Any child from a lower income status does have a more difficult time in school. I believe it is because parents lack the skills required to help their child(ren) with the new and required standards. Parents are often unavailable to help with homework due to work schedules. I also believe with the influx of immigrants, the language and educational barrier creates a huge disparity
Yes! So why does IPS always jump to the closing schools solution?
What was the point of reading that? It was vague and superficial.
Frustrated – always changing. Not good for families with multiple kids – how would they go to multiple schools- Families should be kept together
directive of the conversation
That I can empathize with the families who didn’t want their schools to be closed. That I wish school districts would genuinely listen to parents and make changes based on their feedback, rather than the more top down approach that typically happens–and I fear is already happening at IPS.
I like change for the most part and want to improve schools. But I don’t want to loose our neighborhood school 57. I also think poorly rated schools need better resources.
90% true
Another NO SOLUTIONS – JUST RACE BAIT FEARMONGERING
We should not close schools across the board based on test scores. Nor should we move to disband high achieving schools simply because they are in a less diverse neighborhood. We can make all neighborhood schools great.
Use it as a guide, but the experiences she shares may not be directly transferrable to our community. I think you are taking the first import step by listening to families and trying to create equity.
As a half gen (moved to USA as a kid), our schools are our communities. Splitting them in two will not benefit that community.
Best to build good schools but not by destroying current good schools
Focus on schools who are failing versus changing everything about IPS structure.
Involve communities and families affected in the decisions
Consider the value to community has on the school
Maintain focus on the big picture.
If there are two or more underutilized, poorly maintained facilities in the same geographic neighborhood, it would make sense to consolidate to one well-maintained, and well-staffed building. Focus on improving poorly-rated facilities in struggling neighborhoods. Reduce bus transportation to distant schools.
The experiences of all families in the community matter. Remember, the school has a specific community it is tied to. If the school separates itself from the community, then there is no school and there is no community long term.
Keep an open mind for several conflicting/paradoxical issues.
This is politicking towards an answer, I struggle to see how it applies to my own city and school district. How can we utilize the lessons in the readings to inform our work?
Neighborhood centric schools backed by local community not the city at large.
I’d have to read the book.
There is no one size fits all answers to multi layered situations
I think it’s easy to look at the success of the midtown schools but there are major discrepancies from those schools to the other schools. I think it’s important for all schools to be successful. Not just close the underperforming ones and fill up the successful ones with more students.
Closing schools is a complicated issue and we need feedback from parents before doing so
Genuinely involve the community. Not Mind Trust not Stand for Children not these school reformers who don’t have skin in the game. Chicago’s union is the only reason why the vultures we have here haven’t picked apart that district school by school.
BTW why doesn’t the district ever take time to applaud and appreciate the neighborhood schools that are successful? 109 on the west side gets zero accolades. They should be a model of success, not continually ignored. I digress.
Great idea to replicate successful schools! Did you know XX (name removed to maintain privacy) has a plan to keep replicating the CFI schools? I think it was her dissertation when getting her doctorate. Don’t mess with what’s working! Most families love the K8 model and are embracing the same IPS schools they used to flee. If a family wants a middle school, you have them. But most don’t. Please don’t spend our money reconfiguring schools people like. Most families will leave IPS at the middle school level just as many leave for high school. Put really good administrators in our high schools instead of promoting and shuffling around failed former leaders.
We need to listen to the research.
Better understand the impact of closing a school, or making a neighborhood school into a choice school and removing any kind of proximity
Are you serious?
Having not read the book I don’t have an opinion on how lessons in her book can inform IPS school board’s work. I’m sure there are useful lessons in there. However, as it’s from one perspective, students and families, it likely doesn’t give lessons regarding others costs and benefits of closing the schools. Is there another book that can be read to create a broader understanding of the closings?
Look to IPS’s successes – innovation schools for example – and do more of what’s working vs throwing things at a wall to see what sticks (which risks gutting enrollment)
How is this a survey?
Create more opportunities to create community through the schools and replicate what works. The greatest driver of a student’s success is parental involvement and being surrounded by other successful students.
Schools are communities with identities and opinions that should not be overlooked in this process. If the district says choice schools are the trend with increasing numbers, then families are looking to move out of boundary schools and, presumably, out of the district if their voice in their community isn’t listened to. Throughout the year, I received numerous texts and emails and phone calls with information. This process has not been communicated the same. The email I got about the last meeting occurred the day of the meeting, after it began. The email I got about this survey with the link was received on the day it was due in the afternoon. Parents have been communicating on school discussion boards that they have been looking for the link and not finding it.
Again, to take abbreviated descriptions on much deeper thoughts and practices could be dangerous, equating in further inequities. Overall, I do believe, we need to serve the needs of the community and listen to the community when making decisions about school consolidations, closures, and new openings.
I think we need to make sure the community understands why the decisions are being made. While it’s easy to say “let’s let everyone pick their school” the practicality is not so easy. It could mean that families like mine, who live next door to a school, are unable to attend that school. It could mean that some kids have long or unreasonable bus rides. And no matter what some kids will get a worse deal than others.
We must continue to acknowledge that our large district represents a huge diversity of races, cultures, socioeconomic statuses, and resources. Solutions that work for one group my not always work for another.
Consider more than just the bottom line or test scores as a determining factor
We need to embrace unique learning models
I don’t know since I can’t tell what exactly was the suggested pre-read?
Let’s think carefully about what we mean when we say a school is “failing” and lets prioritize the voices of the people who know the school best, the teachers, administrators and especially the local community and parents when deciding what’s best for a school.
I think it’s important to recognize that school is an anchor for a community but the school is also not going to fix all the community problems. Partnerships with organizations to help reinforce what goes on inside school walls are necessary in areas with low performing students. Parents are often not educated enough to help with the homework. These things can’t be left up to the teachers. Moving kids out of their neighborhood doesn’t help either because it makes transport more difficult and volunteer opportunities harder to fill.
Making sure all kids/schools have the same resources/training/materials is key.
Look more broadly at why the choice schools, which are mainly k-8, are successful. Parents choose to keep their kids there because of continuity of instruction. This can be replicated at neighborhood schools as well. Parents choose to keep their kids there because of extracurricular opportunities, which are often led by parents. Segmenting families into k-5 and 6-8 schools will limit these opportunities for parent involvement rather than increase it. Parents choose to keep their kids their because it keeps the entire family together. Many families are spread too thin already. Asking parents to divide attention between elementary and middle school events is unimaginable.
Not everything is racist
?
Understand that people feel very strongly about the schools their children attend.
Hard to say since this is only a brief summary of the book. Though one could suggest that it means to say that white folk should be less worried about attending a school that is their neighborhood school where people of color may attend, and that if their children are attending a monochromatic school they should recognize that as a betrayal of educating their children. Further, the school system should support local neighborhood schools and treat them the same as they would a magnet school that the white folk like.
Don’t reconfigure schools that are working. You will only exacerbate the problem you are trying to solve. Why are we not talking about recreating working models in quadrants that are lacking? Many families choose neighborhood schools due to transportation issues. They can’t come see their kids in an after-school activity if it means driving 30 minutes one way. Offer top quality in all neighborhoods.
We can make sure we are listening to all voices, not just the loudest or wealthiest, to assure that we are making equitable decisions for all students.
Continue working to keep schools alive.
We cannot approach this this a “single solution” mentality. The issues are complex and nuanced. What makes a “great school” can be defined differently by different stakeholders.
na
did not read
Do our best to keep schools open. But to bring programs that have succeeded, along with the wraparound social services families need, to them.
Not sure, it doesn’t offer any solutions to the challenges we face
Be thoughtful and mindful of the impact of decisions to close school. Communicate transparently and proactively. Consider ways to maintain belonging and community.
Listen to one another. Give one another the benefit of the doubt. Acknowledge the tension that exists.
I do not feel qualified to answer questions about the review because I haven’t read the book.
There are lots of factors that go into deciding a school and we should look at each carefully and make decisions on a school by school basis rather than using blanket solutions.
Mindfulness to the diversity within IPS
Again, in order to get the actual lessons, we would all have to read the whole book, not just a review. The review didn’t really provide lessons. The main point present was that all families are invested in their children’s education. We should definitely be striving to provide all children in the district with quality schools.
Duplicate successful school models within ips rather than change existing schools and take away grade levels. People desire schools close to their housing, rather than being bussed across town. Identify the most requested schools and replicate that same quality of instruction, with the existing schools supporting. Existing current teachers at the ‘successful’ schools can help staff, coteach or mentor teachers in the newly started schools. Specifically poll parents in areas that have strong consideration of being changed. Uprooting students across the district is not ideal and is disruptive.
Are you going back to a 100% neighborhood school model and getting rid of choice?
Even in lily white Kansas, parents spoke out against school corporation consolidation because they didn’t want to lose their town school.
Be more inclusive in high performing schools
In lots of ways. But why would we?
Many of my points are above but asking the school communities of which grade reconfiguration would deeply impact would be step one. More buildings would be needed. More staff would be needed as many overlap in schools now and most importantly we’d lose the sense of community our school and others are built so highly on. This would be a costly error for the corporation and families within IPS.
In the book, Jitu Brown organized a hunger strike to save her Chicago neighborhood school from closing. IPS parents may do the same or similar to save our schools if needed. Our IPS school is incredibly important to our family and those of children and youth who attend.
You shouldn’t. Keep your politics away from my children.
Find ways to engage more families in the conversations and solutions
All should think wisely about the choices made, who they will effect, and if the choices will truly get the outcome wanted.
We need to look beyond the numbers and learn more about the reality on the ground for families.
Maintain an awareness of peoples’ desire to appear as if social Justice is a priority to them, and make sure to centralize that over awareness of what leads to better lifelong outcomes. Make those adults feel social Justice-y, pretend not to be weirded out by the advocate for public school who is paying $12,000 per year for a tutor because they absolutely value public education’s benefits over real-world results….for those poor kids at least, and pretend like math and reading don’t matter much. When teaching children invaluable skills like conflict resolution, healthy communication, and math, make sure to centralize the adults’ need to feel as if they are advocating for justice so that they have the external motivation to actually give a s*** about the kids they’re serving.
Access more resources
Equity needs to remain a focus as we seek budget solutions.
Not clear
What are best practices. What keeps students and families in IPS? Not just the buildings, but the curriculum, community, and culture of the school. How do we replicate the best we have – CFI, Montessori, Classical, IB, curriculums in other schools.
I think general equality and race education
By listening to parents and students at individual schools.
Do what’s best for our kids stop discussing race
To make sure that is it not a blanket solution. Don’t just listen to the parents at the choice schools. Listen to the voice from the schools that are struggling or on the list of potential closures. Do they want their schools to look like the lab and montessori offerings? We need to hear those voices.
NA
I think the question is how to maintain enrollment with private schools able to use public funds.
I think it presents, with tremendous depth, the notion that continuous tinkering of the lives of students and families to better force Education to be a savior of a complex system of structural oppression.
If we close schools, we need to make very thoughtful choices about which ones are closed and which are kept. And understand that there will be people who are upset in every scenario.
Teach anti racism
To make sure the topics get done and not just talked about.
Truly listen to your parents and let them voice their concerns but also educate them on the why’s and how’s of the future of the district.
Consideration must also be made for how changes will affect the current families attending the schools that are under review for reconfiguration.
Allow history and context to play a role in our decision-making, in addition to data.
I appreciate the end of the article: “Ewing offers no blanket statements” on how to proceed because each situation is different. Closing schools in IPS’s case, sadly, makes sense. Reconfiguring all schools to K-5 & 6-8 schools, however, does not. That’s a blanket statement that doesn’t fit every school in every neighborhood and every situation.
I was not present for Meeting 6 and have not yet read this link -but will!
It is important to keep in mind that there is no one size fits all approach.
I think one needs to read more than one article before making informed decisions.
That the system is broken, the answers are complex, but community schools matter far more than is taken into account, and should be provided, and this provide, adequate resources to build success.
Listen to the families of the schools you manage
Cultural sensitivity & historical significance must be considered – it’s more important to meet the needs of students and families than to keep far-removed budget hawks happy.
We need to look at more than just data but also understand the cultural and community impact of these spaces.
See above
Need to ensure equal opportunity for all student in IPS instead of contractions of options only to those with wealth
Work with the communities around underperforming schools to see what the community wants and take that into consideration
Please consider leaving the k-8 schools
Increase our awareness of and attention to the experiences of and impacts upon historically powerless groups.
Require diversity
Look more closely at the failing schools and listen to the ideas, wants, and solutions proposed by the families who make up that population.
We can offer grace to those trying to make the best, albeit imperfect decisions, about how our Public Education System works.
By identifying under-resourced schools in the system.
Closing public schools is complicated and should be carefully, thoughtfully, and slowly perhaps.
I applaud IPS for giving us background and context. Systematic racism is but one of the causes of IPS’ failure to run a successful school system. For example, I’m trying to give input and you’ve managed to over complicate this survey.
Schools aren’t merely the sum total of their test scores and attendance levels; they’re spaces that facilitate an under- standing of a shared past and culture.” Changing and closing schools as the best option is truly sad. If as a society we can’t find a better way to fix, or as XX (name removed to maintain privacy) teaches treat the groundwater of a broken or struggling public school system, any band-aid solution is just treating the symptoms.
It’s not saying close schools. Improve the ones that need to be improved. Make it more equitable across the board.
We should be mindful when closing schools to make sure that we do it in a way that continues a framework of empowering the families and community in the area in which the school is closed.
Think more deeply about the importance of schools as a neighborhood anchor.
It was just a book review so there’s not a lot of substance in it. I do think that it is important to remember that schools hold meaning in a community.
I believe it is the messaging that we send out. We need to closing some buildings to be fiscally responsible and to allow the district to put funds in the places that make the most difference. I love Daniel Webster because of the staff, students, and families. If I was told that this building would not be used anymore and it was being consolidated with another building in the neighborhood or close to the neighborhood, which would then allow the students I love, to be offered more programs, more supportive staff and possibly allow more transportation to be provided so if they have to move (with in some limits) they could remain at the school, I would gladly give up my building for the kids.
Take a realistic view of how power and politics has intersected how IPS are set up and the inequalities that presently exist and actively address it in every community. Many IPS schools are presently segregated continually perpetuating the systemic issues.
I’m not sure what lessons in readings you are talking about.
Be intentional in restructuring and take parents opinions into account before deciding what is best for others.
See above.
I don’t really know for sure, other than there are no blanket solutions to the problems we face.
Stop closing public schools simply because it is difficult to keep them open. Not everything is driven by economic factors, where will the students go when these schools are closed? What benefits is derived from marginalizing an entire section of society? Maybe start thinking about these things before we close schools.
I think it is good to examine the experience of those who have gone through something similar to help us think about things we may not be aware of
Observe other IPS schools have happy parents and happy children.
We should be mindful of the ways in which these school merges/closings, etc., will impact students of color. While I would love for there to be more diversity in the school my sons attend, I believe that it is important that rigor and quality are not sacrificed in the name of inclusivity.
Misjudgments that were made about families and communities should not be repeated.
It’s clear to me that the reading suggests that schools should be a place that validated ALL families experiences and nurturing our young people. However, the proposed seismic changes to K-8 structure seems to be opposite of the reading. What if a school is serving its students really well? What if a school really needs a continuous structure from K-8 to help those students who are gifted and/or twice exceptional? I find Sidener Academy a place that really represents the best of IPS, in terms of equity, representation, cohesiveness, sense of community, and a sense of family.
Keep in mind that “there are no blanket solutions.”
Closing schools in certain communities will lead to a negative impact for families
Schools are more than numbers.
There was not enough context and detail to determine .
Listen to the community members, not just those without an actual stake in the outcome
We need to study as to why some of the schools have lower enrollment and why aren’t they performing. Obviously the 6-8 Middle Schools did not work before 15 years ago, because went back to a K-8 models.
We need to have clear paths forward for families & staff members at the affected schools. This will make transitions smoother & less jarring for all involved. It is also important to make sure their voices and concerns are truly heard during the decision making process.
Diversifying our schools and spreading out our resources evenly will help make our schools more of a community.
Taking measures like grade reallocation may allow greater utilization without the need to shutter schools. This is also an important reminder that parents and stakeholders care about their schools even if they are unable to attend public meetings.
Recognizing the culture to create a greater empathy and building family relationships
Creating successful schools in neighborhoods that are underserved will take more than just slapping a CFI or Butler name on the building. And will need to involve stakeholders beyond IPS. Who is going to make students, families and staff feel safe being in/going to and from those buildings after the school day ends? Are the college schools of ed going to recruit ed majors from the neighborhood so there are local role models and staff families see at the grocery store? Point being, one institution alone can’t address the real issue of equity.
No clue
l need to review more than one perspective?
Please do not close any IPS schools. This will be damaging to families and our communities, especially in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. For those of us who have more economic privilege, it has already made us wonder if we will start sending our children to private schools or move out of the IPS school district (like so many educated professionals). Yet, for now, IPS schools are working well for us. Please invest more resources into the schools and staff, the buses and bus drivers, and the whole K-12 school system. Rather than selectively amputating parts that you believe are underperforming, trying to understand why, and offer supports and resources, is a better solution.
We would like to see more data to support the closings of schools.
We need better resources and opportunities for all students– not just a select group
I do not believe you need to read articles like this to determine what is right for all kids, no matter what their race is. Why do you even mention race, why not make a rule of not mentioning the color of someone’s skin whatsoever, unless it is a criminal or lost child issue????

What We’ve Heard: Review the key components stakeholders identified are needed for every child in Indianapolis to grow and succeed (see slides 10-17)

Does this capture what we most value?

I don’t know. I think we need to have great schools for all. I think we need to have a neighborhood model.
Yes
Where is the link to this?
No
Ensure the voices of all stakeholders are heard
Prioritize students and families
Listen to teachers and support staff that are doing the work
Round table that consistently informs district efforts and decisions
Seek out skeptics who think this is just another plan and process
Remove barriers and increase access for stakeholder engagement – go to the community, offer childcare, improve timeliness of invitations
Listen to Stakeholders
Parent – teacher partnership to support student success
Stakeholders- are you truly listening to stakeholders????!
Some of the components are great. I love getting rid of priority zones, which have made schools like IPS 84 essentially a free private school for the most affluent in our community while neighborhood schools nearby struggle.
Yes
Some parts- yes
more or less
Equity for sure should be paramount.
Fairly well
Are you kidding – no one really understands what you have in these slides, most leadership has likely already made a decision as to what you are going to do, as per usual IPS does what they want, not what strong evidence suggests
No
Yes.
Yes
I think so. I like the idea about world language becoming part of the core subjects.
No, this seems to be changing for changing sake. These kids are coming out of the hardest two years of schooling and now you want to shuffle the deck again.
No
I believe this actually starts on slide 5, I would say yes.
I think for the most part. You have an extremely hard job of finding a good balance with success and failures with IPS
This seems to paint choice schools as the enemy. They are really just neighborhood schools with a smaller geographic boundary.
I can’t find these slides. I found your strategic plan. Sounds good, but until you have strong principals in our schools, these are just words.
I am not able to find the referred to slides. Where are they?
A tough question. It certainly doesn’t grasp most of what I’m looking for in my kid’s education. I think the negative image of choice school is on the district.
I may be missing something but I’ve reviewed slides 10-17 from Meeting 6 and am puzzled about what exactly the key components are that this question refers to. I’m making an educated guess that the key components are; Facilities, Enrollment and Choice, Finances, and Student Experience. I’ll answer this and the following question assuming that I’m correct.
Yes, the key components capture what we value but miss the most important value for him. The greatest value IPS can provide my son is to educate him better than my wife and I can.
One would hope.
Yes, I think so.
Yes
Yes
Personally, I value what is most beneficial to my family. To date, I have taken steps to identify the type of schooling best suited for my kids. I struggle to understand how the proposed changes will positively benefit my kids.
Yes.
It doesn’t capture the “educational theory” given to parents by the district years ago when it moved away from having larger schools and defined middle schools in order to have the smaller, K-8 in one building model. The information seems to discount the “what works” model for the students who are succeeding. This doesn’t look at youth success; it looks at costs of education. Also, the 446 Million dollar figure should be better explained. Is this for all buildings, including the vacant ones or only the ones in use?
In all honesty, I cannot answer this question, based upon the slides that you are asking me to view. This has me questioning how this questionnaire will lead to productive conversation. This process of slides, which are very difficult to find and interpret, greatly limits the number of honest responses provided. In turn, this process is extremely inequitable, in itself.
No
We’re missing a big piece of this puzzle. By offering “choice” schools, it immediately implies that others are not “choice”. The Choice school concept immediately starts to slot kids into buckets where families who put more time/resources/etc into their children are more likely to take the time to opt into a program and who do not, are less likely to. That’s not to say that all families on those programs have done this, but it immediately starts to skew the numbers in the same way that separating schools by location ends up skewing them by who choose to live in that area.
Yes
Yes, making access to choice schools more equitable is important
Totally agree on replicating models of successful schools–all IPS schools should be strong.
Yes
Nominally
I think it captures much of the most important things.
Yes
I believe so.
It’s clear that the community wants more of what choice schools offer. Increasing seats and opportunity, while better utilizing buildings is a good goal. Do not trade in what works (k-8) to create something that doesn’t fit the current mold. That would be like offering inquiry in only one subject, Montessori without the assistants, or Spanish Immersion to Spanish speaking students.
The enrichment portion seems to highlight a failure of neighborhood schools and should not punish choice schools. They are high performing for many reasons!
No.
?
I supposed, but different families have different values. For some it is small class size, for some it is special ed, for some it is location, for some it is sports, for some it is the enrichment that is offered.
Who is we? It captures my feeling that IPS is not funded enough, that the funding is not being shared equitably, and that choice schools should not be prioritized over neighborhood schools.
I don’t see anything in there about the importance of low student:teacher ratios and how that key relationship is key to student success. It is not just about the number of enrichment offerings or the utilization score of the building. It is about the actual relationships formed and how certain models are doing that better than others.
yes
Yes
Yes
na
Yes
yes
I’m not sure I see key components to grow and succeed on slides 10-17…I see data on IPS operations. Children need love, stability, wonder, and support. In strong families much of that comes from family life. In other families that has to come from community institutions like schools.
I guess, it seems to be telling a story of closing schools to free up cashflow
I think so.
I read the values on page 5. Slides 10-17 showed data. But the values on slide 5 -Yes I agree with them.
In general, I agree with these key components.
Yes
Yes
Yes, I think it is a reflection of our values.
Yes
I am not at all sure that I found the slides that you are referencing but not saying where they are. Possibly?
Underutilized buildings are an issue, there are funding issues
No
no
Sure but not sacrificing schools that are thriving.
Yes
We certainly value the community and education in our child’s small and nurturing school, but most of these slides are focused on finances. Despite our child’s classroom globe still showing the USSR, we love our school even with budget constraints, and we do not want his school closing or him moving to a huge middle school in three years with all new teachers and staff who do not know him and his particular needs. It’s really an incredible loss to radically change schools across the district by separating elementary and middle schools in the name of finances when your own slides admit that the combined elementary and middle schools are doing well and should be replicated. You cannot say you want to replicate the schools that are doing well and then dismantle them. These schools doing well is in large part because of the continuity, community and nurturing they receive for many years and especially through the very difficult middle school years.
No.
Yes I think so
Are we looking at what is most developmentally appropriate for students at variance ages? Have we included anything about how children best learn at different stages?
Mostly
Yes
I don’t think it captures evidence-based approaches to maintenance of healthy long term relationships as much as it captures political points
yes
All the responses in the slides are one-sided were their any opposing views in any of the responses?
Which slides are you referencing? Why aren’t they attached or linked here?
Unsure
No
Yes
No.
Yes
Yes I believe so
Yes
Yes
I don’t think so.
I believe in a since that what we are trying to get done is definitely talked about and explained very well with what the schools need and where we need to be at to get there.
As a parent I value community and the support my son gets from his pre-k through 8th school. We are a true representation of what this city looks like and wish the district would stop choking out montessori because they don’t understand the philosophy or the hard work ethic of our students under the care of both their teachers and I.A’s.
I believe so. The choice schools are wonderful and I wish you would replicate the experience for more students by utilizing the neighborhood schools to create those same options for everyone. I agree with changing the proximity zones. We are a proud to have our children attending IPS.
However, we DO NOT believe you should fix what isn’t broken, i.e., removing a successful K-8 model from a school; particularly a school the follows the Montessori method of education.
Yes
It seems so. I appreciate the out of the box thinking IPS is engaging in to support students of color. It is critical. I am SO glad IPS is considering eliminating the proximity rule. As someone who has worked in magnet programs, it is obscene how the younger grades are almost exclusively white which is not even close to a true reflection of the students of IPS.
It does seem to capture district values. I do agree with eliminating proximity priority and with expanding high-quality programs to the east, south and west sides of the city.
The health (or unhealth) of our communities is still simply understated in this picture. Neighborhood schools are a lifeline for some of the most vulnerable schools. They often end up with the students who have the most need, not only due to parents not enrolling them in choice programs, but in systemic inequity and in the fact that many times choice school will remove “behavior” children who live out of boundary. Rather than find a way to meet their needs, they pass them back to the neighborhood schools.
I think these items cover the bulk of what we value.
Possibly. I think redistributing students to underutilized buildings would help. I think increasing choice options to the east and south sides would work. Your biggest issue is that you are in bed with the Mind Trust. Not everyone wants to attend an experimental neighborhood school. When you turn over a neighborhood school to an unproven operator, you don’t give families much choice. It’s stay there and hope it works (it usually doesn’t) or you try to get a spot at a choice school, or you go to a charter school. You don’t even mention stopping or slowing the innovation/charter model, which suggests to me that you are not serious about creating equity for our students and that you are fine with continuing to use our black and brown students as guinea pigs for the Mind Trust.
Please send me the slides
There a few items that could be included
Yes
Yes
The stakeholder feedback is on target.
Somewhat
Yes
Yes
Sure
I’m not convinced.
Depends on which “we” the question refers to…
Who is “we”? What I most value is a good school, near my home, with reliable transportation options. You’ve given me one out of three (a good school). I do agree with the question re: why can’t every school be as good as a choice school?
Children, our students, value a safe place, kindness and love, food and beautiful materials. They deserve the best we can give everyday. They deserve the truth about history. Acceptance, inclusion, love, and peace. It seems that the individual teachers were not considered for their individual contributions of time, money, and emotional and logistical support of students and their families.
For the most part
I don’t understand who “we” is. This question confuses me. I agree with some of points.
I felt it covered a lot of the areas I value. I also want to draw attention to the language used when discussing choice vs neighborhood school. I have heard in multiple meetings talk of “replicating the choice school experience” for all students and schools. I want to replicate the resources, the funding, the enrollment and marketing push that are focused on the choice schools for our neighborhood schools, but do not want the “choice school experience”. I want it to be recognized that our neighborhood school was our family choice. A valuable choice to seek out the experience my children will only get at George Julian #57, our neighborhood school. There is value in going to school in the community where you live. I don’t want that erased.
I think so.
Yes
Yes
If you truly wanted to make things equitable they would not be equal. You need to give children who are starting behind more resources to catch up. Put the money to the teachers and the enrichment programs. Keeping the smaller programs open allow for more kids to have access to after school programs whether it’s a sports team or Lego club.
Yes, I think making sure the whole child is seen and treated fairly with more equal opportunities would.
The k-8 model is highly effective. I truly believe the path to this key goal of the project- “Supports that see every child as a whole child with a full range of human needs” is much more attainable in small middle schools. I have experience or witnessed many of the other approaches over the years as a student and parent. I went to Shortridge when it was just 7-8 and remember trying 6-12 there as well. There were too many students and the community was not as strong as k-8. Reviewing the spreadsheet for many of the current k-6 schools it seems clear that most have the space to add 7-8. If the middle schools are failing we should expand the k-8 model to all students. The middle school at
91 is diverse and produces capable, confident students who excel in schools as big as
North Central and as small as Riverside. I agree that proximity preferences should be eliminated and the zone concept implemented. The zone will help with transportation and the proximity preference elimination help with increasing access for students across the district. I also think that we should strongly consider a replication specifically of Montessori across the district. You know the history of the philosophy so it makes sense that it would be effective in a district like ours-especially in k-4. Also, I have witnessed our middle school and elementary have so many opportunities mostly driven by our athletic director (also MS teacher-best teacher ever XX (name removed to maintain privacy)) and parents. If we dedicate funds to support positions that can focus on extracurricular as a primary role, the opportunity expansion will be easier to achieve in the k-8 model. Perhaps the money is best spent to support small enrollment schools in communities that need more school based support. Add middle school to these buildings, hire support staff in the form of teacher’s assistants and extracurricular/sport managers, partner with community supports and work to make the budget meet the needs.
Yes
No
I think so.
Yes
As a parent, no.
I believe it does.
I am assuming that you are talking about the slides from June-23-2022 meeting. Slides 10-15 seems to focus on finances without any particular information as to how much in the red the district will be (slide 14 had a projection with $0 line but no additional numbers to orient viewers to how much in the red it will be if no actions are taken). Also, it’s talking about how much costs more per pupil in a smaller/under utilized school setting but it’s not clear how the utilization of the properties can be increased without enrolling more students which also seems to increase cost. However, this cost wasn’t discussed even though the impression I am getting is that the district needs to make this change to keep it afloat based on the information presented
It captures what the district has stated they value.
I think we need to do a better job of advocating for our children’s cultures and beliefs and have that reflected in our curriculum and teaching.
Yes
No mention of students with disabilities – including self-contained programs
Primarily. Equity should be first and foremost.
We are trying to do what is best for the children, but I don’t know if closing several schools is going to help.
Diversity and equality in schools is what we most value. If we make more choice schools available to families we would give more opportunities for diversity within these schools.
This emerging picture from the stakeholders is beginning to frame what we most value. Good work!
agree
I’m not sure the slides lined up.
No
In theory but not practice. Data appears skewed and messaged. The cause and effect for slide 12 is closing public schools or converting to Charters under the guise of choice. Thousands of students have been disrupted and left with no choices. Also, percentages mask the numbers of students. Also, stability is a function of the students served vs students selected by more engaged parents.
There are no slides attached to this document, so I cannot comment on this.
could not access slides

What would you change?

my fear is that if we take away the neighborhood aspect of high achieving schools, many of those families will leave the district, which will not help rebuild stronger.
An even greater emphasis on wraparound services or collaboration with nonprofits who can provide them.
Na
Community by in is important and hard to do if your kid is on the other side of town in a school not close
Ensure you are listening to stakeholders!
Getting rid of the k-8 model. Many of the k-8 schools are very effective, and getting rid of this option may force more families out to the suburbs, Washington Township, etc.
Classroom size. Not overly large classrooms- for the benefit of both students and teachers.
I feel k-8 choices schools are working- based on your data. Why are we not considering making all quality K-8 instead on the K-5 & 6-8. I appreciate how in a K-8 school the older kids take ownership and become positive role models for the younger students.”
I do have concerns about how many schools are under utilized, but I question if the financial assessment is correct. Can the full value of empty buildings be obtained if the law requires charters be allowed to purchase/lease the building for $1? We opted for choice, not neighborhood, because the choice school is walkable from our house and the neighborhood school is not. Proximity and community were important to us when making this decision. We felt like the neighborhood school was a good school, but would prefer to be less than a mile away from school. That being said, I do agree with removing the proximity priority because of the larger issues at stake. It may be time to assign schools based on address, like in other districts in Marion County. If the desire is to replicate successful programs, how will IPS ensure that more teachers are trained appropriately? Given the teacher shortage, this seems like a hefty, possibly impossible, undertaking.
“Inviting outdoor spaces” are nice but would fall very low on my list of priorities for a successful school. Focus on academics. Focus on talented and engaging teachers and team members. Focus on enrichment programs including athletics and arts. Physical safety, including healthy meals, is important. The playground equipment does not need to be equal or the same at every facility– outdoor spaces cannot be the same at every facility– geography doesn’t allow for it and it is not the highest priority for learning. Better neighborhood schools, your shared article states people value their neighborhood school … what’s working doesn’t have to change
Discussions around removing boundaries and/or sibling preference might short term increase attendance for those of color. However this will also create a situation long term for current families and the community. If children within a mile of a school cannot attend the desired school, families will have limited options which will more than likely lead to moving to a different school district or attend non IPS schools. Both of which on a large scale will negatively impact IPS and it’s financial stability and most definitely impact the sustainability of the once sought after school. For each “committee reaction” I strongly suggest the committee walk through both the positive and negative impacts of these ideas. From BOTH the lens of community members and non community members of said higher demand choice schools.
Nothing
I don’t want separate middle schools
I am concerned with doing away with sibling preference as it would be hard to have kids at different schools.
As I have talked to other educators, nothing can good can come for consolidating more adolescents of varying abilities into one place. It will be a lost year or two at the very least. I agree about expanding the curriculum of the high performing school but trying to reengineer how our community organizes itself is silly. K-8 neighborhood centric schools for deep community involvement
The main issue I have is removing proximity completely from schools. My family has been in an IPS Choice school (#91) that did not have proximity and it was very difficult to be connected with families and kids because they were from all over the city. It also made it difficult for many kids to be involved in after school activities. There was also a lot of turn over of kids and that made it very hard for continuity and stability and friendships. We are now at a CFI and are getting the type of neighborhood school experience that most people move out to the suburbs for. Our kids have friends in the neighborhood. Can safely get to and from school while getting some activity (biking or walking). As a side note: we were in Chicago Public Schools magnet school program. While we loved the montessori & IB school, the 1.5 hrs in the car for my kids was not ideal. That was a key reason my family decided to move to Indianapolis. We were looking for a more manageable city that we could raise our family in. We are big supporters of public school and are proud to be part of IPS!
I understand that this is a very difficult balance to support all kids but we also have to acknowledge and not reverse the re-urbanization trends that have been vital to keeping and even bringing money and tax dollars to this city and others throughout the country. I believe most of the young families in our area, which is predominantly white and higher income welcome racial diversity as well as diversity of thought, ethnicity, beliefs, what love looks like and in fact are searching it out. But putting our kids in an environment where they can learn and have great outcomes is perhaps even more important.
A solution could be perhaps be to replicate more successful programs and put them in more areas. Could this be a better approach versus trying to push people further from their closest schools that happen to be choice magnets? Or perhaps widening the radius so there’s a bit more chance for socio-economic, racial and ethnic diversity.
I worry that if you make this change, you’ll push more high-income families to private or parochial schools or unfortunately out to the burbs because they won’t be willing to have their kids bused to schools further away and to significantly lower performing schools. Do we need to find another reason to send more families out to the burbs when the pandemic is already creating a flight to suburban areas? This is a very real risk and in 5-10 years could mean a very significant loss of tax dollars for urban areas and school districts. Or, would we rather find ways to make more schools even better and grow IPS and it’s success versus shrink the district? I also challenge whether this is as much a diversity issue than a socioeconomic issue. I looked at a lot of past data published by IPS and other school districts and would love to hear more about the challenges outside of school choice that are resulting in lower overall performance? Are there other programs that are needed beyond school choice? Finally, I do very much agree with the idea of creating grade 6-8 schools. This would free up more spots for more elementary classes and would also create a more natural path for continuing on into IPS high schools. For example, an IB middle school at Broad Ripple HS could feed into Short Ridges HS. For what it’s worth, this survey was hard to navigate to and requires a lot of effort. If you are truly looking for responses, I would look to enhance your digital experience and make it easier to find. Respectfully, An IPS Choice School Parent”
I would not move from the K-8 model. Myself and my husband were both students in the middle school model and both hide not have good experiences. It was extremely difficult to go from one model of teaching to another. It was easier to get bored and ignored. I think being able to stay in the same school from K-8 would greatly help the child’s confidence and focus in their educational needs.
Instead of trying to change choice schools, try to improve and promote neighborhood schools
Go with what is working! Great idea. Taking what is working and jacking with it is what has been done so much in the past. Don’t do it!
Where are the slides?
all 4 CFIs are effectively on a straight line (Central Ave) through some of the cities more affluent neighborhoods. Why not put another on the West Side or East side? I’m pleased my kids go to a great school in the neighborhood I live in. Removing sibling priority and proximity would vastly complicate my life for purposes that I don’t fully comprehend.
Again, and I am sometimes easily confused, I’m not sure what this question is about that I would change. I’ll forge ahead despite my misunderstanding. My son is extremely blessed to be at the Montessori option school 91. We were very happy with his progress in 1st grade, the leadership of the school and subsequent culture. If his experience is significantly and detrimentally changed, we’ll leave the district. To me, an influx of new students older than 1st grade will be bad for existing students. In my opinion, significantly higher enrollment at #91 will be detrimental to learning. Denying siblings from automatically attending the same schools breaks up the family. I cannot overstate how poor of a decision this would be. If my son cannot continue to attend #91 because we don’t live in a new geographic zone will cause us to move out of district. Eliminating proximity priority reduces community building which is contrary to IPS value of building communities. I feel this is roughly my thoughts on the solutions provided by Rebuilding Stronger Reorganization Plan Committee on 6/23/22.
Practice what you preach. IPs has/had an invaluable opportunity to provide an excellent education for its students by allowing Purdue poly to occupy the old broad ripple high school. Instead, In what amounted to a toddler saying that “if I can’t have it, no one can
IPs chooses to continue mediocrity and the building to stand empty. I do not think the board truly has the best I retests if it’s students at heart when it makes such decisions and thus it’s hard for me to make the switch to IPS since I constantly question its competency.
There are a lot of very good points within the mentioned slides. However, it left me wondering what would go into determining the “higher-performing” tier of schools and what the long-term plan would be for the replication of models.
Choices are important, but creating a system where choice is unnecessary should be the value. The process in inequitable and it should be the goal to abolish it in favor for a robust system for providing quality education without the necessity for parental intervention.
How are students doing with the current model of classroom space versus how they did in the past when there were designated middle schools? It appears as though the district is willing to risk student success of its middle schoolers to cover years of fiscal mismanagement toward building care. And for my second point, is there a tiered building repair plan option that could continue with the K-8 model that was put forth from the district as a best practice solution?
There needs to be serious reconsideration of the plan to eliminate the k-8 schools. To me, it feels as though IPS has made a decision to “increase the size” of the successful elementary schools, which means they need to get rid of the middle school students in order to add classes to preexisting programs. as a result of this being the most economical way of doing this, caveats have been added that this will increase opportunities for middle school students. However, what you are not addressing is the fact that what makes those programs so successful is that the programs are long term (over 8 years) and allows for a better transitional approach into high school (safe, small, environment, where staff already know the students), allowing for the most difficult time period of a child’s development to be supported well! Increasing the size of the k-5 school decreases the impact of those schools and their programs, while cutting the longevity of the program in half. This, then becomes inequitable and takes a research based, successful program and reduces the success and benefits of the program.
In addition, the complexities of the questionnaire are great, including doing a prereading assignment that is an abbreviated op-Ed on a book for which we still don’t know fully what the author’s points includes. The reality is this process makes the feedback inequitable!
I believe in the k-8 model. For me, it’s the small grade sizes with intimate teacherstudent relationships building on the previous grades not to mention the importance in these grades of transitioning our Montessori children from manipulatives (particularly in math) to more text-based approaches. To me bigger middle schools do not equal better. Far from it. They might be able to offer more enrichment options but at what expense? I fear too many kids will fall through the cracks – ironically those most at-risk which is what this plan is trying to solve. My Mom and sister-in-law were teachers and administrators in a private K-8 school and can tell you that it is much easier to support every child and ensure no one falls through the cracks when you have less children per grade level.
Getting ride of k-8 schools is a mistake. My children’s school fosters a strong community among the students and provides plenty of opportunity to the middle schoolers. The point of the choice schools is for parents to choose the best program for their students. Forcing kids to go to a “traditional” middle school will increase bullying and lower student involvement and quite frankly send a lot of those families out of district to private or charter programs that have a smaller feel. There are some great options on the table for district but this one is not it.
Keep K-8 its a critical element to minimizing the disturbances that begin with prepubescent students in large groups in middle school ages.
I would not change the structure of the high performing schools before attempting to recreate in a different location to see if the “build it and they will Come” philosophy works of if the high performance is actually do to the boundaries and mostly neighborhood kids filling seats leading to higher volunteer participation and more educated parents which help students at home.
I don’t know
Parents want the choice schools as they currently exist. And by parents, I mean those that currently have students inside of them, as well as parents that want their family to be a part of them. I am not interested in any stand alone IPS middle school and believe this is the case for many of us in k-8 schools.
Have a bigger input from school social worker/family liaison to understand the mobility problem at neighborhood schools. A lot of family/community dynamic not taken into consideration here!!!!!
Not move 6-8 to a middle school and do not remove the proximity boundary.
?
Understand that for many, having a small school is a really big plus, and that many families enrolled in a school BECAUSE it is K-8. In fact, we really liked our neighborhood school, but wanted a K-8 school, and that’s not what our neighborhood school could offer. Make certain to provide more information on what the K-8 models do for students. Just creating more elementary space is NOT a reason to change the model. We have been such a big proponent of our school in part because of its middle school program, which is entered seamlessly from the elementary.
Increase funding, make funding equitable among all the schools, apply the same approach that the CFI schools receive to all schools and remove the magnet school process. Provide the funding to all schools to provide before and after care for those parents who need extra support during non-school hours due to their commitments to their jobs.
Include data on teacher:student ratio and how that impacts student success – both in achievement and social-emotional gains. These solutions focus too much on building scores.
unsure
Concerns about the consequences of long commutes/bus rides for children leaving neighborhood schools to attend choice schools. Concerns about schools having the funding, training, resources to meet the needs of a ALL students attending a school.
Do not switch to all K-5 and 6-8 schools
Keeping K-8 schools. IPS students have been through a lot in the past few years and need stability. I reject the idea that moving them to 6-8 schools would be beneficial.
Changing back to a k-5 model is a HUGE step backwards in our district. We have tried that for many years. In fact i attended middle school at shortridge and without a doubt the k-8 model is safer, more developmentally appropriate, and more aligned with what kids and families need.
nothing
It may well be necessary to close some schools to stay in the black. But if we want to address decreasing enrolling and low performance in neighborhood schools we should be looking at new methods like “Teach to One” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teach_to_One
Nothing about the values. I think those are the right leading thoughts – Equity, Accessibility – every child has what it takes to succeed. However, I disagree with some of the proposed solutions like eliminating the k-8 option.
I think one value that is missing is the need for stable and strong neighborhood communities too. Strong neighborhood communities help create strong schools and vice versa. America is not an easy country in which to raise a family and having strong neighborhood connections that can carpool, watch each others’ kids, etc., especially for those of us with no family in town, is important. This is what largely turned us off from Sidener. We were told by several families there that their kids have their neighborhood friends and then their school friends. If you don’t live in a cul-de-sac, etc., building those neighborhood friendships outside of school is difficult. We’ve built most of our friendships through school. The separation also decreases opportunities to carpool to school and school activities, etc. I hope the Zones will help address this, but without knowing how large those zones will be, it is concerning.
I would change some of the suggested solutions, as I believe some solutions will be more harmful than helpful to the student body and IPS community.
I’m concerned that the added value of K-8 in certain successful programs will get lost
I would definitely get someone who has some idea about writing surveys to design all future surveys. And when you have concrete options to choose from, send out a survey with those options.
It would be better to see a school by school breakdown of utilization rates, grouping whole areas isn’t helpful.
High performance and extracurricular opportunities
How is a small school defined?
Grade reconfiguration for sure
Redistribution” of programs and grade levels, combined with eliminating sibling priority in a system that wants to go all in to “choice” programs, creates significant potential for turnover and chaos across the district. We need to think carefully about implementation and keep in mind that numbers don’t always tell the full story.
What’s best for the schools of this district is not making giant middle schools and tearing apart the combined elementary and middle schools that are doing well. Most of the current stand alone middle schools in the district have D and F ratings from the Indiana Department of Education while many to most of the combined elementary and middle school buildings have A-C ratings. You say you want to replicate the k-8/2-8 magnet schools that are working but then say you will make middle schools separate. This means you are actually replicating the failing or close to failing middle schools instead of the schools that are thriving. Additionally, the charter and private schools located within the district that are also doing well are primarily K-8. Looking on the IDOE website at neighboring middle schools in the townships, it is clear the stand alone middle schools struggle compared with the elementary schools that feed into them.
I would not reconfigure the schools of IPS into separate elementary and middle schools. I agree with getting rid of proximity priority, having enrollment zones, and looking at better building usage for those that are less than 50% full, but I am adamantly against the proposed changes to middle schools. The combined elementary and middle schools in IPS are what make them desirable. They are why we want to keep our children in IPS schools so they can be with the same peers and school staff from elementary through middle school. I want all children in the district to be in schools where their IEPs and unique needs are respected from year to year and children build bonds with fellow students and staff.
I would make the focus of our SCHOOLS about TEACHING our children and NOT about YOUR POLITICS.
Included in seeing the whole child, we need to meet emotional needs especially after COVID.
Do we have any information or data on what is the best developmentally appropriate practices for the variances ages of our students that we are using in the process? It needs to be included so the district can made informed decisions based on meeting the developmental needs of students.
I do not think the sibling policy should change. Families would end up with children at several different locations which would create a childcare/transportation issue.
Nothing
Bureaucratic processes that enable egotism and displays of social Justice theater over student math and reading performance. Well….for those other kids. Because I’m guessing your kids have a private tutor
increasing size of schools is not a great idea or merging. IPS did this with high schools and now schools that were once succeeding are failing and students that are academically minded are now leaving. Fix problematic schools first without merging
We need to keep K-8 schools.
Why aren’t “choice” options put in neighborhood schools? K-8 works, and keeping students together helps build retention and matriculation. If you change the Curriculum in schools that are working, more people will leave the district. Change comes from building on strengths, change weaknesses instead.
Nothing at all is said about innovation schools. I picked an innovation school for my family because their communication and care for my family was so different than traditional IPS schools. I mean look at Emma Donnan’s website and branding compared to the DISASTER that is the IPS website. They also text and email us frequently. So much happier at this school because they care about us. So much better than both Skillen and Brandes
I would not get rid of the k-8 models. We need to keep these in place to facilitate growth.
All of it, stop focusing on race and focus on educating our children
NA
I would make education much more broad than the school day! I would heavily invest in growing strong, high quality Afterschool/out-of-school ecosystems available to all students in the district. I would change nothing to the way schools and currently run. IPS is full of amazing schools and amazing, talented teachers.
I would change the approach to making a stringing school. I thing more things can be done and I think that we have to make sacrifices to make it happen.
PLEASE do not remove the K-8 model at school 91 – or other schools where it is successfully working. That would be detrimental to so many students in the long run.
Ensure stability and consistency for those schools where the current model is working.
Existing K-8 choice programs should be permitted to remain as such. Choice schools are all already K-8 and have proven success. If we are moving to a model of doing all choice enrollment, we should be replicating all aspects of successful programs–which means K8 schools.
I have a concern/question about the data on slide 16 regarding the average enrichment classes offered at different configurations. According to this chart, the K-8 schools offered more enrichment programs on average than the 7-8 schools. This is one (of many!) reasons that I believe keeping the K-8 model is better that returning to the failed model of separate middle schools. It also directly conflicts with the one of the justifications for shifting to 6th-8th grade schools. The proposal states that switching to large middle schools would provide more enrichment opportunities but this data does not support this.
Inequity exists at all levels of educational institution. If we truly want to see equity provided to our students the. We have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. Many ips classified staff are people (esp women) of color, who are grossly underpaid when looking at a living wage. Yet our administrative costs and salaries continue to rise. It is not only demoralizing and not fiscally conservative to pay administrators often more than twice what teachers make and 3 times was classified staff make, but it in turn hurts out students. Many of these same staff have children and grandchildren in ips schools, yet have to have at least two jobs to make ends meet. This leaves them drained and exhausted both at work and with raising their children. Teachers point to parents as the problem, and parents point to teachers as the problem, when really everyone is just doing their best to survive at this point. But until we take it seriously that administrators (many of whom are quite men) are simply not worth 2 or 3 people, and even out the inequity in our district, we will never truly be able to achieve equity for our students.
I think some where to show community involvement/impact might be important especially when looking at closures.
I would not get rid of the K-8 model. I have lived in Indianapolis for most of my life and attended IPS schools – including neighborhood and magnet schools. While I myself did not attend a K-8 model, I wish that more of that configuration existed during my time as an IPS student. The students that I have seen attend these schools are more confident, more engaged in their school, and have a sense of community. The fact that you all are trying to say getting rid of 6-8 grades in the current K-8 schools is to free up choice school seats is ridiculous. There are neighborhood schools that are K-8, and getting rid of this configuration would destabilize those schools. This is a crisis of your own making. You all have prioritized the northside for too long and catered to white affluent families for too long. Yes, replicate choice schools in other parts of Indianapolis, if you choose. That act, in and of itself, opens up seats for K-5 graders at these schools. Stop letting neighborhood schools “fail” so that you can justify turning them over to the Mind Trust graduates and start investing in these schools. That opens seats. As for the 6-8 model creating more opportunities, it doesn’t. K-8 schools allow more students to make varsity sports teams and other extracurriculars when they don’t have to try to beat out hundreds of other students.
See above
Like more data on the current different types of education models choice schools/etc showing where student are attending from density map. Showing success a factors for each type as this can show how equable these programs availability are. Also, would like a map of the state of building and the cost to get them to good status by area. Also on slide 10 why is the quad with the highest utilization result in the highest cost per potential student?
I think it was good
Leave the k-8 schools the same
I am curious how the restructured/consolidated system would support the special needs and services that are more apparent in smaller neighborhood-specific schools.
I do not want schools restructured from their current levels
I’m not sure
I am anxious about the decision to prescribe grade divisions across the board. (K-5: 6-8) I am unsure if these divisions should be applied across the board and at every IPS school.
To maintain the K-8 model that has been effectual and beneficial to ALL families.
We most value K-8 schools and teachers that are well compensated.
See above.
The assumptions that “doing nothing” means we have to change schools that are working. Is there really no other way to raise funds if that is the priority? If students aren’t going to neighborhood schools where are they attending, and why? How does covid impact attendance changes? Is there a conflict of interest with the charter/privatized schools connected to IPS? How will closing schools affect the neighborhoods, businesses, safety, convenience of our students?
We need to keep the schools the same. We’ve tried separating K-5/6-8 before & it did not work. There’s so much research showing that K-8 is the best for children on so many levels. Keep proximity preference in tact.
It leaves out the importance of stability. IPS and the new school board fails to recognize the way that continued drastic changes can affect children’s ability to learn and grow. Strong progressive change when something isn’t working in our society is a great thing and something we don’t see enough of in this country! However, it must be effective change. Sometimes it feels like our children at IPS are guinea pigs in an experiment that no one is entirely sure what the outcome will be. It also leaves out the importance of the student/teacher relationship. The bigger our schools get, the more our children become numbers. The successful programs are that way not necessarily solely because of their label or focus (Montessori, Reggio, IB, etc) but because there is an inherent focus on responsiveness to the students and relationship building. The bigger the schools and the classrooms, the less likely teachers (to no fault of their own) will be able to build the kind of relationships that foster love and inherently encourage creative and critical thinking.
I would add that changes need to be made so that district policies are reflective of the scientific evidence and best practices.The district must start implementing best practices – such as later start times for teens – and avoid implementing new changes that are known to be inconsistent with scientific evidence on learning – such as going to a k-5 & 6-9 FAILED e periment. I don’t know a single person who would support throwing all the 6-8th graders in school together that is a TERRIBLE idea. What are we stabilizing by forcing to go through such a major transition (leaving their elementary school behind) at such a precarious point in their lives. Honestly, I think that this is just an obvious way to save $$$ by sacrificing those kids. If anything, make all the schools K-8. Also, why are we throwing so much money into outside sources when funding us low. Cut all the unproven “innovation” schools and require them to meet the same requirements as other schools in the district. If so many schools are underutilized, why are we allowing tiny schools to open? Keep IPS money in IPS.
Looking at the disparities between neighborhood and choice schools, what steps did the district take to support neighborhood schools to close those gaps? I would like to see a focus on supporting the neighborhood schools with enrollment and increase in programming and extra curriculars. Investment in the student experience at these schools would be multiplied by the unique value in the neighborhood school and their communities. I have heard a lot of talk about authentically engaging families and communities, creating a community. I think the district has overlooked and undervalued the strength they could pull from the neighborhood schools who already have a foundation of community built in. They could use that foundation to make huge impacts for all students.
I think consideration of the needs students have outside of academics is really important.
NA
Nothing at this time
Look at the amount of money we spend on testing. It is a WASTE of money and time. Not to mention how this further separates children. You take away valuable time and resources to give the test and stop teaching. Look at any data from any school in the fall and you will see huge growth. Then look at spring. Little growth. Why? Because we do not teach in the spring, we test. As a past resource teacher I had to give multiple small group testing sessions which meant all the groups that had MANDATORY minutes in their IEPs for support went unmet because I was required to test. Then I watched my kids with special needs break down emotionally because the standardized testing was a ridiculous requirement.
It sounds like potentially reshuffling all schools, which is alarming to me. I would leave the successful schools as models (but definitely change priorities to allow equal access) and model new schools after these successful schools.
The k-8 model is highly effective. I truly believe the path to this key goal of the project- “Supports that see every child as a whole child with a full range of human needs” is much more attainable in small middle schools. I have experience or witnessed many of the other approaches over the years as a student and parent. I went to Shortridge when it was just 7-8 and remember trying 6-12 there as well. There were too many students and the community was not as strong as k-8. Reviewing the spreadsheet for many of the current k-6 schools it seems clear that most have the space to add 7-8. If the middle schools are failing we should expand the k-8 model to all students. The middle school at 91 is diverse and produces capable, confident students who excel in schools as big as North Central and as small as Riverside. I agree that proximity preferences should be eliminated and the zone concept implemented. The zone will help with transportation and the proximity preference elimination help with increasing access for students across the district. I also think that we should strongly consider a replication specifically of Montessori across the district. You know the history of the philosophy so it makes sense that it would be effective in a district like ours-especially in k-4. Also, I have witnessed our middle school and elementary have so many opportunities mostly driven by our athletic director (also MS teacher-best teacher ever XX (name removed to maintain privacy)) and parents. If we dedicate funds to support positions that can focus on extracurricular as a primary role, the opportunity expansion will be easier to achieve in the k-8 model. Perhaps the money is best spent to support small enrollment schools in communities that need more school based support. Add middle school to these buildings, hire support staff in the form of teacher’s assistants and extracurricular/sport managers, partner with community supports and work to make the budget meet the needs.
Not sure
Larger schools do not facilitate better learning environment. Change the proposal to close current k-8 schools.
I don’t have anything to add there.
Not letting this happen. Leave Sidener alone.
Nothing in particular – just to ensure that the changes and consolidations are not made haphazardly. Certainly we want to save money and ensure that every child in the district is well cared for. We need to ensure that support systems are in place in the newly integrated schools such that EVERY student has an opportunity to experience success.
I would change it so the content is actually explaining the logic behind why the currently proposed changes are needed. Based on what’s been shared, it seems like it’s a money problem not a problem of equity, diversity, justice, honoring history and families
The facts are undeniable…the possible Solutions seem pre-determined
Need to keep in mind that larger class sizes aren’t good for students either (putting a cap on class size if we’re trying to minimize numbers of schools)
Our curriculum needs to be changed to reflect who are students are.
Sustain programs and grade configurations that are successful.
I would keep the option of K-8 schools for families.
As stated in the slides, more marketing needs to focus on what neighborhood schools have to offer — less $ focused solely on choice schools. Also need to focus on the necessity of community/parent involvement to make neighborhood schools a choice destination. You want good schools — that takes personal investment.
We should make more schools K-8 and bring the buildings up to the same standards that the township schools have.
I would make more choice schools. I think changing proximity requirements will help with diversity, but it’s also nice when students can attend a school near their neighborhood. I think eliminating sibling preference will cause difficulties for families.
There needs to be a greater emphasis on culturally responsive structures and curriculum practices, particularly as it relates to linguistic justice and teaching of local history. With regards to linguistic justice (and academic excellence), we need to deepen our commitment to multilingual and culturally diverse education. To that end, I want to see a commitment to a Spanish Immersion program for middle and high school. IPS currently offers a Spanish immersion program at Theodore Potter for grades K-6, but there are no Spanish immersion options beyond 6th grade. Why? This needs to change. Additionally, I would like IPS to commit to teaching fact-based historical lessons related to Indiana and Indianapolis surrounding race and diversity. This includes the historical supremacy of the KKK in state politics and culture as well as the resistance to integration of Indianapolis schools.
consistent busing must be a consideration
I don’t know; this question doesn’t make sense based on the slides.
Keep families together in schools – should not do away with sibling preference
More input from actual educators. Ironically, minds do not seem as important as bodies in this discussion
could not access slides to even know

Potential Solutions: Examine the potential solutions (see slides 18-24) and respond to the following questions.

What do you have questions/wonderings/worries about?

I think Covid has made great public schools more difficult. Teachers, parents and students are worn out.
I definitely think the district should do all in its power to replicate the choice programs at all schools and create greater equity. My biggest personal concern is my child will somehow lose her seat at her school which has been an excellent fit for her the past three years. I am not sure about the idea that it may no longer be a K-8 school. The only way I think that could work is if you maintain the model well within the 6-8 program. We have the capacity to leave the district if it is no longer meeting our child’s needs so the focus should be on those that do not.
Again, not sure where link is. Is this survey for everyone?
How far kids near schools will have to travel if they have paid more to be near for home
Worries- methods of Montessori, community, and teachers who KNOW my child will be lost and I’ll be stuck in a big system where my child will be LOST!
Getting rid of the k-8 model. I really hope IPS does not do this.
I have worries about changing the K-8 model at my kids’ schools. I love that their school buildings house students through 8th grade and they do not switch until high school. It also makes for a stronger school community.
Concern about our 3rd grader not getting to stay in her current K-8 school through middle school. Concern that Middle Schools will be put in higher crime areas or taking our child away from her home school/neighborhood. Currently we can walk to our home school for elementary and eventually middle school. If the middle school is far away how will we continue this? There has been a huge bus shortage, how is IPS looking to solve that issue?
If you move from the K-8 model to a K-5 and a 6-8 model, please be sure to offer multiple middle schools with the International Baccalaureate curriculum. We chose an IB school for our children thinking that they would have an IB curriculum for K-8. It’s not fair to remove that opportunity from them due to reorganization, especially because there is a high school with IB curriculum already. Please also consider that highperforming schools with poor facilities may need a facility upgrade or expansion, rather than closure or merging – don’t abandon schools that are already working well, invest in them! I support elimination of the proximity priority but not elimination of sibling priority – that is critical to families making life work with multiple children, jobs, transportation issues, etc. I know hard choices must be made. Thank you for taking on this task with sensitivity and care.
If you switch to K-5 & 6-8. Would my student I no a choice school continue with that style of teaching or would we have to do the lottery again!?
mentioned on previous slide
People invest in their communities and communities grow stronger through that investment. Local schools are a big part of successful communities. Children should be able to attend the school that is within walking distance from their home. Being close to school means that parents can also work outside of the home and still have confidence that their child is able to safely move back and forth to school. Children should not have to take a 50-60 minute bus ride to and from school each day. Distant bus transportation is also too expensive for districts to maintain. The focus should be on improving the school experience in the underserved neighborhoods rather than expecting these students to travel long distances. I think it makes sense to consolidate poorly maintained facilities into one (or more) well-maintained building that would serve a broader neighborhood. I do not think the school boundaries should be eliminated. It makes sense to learn from the programs that are working well and replicate these programs across the city. If the IB programs are working well at CFI 2, CFI 27, CFI 70, and CFI 84, then implement additional IB program(s) on the south, east, and west sides of the downtown area. If the Merle Sidener Gifted Program is working well for its students, then recreate a similar program on the south, east, or west side of the downtown area. I don’t think equity means that all students should attend the same school. Equity means we should improve all open schools to a high level of achievement. Maybe some of the worst performing schools need to be closed and consolidated, but the schools that are performing well should remain intact.
Increasing seats without increasing staff and support in class room will not improve things as most choice schools are too full and have a great deal of students per class with IEPs that aren’t getting fully met
Elimination of zones and boundaries will not sustain the community that your choice schools are in. the existing community should be of value to this committee and to IPS in addition to the other values mentioned. There can be multiple goals and objectives. One doesn’t need to overrun the other. Don’t overcorrect As a working parent, location of my child’s school as it relates to the location of our home is 100% important as well as having my children at the same school. Think through the impact of families 1 mile or less away who would be burdened with the denial of access to a choice school so close. What will happen to the community? Replicate choice schools in IPS areas that are needed – where the neighborhood school Is failing. Prioritize those.
Very concerned about changes to schools that are doing well. I would be disappointed if CFI 70 switches to k-5 because adding new middle schools sounds like a logistical disaster. Why mess with schools that are succeeding?
Please do not separate our k-8 school. I don’t want my kids in different buildings. Separate middle schools would be a disaster. All in one school is a huge draw to families and getting rid of that will send many parents to other townships or catholic schools.
Proximity to schools is an important element for convenience and community that I would like to see maintained. K-8 creates a sense of continuity and community that I would also like to see maintained.
I’m worried about school closings, enough crossing guards and moving away from the K8 school model
I am very concerned with doing away with sibling preference as it would be hard to have kids at different schools. I also am concerned with shifting the schools away from K-8 as this could impact the community developed within the school. I also think it is important for all kids in IPS to be in adequate buildings that provide a safe and happy environment to learn.
Grade reconfiguration and proximity zones would kill my neighborhood school. It would create an exodus of kids from high performing school, potential create more migration out of Indianapolis, and loosen the fabric of my own community. Why punish schools that are raising the bar for IPS?
Parents purchasing homes based on neighborhood school and walk ability
BIG worries about not having sibling preference. How would it be equitable to have families have to transport to/ attend events/ receive information from/ make calls to/ follow the rules of two separate schools? That seems like an incredible challenge. I would NOT be ok with my children going to two different schools. I already get so many e-mails I could never keep track of it all, and I have a desktop computer at home. Wondering how it will look to separate the middle schools. I think keeping kids with their peers throughout their school experience is important. Doing research for and figuring out which school my kid would work best at is not something I want to do 3 different times. Keeping their educational experience consistent and familiar, the learning styles and communities consistent and familiar, rather than necessitating a change to a completely different school for just 3 grades seems like a better idea. Let’s create more choice schools. If my local school, 57, would have been a CFI school I would have been thrilled. Please please don’t end sibling preference.
I am highly concerned with changing models that are/have/will continue to be very successful. In particular changing the k-8 model.
You cant replicate higher performing schools by increasing seats and eliminating K-8. That is not replicating, it is just trying something different. It will not create the same small community environment that currently exists at choice schools. Eliminating the K8 model and eliminating proximity will drive parents out of IPS.
How would the creation of neighborhood zones impact the cost of student transportation? We already have kindergarten students who are expected to walk nearly a mile to school while students who live a block from the school are bussed to choice programs. Would the shift to zones change this inequity?
Still can’t find slides. Families will flee IPS in droves if you change successful K-8 programs and try to get them to send their kids to middle schools. Don’t make the mistake of spending money on a program patents won’t support!
Not able to see slides.
It seems like the plan is to increase class sizes at currently higher performing schools. How is this a recipe for success. Eliminating proximity zoning on higher performing schools seems like a good way to drive parents to private schools. Why not more focus on changing programming in poorer performance schools? What is wrong with k-8 models?
I’ll copy my answer from the previous question as I think it applies here. My son is extremely blessed to be at the Montessori option school 91. We were very happy with his progress in 1st grade, the leadership of the school and subsequent culture. If his experience is significantly and detrimentally changed, we’ll leave the district. To me, an influx of new students older than 1st grade will be bad for existing students. In my opinion, significantly higher enrollment at #91 will be detrimental to learning. Denying siblings from automatically attending the same schools breaks up the family. I cannot overstate how poor of a decision this would be. If my son cannot continue to attend
91 because we don’t live in a new geographic zone we will be forced to move out of district. Eliminating proximity priority reduces community building which is contrary to IPS value of building communities. I feel this is roughly my thoughts on the solutions provided by Rebuilding Stronger Reorganization Plan Committee on 6/23/22.
See previous answers re: Purdue poly and innovation schools. I worry about chopping up k-8 schools – where would these kids go to middle school to continue the (often) innovation curriculum. Getting rid of the proximity will also gut the neighborhood feel/community of many schools. Again, do what’s working. Create more innovation schools.
I would like to know about research about K-5/6-8 schools versus K-8 schools.
IPS has gone through big changes before, what makes this time different? I wonder if the IPS leadership will be permitted to make the hard decisions by the board and external influences that have made public education political?
I believe that all of the potential solutions are really strong. I have some wonderings about how the district could drive clarity about a family’s options for schools. There is a lot of terminologies (choice, innovation, neighborhood, CFI, Butler Lab, ect) that seem to get muddled when communicating with families. For example, when on the IPS website Innovation Schools aren’t listed anywhere under the “Enrollment & Options” pages. You have to go to “Portfolio Management” under “Central Services” to find anything about Innovations and even then the information isn’t about the schools, it is more so accountability steps.
I struggle to see how these changes benefit the choice schools. It seems they would be watered down and include families that never proactively opted for the culture at these schools. I feel even with more funding offered to those choice schools, it will diminish the education and experience for kids in choice schools.
Why split schools that work?
After the district proposed K-8 schools as the solution to address its struggling middle school issues, it appears the district is looking to adopt a class model that will not benefit its students in order to make up money from apparent fiscal mismanagement. Building solutions should be given within the model the district has said is best for youth. There’s been no addressing how these widespread changes benefits the student’s academics.
What information has been given to parents about whether they want a choice? When I toured the Butler Lab school, the staff talked about how they have to go out into the community and door to door ask families to enroll in their school, even though it’s in their boundary. If the school experience for its community, not of a single family, is one where “choice” isn’t taken advantage of by those in the streets around it, then creating widespread change without proof that choice is wanted or will be pursued is based on a falsehood.
Additionally, with the transportation issues as they were last year (my bus wouldn’t do a pickup, only a drop off and there were many delays and even a few cancelations), families who need the closest option may not be inclined to go any distance.
Finally, the discussion on the parent boards is that there will be a fairly large exodus of families, who could afford private school or a different school in their community, but have chosen to go public over private, if the changes, as communicated, take place because these changes are in direct contrast to what they’ve been told is the most successful educational model…smaller and K-8.
I am greatly concerned that my children, who are part of a k-8 program will be cut short from the benefits of the program in which we chose to place our children. We have 4 Black children (ages 7, 10, 16 and 18). Our 16 and 18 year olds went to a traditional middle school in a district in which I teach. Middle school was most difficult for both of our older girls. Although they were academically prepared, as parents we feel the cost of their social-emotional well being was not worth the academic gains they made (even in a school where their teachers were my colleagues and they had added support from staff). As a result, we made the decision to send our younger children to our neighborhood school 91, with the intention of them being part of the school through 8th grade! School 91 has provided strong academic preparation equal to (if not better than) our older girls’ peers who attend school with them, while providing the safe, research based instruction we have grown to love.
We need to keep the K-8 model
Concerns of getting rid of the K-8 model: I assume IPS moved to the K-8 model for a reason. A quick look at the internet indicates that some studies came out in the early 2000’s that showed better outcomes for kids if they did not switch to middle school but continued in the same building. I have not see anything in the discussion that cites any studies on how it is working now that IPS has implemented it. My concern is that it IS working and that is why the choice schools are doing better. By removing an aspect of the model that is working, we may be making the choice schools worse without realizing it. I’m worried that by putting the kids back in the lottery for middle school, friendships are lost and the continuity of the school experience is disrupted. Once that occurs, I’m worried the district would lose families/kids to private or outside the district options since Middle School is hard enough without throwing other issues into the mix. There seems to be a sharp decline in the number of students in IPS high schools when compared to Elementary school enrollment. I’m worried this pattern would shift to Middle School as well Removal of the Proximity Boundaries. The slide indicates it increases seats, but it does not do that; those buildings are the same size no matter who you put in those seats. What it does is move to more of a pure lottery system. I think the district originally created the Choice schools to try to attract families who might otherwise leave the district or choose private schools. The system has been too successful and now those schools are difficult to get into. We need to keep in mind that if we move to a pure lottery system, we may reverse that trend. Removal of Sibling preference – This seems like it would put a huge strain on families.
Does the research support the idea of positive educational outcomes when schools are divided into K-5 and 6-8, or are we simply exploring this option as a means to opening more seats in choice schools? Will choice programs, such as Centers for Inquiry, Montessori, and Butler Lab, have respective middle schools with their specific pedagogy and will students automatically be granted enrollment into those middle schools from their K-5 school? If middle schools are pedagogy-specific, will students who have not attended elementary schools with those programs in place be able to enroll in the middle school program? For example, if there is a CFI-specific middle school, will a student who did not attend a CFI elementary be able to enroll in the CFI middle school? How will IPS uphold the instructional quality of schools with specific pedagogies if they are trying to rapidly expand the number of seats and, therefore, needing to add a large number of teachers to those schools?
1. Impact of reconfiguration and consolidation on class sizes. 2. Effect of elimination of proximity/sibling preference on existing choice students. Will students remain in choice programs or re-enter lottery? 3. Choice offerings for new 6-8 schools. Will students from K-5 choice program automatically go to 6-8 choice program? 4. Location of new 6-8 schools. 5. Availability of qualified/trained faculty and staff for duplicated choice schools, expanded K-5 choice schools, and/or new 6-8 choice schools. Are there enough teachers who have been trained for choice programs to teach in expanded choice schools? Will other teachers receive proper training to ensure quality of choice programs continues? Will faculty/staff of existing choice schools be “redistributed” or have choice to stay with current schools? Is there concern that significant changes will lead to loss of high quality faculty/staff or dilution of high quality programs?
I’m VERY concerned about the change to k-5 schools across the board. Having the choice schools include middle school is important. These programs should be replicated across the district. Removing 6-8 will not be in the best interest of many students. Instead of adding more space for students you are punishing those kids who are part of a tight school community and will lose that program now in middle school and end up in a learning environment that does not work for them. The traditional middle schools exist already. If I wanted that for my daughters I could choose that but I emphatically do not and chose their school with the intention of them staying through 8th grade. I would honesty have to reevaluate my choice to stay in the district if this changes. It is such a bad idea. It defeats the purpose of the choice schools.
I feel very strongly that successful K-8 models (e.g., Montessori, CFI) should not be disrupted and separated into separate elementary and middle schools. This would be the opposite of the stated goal of replicating successful models, and would instead be damaging a working part of the district.
I urge the adoption of the K-5, 6-8 grade groupings. I teach in a K-8 school, and it has NOT been good for the elementary students NOR the middle school students. I like the idea of enrollment zones, as so many of our students bounce around back and forth to different schools every time they have to move to a different house. This plan would reduce that, increasing enrollment stability. Yes, please consolidate schools so less funding goes to maintaining buildings and more is available for enrichment programs.
We specifically pursued Montessori and 91 through choice. We believe the community that 91 setups prior to 6-8 is essential in maintaining the best citizenship in that age group and would see sending 6-8 to large Middle Schools problematic. Westlane, Belzer, as examples.
I’m worried about the closing of neighborhood schools. Our neighborhood school at Garfield doubles as a community center and has a super positive impact on the community. It’s suffered as the neighborhood has gentrified and parents have chosen to send their students to private/choice schools, but there is interest in keeping the neighborhood kids local.
I’m concerned about removing 6-8th from k-8 schools. Since it works, can we replicate other places? Also concerned about making sure art and music programming is included in every school and not cut!!!! It is vital to development.
I do not want to see the current CFI structure changed. It is fine if you want to add additional programming in other areas to try and serve more students. It is not fine to alter the current setup which is working without knowing if changing the demographics would provide an equally successful experience. Moving from k-8 to k-5 and 6-8 is also not a good solution. The k-8 buildings have a much better situation for middle school growth. They are well known to the entire staff by the time they hit those puberty years. Kids don’t slip through the cracks in a k-8 building as much as they would when they have a big change in 6th. I like the current setup and would definitely consider leaving the district if it was changed.
Eliminating k-8 schools. I prefer this model to eliminate transitions.
I struggle with having middle schools. As someone who went to a k-8 school, I am glad I did not have that extra transition from elementary to middle school. The community of the k-8 almost seems worth the extras that are challenging to fund.
If you create more choice schools, what is the timeline be for teacher training and where will that funding come from? When IPS consolidated high schools, there was a lot of turmoil academically and socially. What approaches will you put in place to create community in that school rather than just moving students around? Will families and students currently at choice schools be grandfathered into their current school?
I am worried about reorganizing the grade level of schools. I LOVE having my middle schooler in a K-8 building and not in a stand alone middle school. I chose my school for that experience and love how it creates community. I have a seventh grader and would be heartbroken if these changes impacted their ability to finish middle school in their current school.
What quad would i live in? How are they split? Would each quad have a designated HS? Why are they choice if we move this way? 70 is in pretty bad shape- we have the smallest gym in IPS so would we be closed to remodel and our k-5 students merged at 84? Would BRip HS open as the CFI middle/HS option? Your bus shortage was atrocious this year how will you get kids to school when they don’t live in walking distance? How will you train CFI/IB teachers to create more??!!!
If some of the best schools are K-8, why would you move 6-8 out? Why can’t we work on underperforming schools and add resources without disrupting schools people are happy with? Why does everything have to be based in race?
Why would you move from K-8 to K-5 buildings when the k-8 buildings are the ones that are successful? It doesn’t make any sense and I want the buildings that are current k-8 to stay that way.
This is not a valid form to solicit feedback
I have significant concerns about the grade configuration across the board. For high performing K-8 schools, part of the reason they are so high performing is the presence of a constant team approach to education through these years and stable peer group through a socially and developmentally challenging time of life. I think forcing these schools that are functioning well to split will be detrimental to the functioning at both age groups.For schools with alternative learning styles this is particularly important. My kids are at 81, a Montessori style school, and my 8th grader has benefitted from that style of learning throughout her childhood. Only having that experience until 5th grade then changing schools and teaching styles would not have prepared her as well for childhood. For high ability kids, having middle school in the same building allows for elementary teachers to keep kids challenged. For these reasons, I think there will be a lot less stability and retention at these high performing schools that are currently K-8 and while we will aim to stay within the IPS system others I’m sure will not. At our school, many parents stay at 91 specifically in order to get the Montessori middle school experience for their child, and this would be lost by this reconfiguration
That strong and successful K-8 schools will be dismantled so we can fit more elementary kids into those same buildings. So you aren’t really expanding. You are pushing some kids out, kids who have an expectation of what their middle school experience will be, and comfort in that, to “expand” the choice programs. My rising fourth grader already is excited about the middle school teachers. There is a lack of recognition that maybe some of these schools, maybe MOST or ALL of these schools, are at least in part successful because they ARE successful AS K-8 schools. More focus should be on the equitability of getting into those schools in the first place. I do not disagree that proximity is an issue. I know a family with 3 kids that completely and utterly bought themselves into spots at CFI 2. Most people cannot buy a vacant lot downtown and build a house on it, because their kids are somehow more deserving than going through the lottery like everyone else. That’s unfair. You should be looking at what other similar districts have done, and increase fairness in enrollment in the programs moving forward. NOT taking apart what is working.
Yes, expand/replicate the programs that attract folks to the CFI schools. Do not eliminate the K-8 system. Closing more schools means fewer neighborhood schools, and that is not what I have submitted earlier in this that is appropriate. Geographic zones will only encourage a more segregated school community. Eliminating proximity priority would encourage more diversity. Sibling preference elimination is not good however. It puts more burden on transportation and pollution thereof, more burden on parents for pick-up and drop-off and emotional strain on the students.
Cons: Reconfiguring K-8 to K-5 and 6-8 What research are you using to make this recommendation? I have only heard the financial argument that is based on old buildings and underutilized schools. I have yet to hear a compelling argument for reconfiguration that puts the student first – what research points to academic gains of the traditional MS model? What research points to the social-emotional gains of the traditional model? There is overwhelming research supporting the K-8 model for both achievement and social emotional gains. Reconfiguration will increase number of middle school kids in a classroom. Small sizes with intimate teacher relationships is what makes the K-8 model work. You think that increasing the number of students in MS will = more robust programming. It may mean a slight increase in enrichment offerings at the 6-8 level, but less meaningful interaction between students and teachers. Middle school kids need access to quality teachers in a supportive and intimate setting. It is not all about the number of offerings. You are proposing to increase the student: teacher ratio at a time in their life when young adolescents actually need decreased ratios. K-8 model also works because there are K-5 teachers in the building that know and can continue to provide consistency to the fragile 6-8 grade students. It is common for these teachers to team, collaborate, and share critical data with the 6-8 teachers in the building before the students head to MS. Our K-8 IPS models are literally the best option we have to compete with the private K-8 options in our neighborhoods. I was a MS teacher in a private K-8 building and know the benefits for students, families, and teachers of this model. This is why I chose IPS. It was different than what the districts were offering at the MS level. I purposefully moved into IPS to be able to register my 3 children in a K-8 model that works. If we dismantle the K-8 offerings, we will see the max exodus at 5th grade, further exacerbating the middle school exodus and funding issue you are trying to solve. Furthermore, some families will no longer choose IPS if aren’t offering the unique K-8 model anymore. Why should they choose IPS if outlying districts are offering the same traditional model but providing them in better buildings with better funding? Simple answer – they won’t. Last but not least, the impact this configuration will have on our dedicated and highly trained teachers and staff is not acceptable. Teachers who have been trained in our specific and unique choice offerings can not just be moved into traditional MS classrooms. They have dedicated their careers (often at a significant financial disadvantage) to the specific models they care deeply about in the small classroom settings they know work for all students but especially for at-risk students. Pros: Eliminate the proximity preference in the lottery. This has been a problem from the beginning, but sibling preference is important – can’t expect families to separate. Move to zones for transportation could be good, but how would this impact our only high ability school that serves the entire district?
I appreciate expanding choice programs to areas of the city that have long gone without. Please put a choice program into School 57. Irvington would welcome such a program, after years of having to send our kids far away to get the programming we desire.
I’m very concerned about breaking up K-8 schools into an elementary and middle schools. The experience at CFI 70 is amazing directly because of the inter-mingling of students across ages. I have volunteered a lot at our school and to see 8th graders helping the younger children is amazing to see. It’s addresses everything that was wrong with my own educational upbringing around those ages. I see our older kids be encouraging, compassionate, reassuring, helping stop fights and course-correct negative attitudes. I see the younger students looking up to them and replicating their kindness. Please, please do not take this away by breaking up K-8 schools.
I am concerned about eliminating sibling priority – families need to know they can send their children to the same school. That priority needs to remain in place to give schools and families stability.
Do not switch to all K-5 and 6-8 schools.
1. I think a top priority should be to keep families together (provided that is what the family wants). From an equity standpoint, I understand the move to remove the proximity preference but I believe it is important to keep the sibling priority. I am interested in more details on the proposed zones. Would each zone include elementary, middle school, and high school options? I don’t think it is ideal for kids/families to have to travel far to get to school. As a family who has been planning for the last 5 years to send our kiddos to the school in our neighborhood for K-8, it is concerning to think about where the 6-8th students might be moved to. If your child is in a choice program currently will they be able to remain in the program for middle school (even if that is moved to a different building)? Likely these things are all in the process of being explored, I think it would be very helpful to have general timelines given of when these changes would be expected to start occurring.
I do not believe that eliminating K-8 programs is in children’s best interests. If the goal is to replicate successful/desired programs (ex. the CFIs) which are K-8, why would you change what is working? Would families be forced to go through the Enroll Indy Lottery 3x instead of 2x (for K, 6th, and high school)? Will students in a certain magnet program for primary school be given lottery priority to attend the middle school with that same program? Otherwise, why would a family commit to a certain specialized program for primary school if they may not be able to continue it through middle school? Keeping K8 in one school is beneficial to both younger and older children alike in terms of opportunities for mentorship and peer support, plus it helps with the difficult middle school years to be in a comfortable environment. IPS previously eliminated separate middle schools; what is different now that it should be changed again? While I believe all students should have access to high-quality, free neighborhood schools, I also believe that eliminating proximity zones will make admission to desirable magnet programs more equitable. My child was lucky enough to receive a lottery spot at a magnet even though our family had no priorities, and I was told that she was one of only 3 children not in the “proximity” zone to get a spot. If the proximity zone is eliminated, admission will be more equitable. However, ideally, each neighborhood will have access to desirable programs so that children can attend schools near their homes and their families will not have to worry about long commute times to attend school. The International School is moving out of the former IPS school at 49th and Boulevard. There are no magnets in the Butler-Tarkington/Crown Hill neighborhood. Perhaps IPS could consider obtaining that facility to duplicate one of the magnets. Broad Ripple High School is also empty and if the concern is that there is more demand for magnet programs than available seats, why is that facility not being utilized to expand popular programs? I do hope that IPS does not consider removing sibling priority. It would be a hardship to families with multiple children if they ended up attending multiple schools across the district, balancing transportation/extracurriculars, etc.
Eliminating K-8 options. This concerns me. Students have been through so much at this point, they should be allowed to remain at their current school.
When you have magnet schools and montessori specifically, the students benefit from all of the students in the buildings not just in the grade. Montessori is not set up to split up this way and redo schools with a k-5 and 6-8 atmosphere. Montessori acts like a family where everyone works with one another from k-8 this split of the school would take that away from the kids and the montessori experience
My school is Montessori, a teaching method that doesn’t just transition automatically to a traditional school. The 6-8 years are transition years to get kids ready. Eliminating the school as K-8 would make montessori impossible, unless there is a montessori 6-8 building. Otherwise the transition years would be 3,4,5th grades….leaving pure montessori for only the youngest kids. Beyond the grade reconfiguration, I have concerns about shifting to enrollment zones. What does that do for current students? Is it phased in or would I have to move schools if I’m not in the right zone? In my case, what if there isn’t a montessori in my zone? If you don’t have the same programs with the same performance in each zone you’re going to end of penalizing or rewarding different neighborhoods…sort of the same problem we have today with proximity boundaries (I support eliminating those).
I wonder if any of the middle school options will be appealing to parents/students from the current K-8 Choice schools. Or will all those kids end up in township or private schools
Will switching to K-5/6-8 lead to an exodus from the district at 6th grade? Personally, I’m likely to stay at my kids current school through 8th grade before considering both inand out-of-district options for high school. If a grade level reconfiguration forced me to make an earlier choice, I would be looking at in- and out-of-district options earlier. I think this should be given careful thought. Also, middle school is hard time for students from a developmental perspective. Are student outcomes better for middle schooler in a 6-8 setting than in a K-8 setting? Retention of students? Retention of teachers? I assume research has been done regarding the success of one approach over other, but would want to understand this more.
I am concerned about the decision to do away with K-8 schools. One of the driving decisions for my wife and me in our school choice was finding a school that was k-8. We liked the stability it would provide for our daughter over a longer period of time. We liked the idea of a smaller “middle school” experience. We also really loved the Montessori model and were encouraged that could be continued until it was time for HS. Middle school is already a difficult time in a child’s life. Adding multiple transitions, and changes in teaching methodology seems to add unnecessary strife. We will be very disappointed if this option for parents goes away. I would venture a guess (though I could be wrong) that many parents choosing the choice schools (CFI, Butler Lab, and Montessori) do so at least partly because of this stabilizing factor of staying in a school k-8.
I apologize for not having attended or viewed the sessions prior to meeting 6. But, from what I have heard in the review, I’m concerned we’re perhaps not understanding what makes choice schools work. Is it the K-8 model, curriculum, smaller grade sizes, strong connection with the neighborhood, etc.? I want every IPS student to attend a strong, high-performing and nurturing school! My concern is if we don’t understand what makes a school all these things, then we may be removing key ingredients.
Our community choose a school based on programming (Montessori, IB, etc.) not dismantling them to a traditional middle school is taking away the success that is proven. Is a consolidated MS being based on the programming? Won’t it be more expensive to have Montessori, Reggio, IB, Traditional middle schools especially because the teachers need specific requirements.
I am extremely concerned about the potential of losing a sense of school community by moving away from a K-8 model. That model is very important to why we chose our school.
If replicating the success of choice schools is a goal, why eliminate the K-8 configuration? I maintain that a significant contributing factor of choice school success is the K-8 model. This model contributes to community building and gives students and families longer term stability. Instead of a K-5 and 6-8 model, replicate choice schools in other buildings. Consolidate some smaller neighborhood schools on the south, east, and west sides of the district and offer more choice schools there. Understanding this would take several years to implement, it seems a wiser approach than radically changing what does work well: K-8 choice schools. Offer more of them rather than changing the model. Also, one major issue for those of us who live outside downtown and the north side of the district is that the choice schools available are far away. For example, none are east of Keystone (except Sidener, which is only nominally east of Keystone and is on the far northern edge of the district).
I wonder where middle schools would be located and how big they would be. I wonder how far kids would have to travel to school when some schools are closed.
I am a past educator and middle school counselor. There is significant research proving the harms of school transitions – I believe minimizing school transitions is the best for students. I also believe a huge transition, like that IPS is planning, is incredibly risky and detrimental to its entire programming. As IPS has released these solutions, I have spoken to many families who said they will remove their children from the IPS middle school settings, if these changes are made. IPS will see a mass exodus of families, if their voices are not immediately heard.
Removing boundaries and transportation when transportation is such an issue now. My kids were late 3-5 days per week and we live 7 miles from school on the bus.
When programs have had success at a K-8 model, how do we know they would have success at a bigger K-5 or 6-8 model? Where will these extra teachers come from who are trained in specialized curriculum? What will happen to specialty schools such as Sidener or the Spanish immersion school? These are already small programs, best designed to be placed all in one building. I am not sure they can be replicated, they are already not full. Will these be exceptions to the reorganization? Sidener is only grades 2-8, the district probably cannot manage to support a 2-5 school for high ability students. I am also very concerned about how quickly you are going to implement these changes. In order to be successful, there needs to be a planning stage. If decisions are made towards the end of 2022, and entire schools are going to be restructured, then the fall of 2023 is mostly likely much too soon to implement the changes.
Changing school building at middles school changes the culture of a school and I think changes significantly the experience of students and families. I think it feels much less personal and less community-supporting than a k-8 experience.
Ips has some incredibly well-attended, sought after schools. I’m concerned about those being changed and students not being able to attend schools nearby their housing. Unfortunately parents in some areas have the means to provide private education and will likely choose that when nearby schools are no longer granted proximity priority. Private schools in those areas will see a huge increase and IPS will have less students/money. I also worry siblings will be placed at different schools and that is incredibly difficult on working parents trying to manage different drop offs/pick up and childcare.
What are you going to do about students with IEPs, many schools neighborhood, Charter, Innovation and choice treat kids with IEPs like something they need to run out of their building if they are “too hard” Some parents are very deliberate about their choice in school for their child. Are you also removing intensive needs classrooms from choice schools during the reorganization? Is the plan to move all the intensive needs classrooms and children with more substantial IEPs into 1 or 2 schools?
It is stupid to make big middle schools
Being led by knee jerk reactions. A lack of context. A lack of reflection.
My child is younger, but I have concerns about the grade reconfiguration and switching to K-6 with separate middle schools. I loved the fact that when we matched with our school, I knew my child could be there through 8th grade. What an excellent opportunity for school staff to really get to know her and for her to feel comfortable and at home in her school environment. Additionally, not having the school transition from elementary to middle school is a huge plus.
How grade reconfiguration would effect thriving K-8 schools without asking those communities. Change for the sake of change seems silly when sacrificing how a community operates and how students thrive.
I am worried that a move to split 6-8 out of existing K8 schools will create more turnover rather than less. Will families have to yet again go through a lottery process when they move to 6th grade? Will they be giving up the program and curriculum they chose when they transition to middle school? Why is the district looking to go back to a grade configuration that was a struggle in the past? Have we fully considered the impact of breaking up school communities? I’m also concerned that dropping sibling priority will lead families to leave the district. For many families it’s crucial that their near-in-age siblings be in the same place for transportation and scheduling.
I worry about which schools you plan to close? Which programs will be replicated throughout the district and will they be replicated with authenticity to what has shown to work or in this separated elementary and middle school model that has not been tested and doesn’t work with the current stand alone middle schools? Which of the kids will be left behind again or fall through the cracks in large middle schools? Do the teachers want to be moved to separate middle schools? Will we lose even more incredible teaching staff to neighboring districts because of these proposed changes? They were hired to teach in small, combined elementary and middle schools, not the sweeping proposed changes of this plan. I worry that IPS will be put into an even worse financial situation because families will flee IPS schools starting in 6th grade instead of 9th grade. I wonder why you didn’t focus on building up and improving district high schools before dismantling the elementary/middle schools that are working? I wonder why high schools of the district are your model for stand alone middle schools rather than the k-8 and 2-8 schools that are working? Is this all financial as your first several slide show? What will you do when you hemorrhage students and the money they bring to the district for middle school instead of just high school? Do you want families to move their kids to private schools, charters and out of district for middle school?
Your continued focus on “equity” is misguided.
Would the middle schools align with the curriculum of the K-5 schools? What additional offerings could be available for enrichment in these solutions?
What has more success for students developmentally, a k-8 model or k-5 and 6-8 model? Does research back one model over the other? Are we looking at the environment in which children learn best?
What happens to children within a certain boundary? Do they lose their spot? Will children end up at different schools than siblings? Why can’t we make Neighborhood schools into the high demand choice schools?
I feel that we’ve done this before (middle schools) and it was abandoned after it was determined that it didn’t work. What’s different this time? How will this concept work now when it didn’t work before? I’m concerned about access to bus-service in these larger enrollment zones. I think choice program should target non-north side neighborhoods, specifically Irvington. I think a choice program at school 57 would be very welcome.
Strongly opposed to doing away with all K-8 schools. This model works extremely well for some of the choice schools and it would significantly disrupt those models to break up or limit the student population. I am particularly concerned about Sidener – it makes absolutely no sense to discontinue that school as a 2-8 school – the program is desperately needed for both 2-5 and 6-8 and there is a lot of value in keeping the kids together to grow and learn from each other and to ensure that kids that need to advance faster have access to higher grades without actually skipping up to that grade level for social/emotional reasons. Please do not disrupt the model at Sidener. We would likely look to leave the district if that program is discontinued or significantly altered.
The k-8 thing?
size of classrooms, not enough teachers and resources. Disrupting current middle school students
I do not like the idea of losing the K-8 model. This allows for fewer transitions and more opportunities for siblings to remain together for longer–easing the duties of parents for transportation needs. I don’t know if I agree with the zones–the most privileged will remain. IPS should look to. I agree that the .5 proximity radius must go–but are zones creating as much of a problem?
How does this save money? Where would the middle schools be located? What will happen to Sidener and other gifted middle school kids?
I’m concerned about losing K-8 schools. The middle school model is not proven to work well.
I hate the idea of changing all schools to K-5 and 6-8. Doesn’t work well with IB and Montessori curriculums. 2 of our strongest ones. I am watching the proceedings. The group that you have running these and funding the board is connected to enhancing charter schools- The Mind Trust. Instead of looking at all data, ideas, and best practices, they are very slanted towards charter schools only. People will leave if you get rid of some of the curriculum you have now.
If 6-8 is put into a separate building, will the CFI teaching philosophy/model stay or go to a general middle school set up? This is the same for those in Butler lab and Montessori schools. If a middle school is created, how much will it cost to bring transportation back given the likelihood of kids will not be able to walk to school anymore?
I want to keep sending my kids to Emma Donnan. Idk if I can if you take away our bus.
That things changes are pushed by a political reason and not for our Children’s best interest. This is being don’t in secret and without parent support
If your child is in a choice school and the grades are separated into k-5 and 6-8, will the child remain in the choice program? I have a 7th grader at 70. If middle school is split off, will he remain in an IB program? What are the proposed enrollment zones? How far will kids have to travel to school? We currently walk to school, which is one reason we chose the school.
You more concerned about appearance focusing on core issues
my worries are about changing the structure from k-8. Middle school is awful for many people. I see the K-8 as eliminating some of the issues that come with moving that age group for 3 years. 3 very hard developmental years for many kids. A decrease in bullying and a sense of community with the middle grades is what I have noticed at my daughters school (Cold Spring). the lottery is also the most stressful thing as a parent/ You hear of the “good schools” and worry for much about what school you kid will get but if you are a rich Meridian Kessler family you always end up with a seat at 84 or a lab school. Would love to see that go away.
Yes, I have a lot of questions about how this transition to middle school will occur. It was not successful at the last attempt when IPS tried to implement this years ago. As an educator I have strong feelings that moving away from a k-8 platform is not the way to go. If we already have children slipping through the cracks in a smaller school, with smaller class sizes, moving to a separate middle school situation will only exacerbate the problem. There are many benefits to a k-8 building. It truly creates a more family centered, community based school that allows for more parent support and involvement. It allows the staff to really get to know our child on a deeper level. They learn about their best learning style and any unique adaptations that they may need. It allows our children to grow and mature at a slower pace. It also allows them to take a leadership role when they get into the older MYP years. The relationships that are fostered over a course of 9 years is truly unique and we are luckily that we have the ability to allow these to grow. When I was working in HSE as a 4th grade teacher I saw my students struggle immensely with the transitions to intermediate and middle school. Many were shuttled around, separated from their classmates and then wished “good luck”. Watching families go through these HUGE transitions ever 2-3 years just felt so unnecessary. These young kids were forced to start over, establish relationships with brand new teachers/resource staff/friends only to move on again in 2-3 years. I guess my main concern is that my children may lose their IB curriculum by moving to a middle school? I would assume that you would group all of the CFI’s together so that they can continue the IB curriculum. We do not receive bussing since we walk to school? It seems like this will be a very costly move for IPS because they will have to provide more transportation. Also, many of the MYP students walk their younger siblings to and from school on a daily basis to help 2 full time working families. This is another aspect to consider. As a teacher, I see more negative consequences than positive benefits to forcing our children to leave their beloved schools and start at a new middle school. I do know that if you go this route you will lose a lot of very involved families in the district. (There has already been talk on this). I do also know that more families will decide to explore private/charter routes. There’s just too much of a risk with not knowing what IPS will do next. I appreciate the opportunity to express our thoughts and concerns on this matter! Please feel free to reach out. Thanks
I am concerned about moving away from K-8. Many families value this model because of the community it creates and the stability it provides children.
Worried about the disruption of changing K-8 schools to K-5, concerned that eliminating K-8 will decrease IPS enrollment and push families to Township and/or private schools.
That you will close Sidener Academy without a viable solution for high ability students.
Sidener Academy has done a great with meeting the State’s standards while still having both elementary and middle school age students together. What model are they using? How can we incorporate that into other schools?
More harm done to students from all of the tinkering in structure/pedagogical shifts/etc. All that transition is traumatic to kids. Those are my worries and questions.
I worry about the school closure decisions. I live the idea of enroll zones.
Do not split the schools. What about the small schools that can’t support a stand alone school like Sidener? Why are you having all these meetings about this but not involving parents or the PTO?
No worries
Switching from the K-8 model would be a huge factor in us leaving IPS. I know we are not alone in thinking that sending our kids to a random IPS middle school will not happen. You should send out one question-“If we switch to this model will you leave IPS once your child enters middle school?” and see what the response is. I think the district is underestimating the negative effect this will have on the district.
Pulling my son from his school to a new one with no regard for his community and the one that has been a safe space since kindergarten. Many parents want safe spaces for their emerging teens. Not new unknowns
We DO NOT believe you should fix what isn’t broken, i.e., removing a successful K-8 model from a school. Our family has personally experienced how smoothly the K-8 model works. Montessori education does NOT stop at grade 5. It continues by giving the middle school student the understanding of oneself in wider frames of reference and provides a context for practical application of academics. The older students work with the younger students, while continuing to have a middle school experience at the same time. Our oldest is currently a rising senior with honors and I fully believe that is thanks to the solid foundation he received by attending School 91 through 8th grade. I wish I had been given such an opportunity when I was a middle school student. It is no secret that middle school is a challenging time, and giving students the opportunity to grow in a middle school within the supportive school environment they have grown up knowing is tremendous. It helped our oldest son transition easily to high school. I wish I could adequately express the diverse, loving, and peaceful community our school has. I want my younger children to experience graduating as 8th graders from this school as well. Our second son suffers from generalized anxiety disorder (resulting from the pandemic) and as a result we homeschooled this past year as he has been learning coping strategies. Thanks to therapy, medication, and the amazing support of our school, he is excited to try resuming school as a 6th grade student at School 91 this fall. A big part of what has put his mind at ease is knowing that he can resume classes with his friends and then they can move onto middle school – at School 91 – together. It is a rite of passage for the students there. Especially after what the students have endured these past few years, I find it saddening that you are considering such a drastic change that could negatively impact the students. Sending him to a larger middle school is not what we anticipated and cannot fathom how that will be good for him or others. PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS PART OF THE PLAN CONTINUE.
I am incredibly worried about the break-up of K-8 schools in to K-5s and 6-8s. Please, please heed the research showing that: “K-8 schools, or “elemiddles” as they’re sometimes called, say they promote strong relationships between not only teachers and students but also teachers and parents and offer stability to young teens during a tumultuous time in their lives. They argue that early adolescence — a period marked by more rapid physical and cognitive development than any stage other than the first two years of life — is a terrible time to transition to a new school. ” (from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58310/k-8-or-middle-school-what-works-for-earlyadolescents-depends-on-manyfactors#:~:text=Those%20who%20argue%20for%20a,than%20their%20middle%20schoo l%20peers.) My question is: If the district is looking at WHAT WORKS – and wanting to replicate, grow, build on that; the vast majority of highest performing elementary schools are K-8s. As a parent who has spent my whole career in education, most recently as a high school principal, I chose an elementary school within IPS in LARGE part because it was a K-8. I only selected K-8s in my Enroll Indy options for my daughter. Society is making young teenager years so challenging, and we are just at the beginning of seeing the impact of social media, technology, and having lived through a pandemic. I am also curious how splitting to a K-5, 6-8 model would impact those schools that already have fully built-out K-8 models. Would there be individual 5-8s that follow the same models as their respective K-5s? If not, what 6-8 model would IPS base the middle schools on as there are not currently proven schools with that model in the district? In the various circles that I run in, there is SIGNIFICANT support for so many of the districts initiatives and efforts to “rebuild stronger”, but this one is causing significant anxiety, grief, anger, confusion. Please consider swiftly removing this item from the Rebuilding Stronger list of recommendations.
I worry greatly about the impact the change in school grade levels would have on existing K-8 programs that are high functioning. We, and our kids, love the K-8 model, and to the best of my knowledge, it creates the highest possible density. As a choice school parent, some of these changes make me worry that the best parts of our experience with IPS will change, and will make it less desirable.
Making all programs K-5 and 6-8. This reconfiguration doesn’t make sense because the programs that exist and are successful are all K-8. Part of what has made these programs successful is exactly BECAUSE they are K-8. To change that is too much risk when so much appears to already be changing.
Students currently in grades 6-8 have already had their most social, adolescent, preteen time disrupted by COVID. Now is not the time to disturb them more by destroying their current learning environment.
I am extremely bothered by the idea of the grade reconfiguration. Research and recent IPS experience have shown that the K-8 model is more beneficial to students than standalone middle schools. On one hand the proposal suggests replicating high-performing programs but then also proposes completing changing those existing programs. Shifting from K-8 to K-5 and 6-8 is not an expansion of a program. It is a dismantling of a program. I do support replicating programs. I do not support dismantling them. K-8 programs work (including neighborhood schools, not just choice schools) and are much more beneficial to all students than large middle schools. IPS tried large middle schools for many years but they failed year after year. Just a few years ago IPS finally acknowledged that the middle schools were failing our students and switched to offering more K-8 schools, including neighborhood schools. Why would we now consider returning to that failed model? As a parent, I absolutely do not want to send my daughter to a large middle school. She will be lost in a sea of 6th-8th graders. As a special education teacher who works with 7th-8th graders in a K-8 school, I absolutely would not want to move to a large stand-alone middle school. The school I teach at is over capacity with 600+ students. I would not consider the school a “small school” but by having K-8th grades, there are fewer students per grade level. This results in providing the benefits of a small school environment for students while also maximizing the use of the building. Staff are able to provide focused instruction and care to each student. Enrichment opportunities are abundant. From what I have seen in my 20+ years of teaching in IPS, switching to a district-wide K-5 and 6-8 model would be devastating to our students. I sincerely hope that you reconsider this part of the proposal.
Where can we cut costs in ways that allow students to still have close relationships with staff? As bigger schools often mean causes those relationships to be more distant. I wonder if we could cut in areas such as technology for younger students, administrative salaries and other costs, and in petitioning the state to drop ILearn (as Florida just did with standardized tests) and allow schools to use that money to hire more staff
The elimination of the K-8 model. We believe in the irreplaceable value of keeping students in one school through 8th grade. Perhaps there could be workarounds—-could Montessori/cfi/butler lab each continue with their own dedicated middle school?
What makes choice schools higher performing? Is it the small size, parent involvement, curriculum? We need to be sure that when scaling these options we don’t lose what makes them strong. We absolutely need more equity in these options, but I think some of the advantage was in the middle years kids being able to mentor or be leaders for the younger children in the school. My biggest concern of options is eliminating k-8 format.
I don’t think you care about parent feedback. If you did, you would have made this survey easier to find and easier to complete. I am worried that the students of IPS will continue to be guinea pigs for this innovation model. I am worried that K-8 might just stay at choice schools, but that you will say neighborhood schools will have to shift to K5 only, which shows that you don’t really care that K-8 would benefit all students, especially those in neighborhood schools. Where are 6-8 students going to go – Arlington and Northwest? That will be disastrous.
Do not get rid of K-8 model. Research supports this Groupon my for academic and social emotional gains.
Most of these items support except for the middle school idea. Its best these kids attend K-8 instead of put into there own school. What does education research say on both side of middle school versus not.
Will removing proximity keep siblings in the same schools easing the burden on families to transport children and building strong community within a school for families?
Worried about splitting k-8
I’m hopeful that we support the reconfigured schools with internal systems (grading, discipline, etc.) that do not perpetuate racism and classism.
I do not want schools restructured from their current grade levels-it will cause us to potentially leave IPS
Worry about schools that are already successfully modeling K-8 with great success. The communities are thriving and benefit children in so many ways by lengthening the span of time they build relationships with peers and teachers and administration. This is not a helpful solution. Many children’s families have chosen these schools because they are K-8 and have made many family decisions based on this being how things will continue. I do not support this change.
I worry about changing from K-8 to K-5. I made the choice of the school we are at because of the K-8 option would mean less transitions and because the number of classes per grade were smaller. This enhances the community feel of the school. I also worry about proximity being eliminated completely. I’d like to see what the proposed enrollment zones would look like. I would hesitate sending my child to a school that was not in close proximity.
I do believe( and want) that every school should be a great school!!! I like that the proximity zone could be taken away. That is a huge step. Everyone should have the choice of where their child goes to school. If you are in the IPS school district you should be able to attend a school that is right for your child. I do not like the idea of changing schools from K-8 to K-5 and middle schools. I do not like the idea of middle school. I think we need to make all the existing IPS schools all K-8. I think that you have better involvement from parents and the community when you have K-8 schools. I worry about younger siblings when their older siblings are at another school. Who walks them to and from school?? Just some safety concerns. Easier for parents to have their children at one school. Thank you for all of this hard work.
Again, I am anxious about dividing all schools into elementary (k-5) and middle school (6-8) across the board. My children attend a school that accommodates grades kindergarten through eighth. Its design is very deliberate, and I would hate to see its coherent and effective philosophy of education compromised lost if the new proposal is implemented.
Worried about dismantling the K-8 model — we must maintain for the social and educational wellbeing of our communities, especially in these post-pandemic years.
I am skeptical that the proposals will impact the situations so cleanly as stated, as the descriptions seem overly simplistic and optimistic. For example, to change a K-8 school into a K-5 will fundamentally alter its core, and will potentially be negatively altered. To change something by removing parts of it, and then adding a higher number of lower age students, will not necessarily maintain the successful previous outcomes.
I agree with more great schools. Disagree with grade reconfiguration. I don’t think that IPS will be able “provide excellent, robust offerings in all schools”. I like that my girls will only attend two IPS schools. I don’t trust that in 2-5 years you won’t start talking about cuts and closures again. Unless you start cutting salaries in the administration levels and working with city and state officials to get tax and boundary issues changed, you’ll always be in this boat. The issue comes down to money as the place to begin change, and you don’t have it. So if you implement one or more of these solutions will me kids be kicked out if their current school?
Changing schools that are working worries me because it could change what families stay in IPS at all if they want a K-8 option. Teachers will leave IPS- excellent teachers, who create those successful schools. Treating the symptoms, problems of IPS, with band-aids will not create lasting change. Speak truth to what teachers do for students and families in Indy. Create better working conditions for those teachers. Listen and ask them before you make changes.
Splitting schools. Think about what is best for families of all social-economic, diverse backgrounds. It’s a hard time already. Why make it harder on parents/guardians to get their kids to school & why change it when it’s working. Work harder & spend that budget on improving the schools are currently failing.
The grade reconfiguration solution seems highly flawed. If it’s those programs that are most successful why on earth would IPS want to dismantle that? IPS cannot attempt to replicate successful programs AND tear apart the k-8 model. Focus on replicating the programs that work. Not both.
Changing to a K-5 and 6-8 model. Those kids are much better off in their elementary schools than in a huge school with teens and preteens where no one knows them well. TERRIBLE IDEA. Also, why are we not talking about spending less money on opening new innovation schools right and left? Why is there always money for that?
When looking at stability and enrollment for all schools- neighborhood schools are serving different demographics of students. When students are moving in and out of district boundaries the neighborhood schools are serving that population. They are responding to high and changing need, what additional supports are they receiving? As large changes are being made they will likely be asked to manage a continually increasing need- what supports are being put in place before these changes are being made? Choice schools have more stability because of the lottery, neighborhood schools are responding to need as it arrives. -Staffing- There is a nation wide teacher shortage. What plan is in place to support all staff through these large changes? What will be required of staff through these changes? Will staff have say over where they are moved? What kind of damage do we cause to the built communities and relationships? – I am passionate about my neighborhood school. I want to see it valued by the district. We miss out so many vibrant and full connections when we do not invest in our neighborhood schools fully. -FACE coordinators or other support staffing for transitionsWill there be staff placed in buildings that are experiencing transitions/changes/closure? Not all schools have a FACE coordinator, often it is schools who need resources, grants, programming (and would benefit from it most) that have had to allocate that funding somewhere more urgent. I want to know if there are plans for that type of support. Enrollment zones/geographical zones- What will be done to ensure there are equitable options in all zones? Our choice schools and programing is not currently spread equally throughout the district. How will schools be assigned new teaching philosophy and programming to be sure all zones offer the same options? What extra training will be given to teachers and schools as programming changes? How will teachers be adequately compensated for the increased training that would require?
I wonder how many families in neighborhood schools would want their neighborhood school changed into a choice school. Do you have data about this? It seems like most IPS choice schools that are popular and successful are more oriented towards less traditional educational models but when caregivers pull their kids from IPS, they often choose a charter school option that is more structured and traditional. Is this because those are the only options or is it because traditional academic rigor is what is appealing? It seems like this is information we could get if we work hard enough for it. I also wonder what kind of 6-8 schools are being considered. Middle school is pretty tough, overall, no matter how it is offered. What would this look like for kids who have been in k-8 schools?
I don’t have concerns or worries, I do have some wonderings: With the new age configuration, have we thought about why we have families leave us when transitioning buildings (6th to 7th grade)? What I hear from parents is that it is because they are worried about the other students who are feeding into the middle school and that their kiddos may experience more of a ‘rough’ group of students. What IF we created schools that are PreK-4 and then 5-8, where the 5-8 buildings had 5th and 6th clustered in one part of the building and 7/8 in another part. The students from the K-4 would all transition to the 5-8 building together, and not combine with other students from another K-4. The first combination of schools would be at the high school level where students choose their school depending on their future goals. This way the families know the transition to 5th from 4th with all the same students but to a new building. Would we put money into more transportation to support more mobile students staying at the same school for the year? Would a process be developed on how the staffing on each building would be determined if a building is to close?
Many questions and wonderings have already been addressed.
Why can’t we offer the robust programs to maybe two or three schools near each other? How is making a drive/bus ride to lower income students beneficial? Where could you take money away to actually apply it to students and teachers? Appreciate your teachers in ways that matter.
Grade reconfiguration – moving from the K-8 model. It seems that these choice schools currently operating as K-8 are highly successful, I don’t understand why you would move away from that rather than trying to replicate success, especially with middle school being an often tumultuous time for students.
Sibling preference is something that matters to all parents, regardless of income or neighborhood so should be considered carefully.
I am very concerned about grade reconfiguration and school consolidation.
Concern about moving from a K-8 model. The proposed solution of separating 7-8, is not valid.
I am concerned about changing from the k-8 model in some schools to separate middle schools. I like the idea of less transitions for students. I think the students and staff know each other well by the time they get to middle school and that can help them be successful in a safe place. I think it will provide more stability during challenging years of early adolescence.
I totally agree with replicating the success of models like Montessori and CFI. However, it does not make sense to disrupt the success of those models, which are all K-8. This risks damaging part of the system that is working. Better to make more of these schools as K-8, rather than damaging a working system.
I worry if the parents who are against this will actually be listened to because it’s not in the best interest of a lot of children.
Based on my experience at Sidener, I am not confident that there are enough highly qualified teachers in the district to replicate the rigor that high performing students and students with special needs require. I’m also not confident that these things exist in the current structure. I think replication without substantial teacher training is a recipe for disaster.
I am worried about Sidener being closed. It’s a different school from those high demand ones (CFI and Lab schools I assume) that it’s serving high ability students with varied curriculum to really meet the students academic needs. Also, I find the student body make up at Sidener very representative of the overall school district (over 50% African American) and high proportion of lower SES students. So, given the schools will be K-5, I am wondering if Sidener will be closed due to its unique nature and unique set of students it’s serving. To me that seems like the opposite of what the district is trying to do. The students at Sidener seem very happy and the principal is a top notch educator that really understands each students (they have many students with IEP who are twiceexceptional) who have many different levels of academics. Also, I find the 2-8grade structure at Sidener a must. These students have completely individualized curriculums and continuing at the same school across the grades really make sense for a student to receive uninterrupted individualized curriculum. In short, I am worried that this plan will close down schools like Sidener that is actually a model for what the plan is trying to achieve.
Please ensure that there continues to be a strong Sidener Academy.
I am very worried about the changing schools from K-6 and K-8 to being just elementary and middle schools. This seems like an awful, terrible, and just plain bad decision. As a Montessori middle schooler, I am upset about the plan being to just get rid of offering the Montessori middle school option in ips. I am also upset that the Montessori and CFI schools would just all be tossed into one school, that isn’t equitable or fair. It makes me extremely mad as a special needs kid who has special needs siblings and friends that you would just throw special needs kids into a new environment, with new teachers, new people, and new requirements. That seems extremely unfair to me and my peers. I love the way the schools are run now and would hate changing it. With all the things ips has been doing recently, it honestly seems like ips is just trying to make things worse. There’s nothing wrong with the way the schools are run now, and NOTHING about the K-6, K-8, and 6-8 situation should be changed.
These possibilities seem predetermined and not necessarily reflective of community feedback
Strong NO to increasing seats in higher performing schools – larger class sizes are not beneficial! Keep in mind that when expanding the popular choice schools that it costs a lot of money to train people in these programs. By expanding too much, we could lose the integrity of the program. Would love to keep considering grade configuration. This is one way we could increase seats at higher performing schools (could add a classroom to each grade level by moving the middle school to their own school). A lot of times principals only have background in elementary or middle school and it is apparent with how they run the school.I’m worried that completing eliminating the proximity preference could lead to more families leaving IPS. In certain neighborhoods, there are families that would not go to a different neighborhood/local school if they didn’t get into one of the choice schools.
Smaller schools also provide a better chance for growth. Teachers know all the kids from kindergarten, creating relationships early.
How many buildings will be closed with the grade level reconfigurations? How much money will IPS save by reconfiguring grade levels? Even with a great amount of planning, research and financial investment the merged programs that will form 6-8 grade buildings will not be as successful as they are in their present K-8 learning environment. Why must K-8 configurations that are successful be dismantled?
Worried about neighborhoods and the possibility of busing students away from homes.
I’m concerned about the specific conditions for closing neighborhood schools that are quality schools, but have low enrollment/utilization. Also, a quality school isn’t just about test scores, particularly when dealing with transient student populations.
My main concern is that students won’t have a connection with a school.
Many years ago, IPS moved towards k-8 models in an effort to keep & best support our middle school students. At that time, we were losing a lot of middle school students to other schools & our stand alone middle schools struggled with behaviors & test scores. Are these no longer concerns of the district? We have seen that it is not easy to replicate choice programs & maintain the integrity of the programs. This has been especially true when trying to replicate & grow too quickly. What is the plan to make sure this replication is well thought out & staff members are properly trained?
Eliminating neighborhood schools increases the strain on families who struggle with transportation: 1) Relative to extracurricular participation and after-school activities, and 2) also potentially with daily school-day attendance as we have unfortunately seen!
The Montessori option program will still be PK-8? It said you would have K-5 and 6-8 schools… it is a strong community within the school. The families like to stay at one school for 9-10 years. That is one draw to the building. A lot of middle school Students need small school environment for academic learning. That is what makes the middle school students successful and they are fully prepared for high school.There is only one without a secure entrance. This was a referendum item several years back… where is that money that the tax payers voted yes too and still has not been done? If something is going to happen to the building or the Montessori program, it would be nice for staff to know before it is released to the public… and not just from building admin but someone on this committee.
I like putting the district into zones and getting rid of priority boundaries. I think that will make things more equitable, but not solve the problem with the east side school being ostracized or 84 being privileged. Would east side kids really want to go to 84 where there is little representation of their demographic? I am appalled at the idea of creating K-5 schools and 6-8s. I teach at and my children attend a K-8. In one breath you said we need to replicate successful programs and in another you state that you want to change grade configurations. Have you connected that part of what makes the K-8 schools successful IS there grade configuration? I have a child with an IEP and another with a 504- when they entered MS in 6th grade (6th grade is MS at their building) they were known. They had 3 teachers to get to know instead of 6 or 7 and their teachers had the capability to really reflect on their IEPS and consult their resource teachers. They were not one of 30-40 kids with IEPs or 504s out of the 150-200 students a traditional middle school teacher has. Their previous teachers were also able to weigh in on their needs in that transition to MS. They were known in the building for 6-7 years before stepping foot in their 6th grade classroom. If relationship is the key to success for students, why are we ending those relationships at such a tender time in development?
Will there be enough teachers to teach if we’re increasing the number of teachers at schools?
I worry about Spanish immersion curriculum in middle and high school grades. A city the size of Indianapolis should have a Spanish immersion program that spans preK-12, and IPS is well poised to offer this.
how do we meet the needs of students requiring extra homework assistance?
Slides 20 & 21 contradict each other. Part of what makes the k-8 schools better performing (especially at the upper grade levels) is the mixed ages. They don’t have classes together obviously, but they remember what it’s like to be a little looking up to the bigs. They look forward to the days when they are the big kid, doing the big kid things. They are invested in their education from day one because they can see what it will look like. Kids don’t think about college because they have no reference but they think about middle school, with their friends, and the teachers they expect to have. The teachers in a small learning community of a k-8 building have relationships with all kidsones they haven’t gotten yet but will some day and the ones that they had and will always cherish and remember. Middle school kids come back to the lower classes to volunteer during a study hall, to visit for a minute as they past by in the hall, they come back on graduation day to appreciate what was given to them many years ago. Kids are invested in education and isn’t that they point of it all? When you copy the successful k8 schools, you won’t see that in the first few years but success with time, with relationship building, with small learning communities, with people invested (students and families) in a school that can be there’d for NINE years… the possibilities are truly endless. I also have to say that the k-8 is a draw from out of district and even Kees people from going private. IPS needs to strongly consider a loss of money with an exodus of families at sixth grade now instead of just at high school. How will that money impact what you can actually accomplish in a 6-8 middle school.
A key component to the success of choice schools seems to be their pedagogy and lots of investment in staff. Do you realize that it’s not easy to replicate unless the admin and staff buys in? Thanks for separating K-5 from 6-8. I haven’t seen good middle school instruction in IPS since the move to K-8. And I hate seeing the “big kids” plow over the littles in the elementary school buildings.
Eliminating K-8 schools does a disservice to kids with “special needs”, for lack of a better word. The more consistent the surroundings, the better the growth potential for these students.
Kids in same household not getting into same schools
If the k-8 building changes to middle school stand alone, I hope/wonder if there would be a phasing out so students who are in middle school at k-8 can finish their time without having to change schools for one or two years.
Disruption of school communities by this admin has caused more SEL problems than COVID. More shuffling of kids around is going to further long term harm to the community.
Again, there were no slides attached to this survey and no links provided, so I cannot comment on this.
Closing schools is not the answer. There’s significant value added with k-8 schools. Charter and Choice school models are not the answer. As a parent I actively chose not to send my children to charter or choice model school.
NO CRITICAL RACE THERORY AT ALL!!!!

What have we not included that we should have included?

Focus on having great teachers, get rid of computers, our teachers have gotten used to relying on technology and are not teaching like the did pre covid.
I heard the proposal includes splitting our communities by ending K-8. I strongly encourage you to reconsider this. I am available by phone or email for more discussion.
Why proximity has been in place for good schools
Listening!
How does the district plan to keep high schoolers in district? With North Central being a high academic achieving school we are considering it or private high school over any IPS high school.
The situation with busing will need to be addressed if you move to a different geographic proximity model. Busing does not feel like a safe or viable option for us right now given the many issues with late or missing buses, challenging behaviors of bus drivers, etc. I expect this would be even more critical if you move to a new model. Busing will need to be safe, on time, and more widely available.
Students input
I see the benefit of the K-8 model, but I think having a separate middle school would help ease the transition to high school for many students. Everyone agrees we need more resources in the schools, but I’m not sure how the equity in underutilized buildings can be transferred to classroom resources. I agree that it is very important to create more resources outside of the northside. There are SO many schools on the northside of the district. We absolutely should be getting kids out of poorly maintained school buildings. love the idea of enrollment zones. Eliminating the proximity zone will do nothing if there are not sufficient resources to transport children safely and on time to those schools.
IPS is addressing the goal of ‘stability’. I don’t think that dismantling K-8 schools to create K-5’s and 6-8’s offers stability. This creates instability and anxiety for children. K-8 schools maintain familiarity with teachers, social-workers, nurses, administrators and support staff. Don’t break up k-8 schools.
How to fund additional trained support staff not just warm bodies that get moved around buildings as “supports”
Take a deeper dive into why neighborhood schools are not working…. This should be the focus to then know how to correct neighborhood schools. Please don’t attack and dismantle the schools that are working, that the teachers, staff, and parents in the community worked so hard to Buld. Some choice schools are already maxed out with respect to classroom size and space. Increasing access for more students – will this also come with more teachers, and more classroom and facility space? Teachers are also asked to do so much with so little resources. Sustainability of quality of teaching is of utmost importance for the longevity of IPS and all of its community members.
Why add more schools to a district struggling with the schools that are already running? It would create bigger problems to start new middle schools
Keep k-8 buildings together. Do not separate middle schools!!
What does the 6-8 middle school look like: Will teaching style from choice school be maintained? How will transportation work? How will sibling preference be affected?
I am not sure. I agree that equity is an issue that needs to be addressed, and I applaud the work you are doing.
You need to view proximity schools as neighborhood schools cause that is what they really are. Most kids at my children’s school walk to school everyday which creates community, accountability for all the children in our neighborhood.
Risk of parents leaving school system causing further funding decrease making financial system worse.
The desire to be equitable sounds good, but will drive lower enrollment. Shift the current school approach to all K-8 schools and consolidate that way instead of splitting up existing K-8 schools.
I don’t know.
Slides?
Quote attribution, more numbers, how are composite scores calculated? Actual building numbers.
Nothing comes to mind about things that should be included that’s not.
See above
Looking at the map, there are glaring places without IPS schools- I wonder if an overlay of charters would help explain why some areas don’t need an IPS school.
Given the questions/wonderings I bubbled up, I wish there were more on a communication/branding strategy for the coming changes as I feel that there is a really strong chance to create some synergies that propel all schools forward. Note, that the communication and planning that has gone into Rebuilding Stronger has been phenomenal. I am asking more about once decisions are made, how they are going to be communicated in a way that isn’t so much about the changes themselves, but more about “building a stronger IPS for all?” Innovation Network Schools are not mentioned anywhere in the documents presented but we have a very strong connection to the district. The IPS logo is on everything we send out, we are in an IPS building, and we use IPS transportation, athletics, tech, and food services. In my context, we are proud partners with IPS and also have our transportation zones set by you all. Many of the points about enrollment zones also strike true with my school. Has there been any consideration of making “Enrollment Zones” encompassing of all schools under the IPS umbrella? For example, if I was a parent on the southside of the city, I could go onto the IPS site, and when I click on my “zone,” I see that my options are “IPS Network Schools,” which would be what is currently called Choice programs and Neighborhood schools and IPS Innovation Schools? Ultimately, I feel this would create a more unified brand of the school options and also work to have Innovation Network families feel more connected to the IPS brand and experience.
I would like to hear how this benefits/detracts from stakeholder groups individually.
More on the benefits of eliminating proximity boundaries. I think they are a valuable tool when used correctly.
School union response to these changes and if teachers support them.
I do agree that access to the successful models needs to be more accessible to all students. Replicating the successful schools is important, however, while maintaining the integrity of the programs as designed. It is important to know what zones will be created, how many zones will be created, how large the zones will span, and what “choice” programs will be available in each zone.
Why do we not seem to be including the idea of moving/opening Choice model schools in larger buildings? All the ones I know of are in old Elementary school buildings, which tend to be smaller. Since we are putting Prek-8 in a building that was probably built to house k-5 or 1-5, it seems obvious the buildings would be full unless the program is only medium successful. Larger buildings (or two buildings side by side) also help with enrichment programs. By having a larger number of students in each grade/age it would be easier to attract and keep these programs.
Impacts of proposed changes on existing choice programs and their scholars and faculty/staff
Strategic plan from each Principal and their gap analysis on their schools challenges.
I think you really need to stop and think before you make changes to programs that are working well. I know you are trying to be equitable and I appreciate that but I also know that there is a lot more that will go into serving everyone equally. If you alter the successful programs that have attracted the well educated white families – you will most definitely see an exodus of this core group that has means to choose other options. It is hard to hear but it is the truth. I would appreciate trying to put a CFI on the east side (38th/post) and see what happens before making changes to current structure. You need to try it out in an area that does not typically have the same level of success. I like your idea of zones. I think that would help with busing. I also think students should be allowed to apply out of zone if they want to provide their own transportation. This will all work best as a phased approach. I sure hope it is not an overnight change as has been done in the past. We were so disappointed by what happened to shortridge and now no longer consider it a high school option. I know other families have made the same choice as our enrollment from 84 to shortridge was ZERO this year. Please don’t do this to the k-8 experience too. You will lose the community and the families who have loved these schools. Please focus hard on community partnerships in low performing areas. Please do not make this a one size fits all solution because that is NOT the case. There is no easy answer but shortridge should serve as an example of what not to do.
How many innovation schools can be opened and in what timeframe? How long will it take for current students to benefit from these changes?
A plan to start school later than August 1.
I don’t know how to factor this in, but it should be said. I student taught and taught in IPS choice and traditional schools. I currently teach in Lawrence Twp schools that face the same dynamic differences without the “choice” label. One of the biggest factors of a schools success, or not, is parent involvement. Everyone wants a choice opportunity for their kid, but it’s work, and it should be for everyone involved (educators, kids, parents and the community). Every kid deserves to have educators believe in them, but kids need to see that their parent is part of the school community behind the educators. Without all four of above parties united in the same purpose, creating more “choice” schools will be bandaging the problem of student attrition rather than truly fixing the root cause
the quad map. IT DOESN”T INCLUDE A THERAPIST/COUNSELOR FOR SCHOOLS! There are many ‘extra’ services that are missing from schools!!!
How to keep successful schools going while helping other schools? Impact of losing families to private schools. Many of the families that will leave are the parents who volunteer the most and help schools succeed.
Leave schools alone. No restructuring of middle schools.
For schools with alternative learning styles, would there be middle school options that would continue building on these learning styles? Would well ducting middle school teams be kept together? Would certain elementary schools preferentially feed in to certain middle schools, to try and maintain continuity both from an academic and social/peer group standpoint?
There is a lack of recognition that many of the “high performing” schools are K-8. And I guarantee you that many parents selected a school at least in part because of that. We want stability for our children. We want to not have to worry about where they are going in both 6th AND 9th grades. And most people I know say their worst school experience by far was in a standalone 6-8 middle school. My middle schooler has none of the anxiousness about middle school that I had, that my husband had, because she is in a space she feels safe in, and has known since kindergarten. I fear that if that model comes to bear, and these highly desired choice schools, and well-attended, beloved neighborhood schools are no longer K-8, that IPS will see their student exodus at 6th grade, instead of at 9th.
You should have made it easier to find this survey in the first place.
I don’t understand why dismantling the K-8 models that are currently working and in high demand is the only reconfiguration option you are considering. Why aren’t we considering consolidating underutilized schools in each zone and create additional choice schools in those quadrants? The southwest quadrant is particularly needing options. The Montessori school offering a choice model is one that stands out as an example of how this is working in those underserved quadrants.
I hope staff at schools that may be closed will be given options about where to move rather than being automatically assigned.
If choice schools are in higher demand then it means they are performing well and we should learn from it. CFI 70 provides such an amazing experience, I wish so much for the school system to replicate their work to more schools. I realize some parents are looking for something else, but I honestly don’t know why every IPS school isn’t doing inquirybased education.
na
As soon as possible, it would be helpful to have a timeline of proposed changes to the schools (consolidating, reconfiguration, etc). As far as the Grade Reconfiguration and School Consolidation-are these broad terms that will be voted on in October or are specifics being voted on? i.e. Specific schools to be consolidated or just that IPS is going to move forward and look for opportunities to consolidate?
the impact this will have on specialized schools like Montessori school. This decision is very bad for our school. Please do not do this to the specialized Montessori schools
Big schools can offer more opportunities, programs, facilities. But they also come at a relationship cost. Our students do need enrichment opportunities. But they also need relationship stability and depth. Without that the value of the enrichment opportunities is diminished. As I said before, especially in neighborhoods where the family unit is struggling, schools and other community institutions have to be more than educators. Perhaps there is a way to do smaller schools on a campus that are able to share enrichment opportunities. But enrichment can’t come at the expense of relationship.
You told us why adding middle schools is best for IPS financially, but I’d like to understand what those that study this type of thing say is best for students. From what I’ve seen of the K-8 model seems to be working pretty well. Also the change to middle schools means increased transportation which adds cost and time on a bus for students.
What new partnerships might be formed to increase the success of some schools? Might school consolidations be partnered with partnerships with new models (Paramount, Herron, Purdue, etc.) that have demonstrated success? Might community organizations serve as anchors for schools in a way that preserves belonging?
I think the other solutions on the table are good. Replicate the choice schools in other quadrants of the city! Why hasn’t this been done already? Provide CFI, Lab and Montessori options in each zone of the city as k-8. And consolidate where demographic populations dictate. It seems to me that doing these two things alone could provide the sort of space utilization needed. I also endorse eliminating proximity zones.
Most parents who attended a separate 6th-8th middle school, which I did, remember those as really hard years. I’m not saying it’s the 6th-8th model that is at fault, but perhaps it does not help? If we do move to a 6th-8th model, I would want those school to be feeder schools with the option of picking another middle school (if there is room). I don’t think it helps students at that age to not experience stability in friendships or curriculum/learning models, nor to not have parents with strong inter-parent connections who can keep each other “in the loop” and have built foundations (from elementary years) from which to have those harder conversations (i.e. bullying, dating, etc.) that tend to arise at these ages.
Parent picked a choice school based on philosophies now that is being taken away at the most critical point of development at the middle school level which means parents will leave the IPS school district for other townships and private schools. Did you ask how many parents at current choice schools will leave if the K-8 system is dismantled?
Maintain a high ability school option, but to make it more accessible, move it to a location more central to the district. One of our children attends Sidener, but its distance from us and many other families makes it much more difficult to build community.
How does this impact Montessori? When you suggest replicating successful school models, I am certain the IPS Montessori program is one of the bests. If you take the time to understand its model and the multi-age benefits, it is imperative that these schools remain K-8. Please don’t change what IS working. Montessori has become an educational model sometimes only offered to the privileged in many communities. What IPS has been able to offer through public Montessori settings is beautiful. It is an opportunity for all. I am so proud of that. The middle school students in the K-8 setting develop as leaders, role models, mentors, and peacemakers for the younger grades. Taking this opportunity away from the K-8 setting would negatively impact both the development of the elementary and middle school years.
Transportation
You should definitely be seeking feedback at every stage of the process, and you should have fewer open ended questions.
That IPS already tried the separate middle schools at least once and it wasn’t very successful and many of the middle schools were closed. Why is this an option again if it’s shown that parents are most likely to move their children out of district if they have to change schools after elementary. Why not keep the engagement through 8th grade. Is this change going to affect all schools (innovation and district run) or just district run schools? If it’s only the district run schools why and why won’t innovation schools have to follow suit?How much time are parents, teachers, and students going to have before their schools change format or close? Such a large change would need a few years to hammer everything down.
Any decent high schools
N/a
Increased school size isn’t always a positive. Why are we not looking to replicate programs as K8 and to build partnerships and use technology across similar schools or nearby schools to help fill in the gaps and collaborate? Why is the focus just on replicating high demand programs and not on strengthening our neighborhood schools? Does IPS not realize that the intensive focus on innovation and charter partner schools have in many cases increased the fracturing of the district and created increased transportation costs? Too much choice can be as bad as too little.
What is the evidence that moving to stand alone middle schools will improve the district? The district middle schools had huge problems 20 years ago when the district moved to combined elementary and middle schools and the current stand alone middle schools are also struggling. How will you prevent these problems from immediately happening again in all these knew middle schools? Who will care for younger siblings and walk them home from the school or the bus when middle school siblings are on a different schedule? How will you prevent more children from dying walking to and from school when we already don’t have enough crossing guards and bus drivers?How will students with IEPs experience continuity when they have to change schools multiple times and adapt to staff who do not know how to meet their needs? How do the teachers feel about these changes? Do the leaders of the schools that will be torn apart support these changes?
A focus on learning, merit and achievement – the only things a school should be focused on.
How can families partner with IPS to advocate for needed changes at a higher level?
If you are wanting to duplicate the high performing schools then, why are you dismantling the model that is working? These two solutions seem counter productive to each other. We have to consider that all elements of those schools are what are helping them be successful.
Answered above
Transportation must be fixed if school consolidation is going to work. Unreliable transportation or routes that are extremely long are a huge barrier for families wanting to consider schools that are not in their immediate area.
Programs that allow students to engage in mentorship programs with people in a higher socioeconomic ring than they are. This is actually a really great way to help dig kids out of the poverty trap. Help strengthen communication skills early on, help children identify the physical sensations associated with their emotions and bodies and communicate those things in a respectful and kind way, and watch violent crime dramatically decrease as well
much more information about the potential impacts for students in middle school or near approaching middle school
Consolidating the K-8 choice models that are sought after into ONE middle school each (one for CFI; one for Butler Lab; one for the Montessori choice.) Expand MS into each of the 4 consolidated HS making them jr/sr high schools?
What will happen to Sidener and gifted education?
How do you attract families to the schools. How are you showing the great things that are happening in IPS, where students go after high school, etc. Why are you not promoting IPS high schools inside of the K-8 schools? How do you intend to utilize IPS strengths in Culture, Community, and Curriculum?
Don’t change Emma Donnan please
This need to be more public. The board needs to be honest why these items are being pushed. K-8 models need to be kept which would be in the kids best interest. Small schools vs larger school with not help test schools and will cause greater issues throughout the system.
What are the proposed enrollment zones and how large are they, how far might children be required to travel to get to school, how will splitting off grades affect choice school students, ie. will they remain in their programs (IB, Montessori, etc.)
NA
What is more can be more “robust/rigorous” by having stand alone middle schools?
Teaching all students what they need and not just letting high ability students and high performers coast.
It’s ok to own the fact that education as a field can’t do this alone. The work of equity and inclusion goes beyond the walls of the school, beyond the school day. I urge you to stop tinkering with kids and their families and focus on real systems change.
Our input bedsides a survey after you have already made these decisions
Focusing on better resources for families with kids with disabilities.
I would rather you find ways to enhance the underutilized schools and replicate what is working well at the successful schools, but do not disrupt those that are doing a tremendous job for its students and community. Thank you!
Unknown
Teacher retention, student voice.
Imagine you, being in a learning situation for 9 years (pk-7th) and then having to go a different school for one year before high school after your academic career has already been interrupted by a pandemic! All the changes you have proposed are great except removing the k-8 programs. Maybe it is something to look at again in a few years when COVID hasn’t impacted so many so much so recently. Student are at their most fragile state that we have ever seen! A shuffle is not what they need. I’m sure k-8s would give up some resources if they are truly getting so much more!
Closing schools
I didn’t see much around engagement. Is this a concern in any of the under-performing schools?
Where are 6-8 students going to go? What if neighborhoods don’t want a choice school model? Are you going to support them? Or prime them to be taken over by a Mind Trust graduate?
More detail of replication. Where will they be located will some of these schools that only have K-8 be expanded to high school option such as Montessori
How do IPS staff members feel about this proposed direction?
See previous comments
I would like to know what the proposed enrollment zones would look like.
Unsure
Applying the models that ARE working to underserved neighborhoods.
The teachers’ role, importance, and opinions do not seem to be considered in the proportion that they should be. Great schools are made great most significantly by great teachers. Pay them more, and replicate their successful creations instead of making them change to fit the generic district model.
Cutting costs at the administration level. Working to change township and IPS boundaries, working to change unigov, working with state officials for help, working with the mayor’s office. What are you doing at these levels? What is the real error of these problems? I feel like IPS is always blaming and putting on bandaids. I’m so tired of having to fight to keep my kids going to a good school and for a bus to show up.
Teacher input. Talking to and including input from families at the struggling schools; plus input from families at successful schools.
Using evidence based best practices in guiding district policies. We all know that sleep deprivation is harmful to our teenagers, but the district allowed it brecquse some parents were worried about losing school as their babysitter. High schoolers are being given a suboptimal learning environment and IPS is ok with it. My child was always a morning person until his teenage years, and then like thd research shows, his internal clock changed. He hates high school ONLY because he is exhausted all the time from getting up at 5am and it’s honestly not realistic to think he can be in bed by 8pm with qthletics qnd a job and chores & homework. Do what you have to.
Utilization of buildings- for smaller schools that have lower building utilization. Can space in these buildings be used for other district or community organizational need? Can other district buildings be closed and offices be moved into under utilized buildings?
George Julian houses the Programs for Young Children offices and testing. Is this being considered in the calculation of building cost and building utilization?
Can this be considered for other buildings? Is there a way to make this financially support programming at the school that is housing it?
I’m really not sure what the answers are. I’m not sure we have asked all the questions yet.
NA
Nothing at this time
If teachers were really valued and compensated, you wouldn’t have a shortage. I speak from experience as I have now moved out of the classroom and into another education role with more flexibility, more consideration for my own family as well as the children I serve and better pay.
How you will replicate successful schools rather than make them larger. I think doing away with proximity will help with equality, but the idea of making the current successful schools larger rather than leaving them as is and modifying struggling schools doesn’t make sense to me. Why disrupt something that is working?
A review of what approaches have been tried in the past and their associated successes and challenges should be a transparent part of this conversation and decision making. I went to elementary at #86 and I remember the trend had been to have open classrooms. 10 years later each room had makeshift walls made from bookcases. Let’s not forget to review what we know about our own district and make decisions that include that history.
What will happen to enrollment when you make some of these changes.
Ways to facilitate the different learning styles of students. Programs designed to accommodate a more inclusive learning environment where students are encouraged to learn at their own pace. How will you ensure that students who do not perform at the same pace don’t get left behind.
I would just be curious for a little more detail on the plans, such as how and when they would be implemented.
Teacher training, re-training, re-tooling, and profession development are necessary to ensure the success of these changes. This cannot be done in a week. This will require sustained, intense training. I’m not confident that this degree of training has occurred, based on my reading of the proposal.
It should have included a longer period and more open meeting for parents to learn of the plan
Please put a cap on class size in schools if you’re considering closing schools or reconfiguring schools. (recommendation: K: 20, 1-2: 24, 3-5: 26)
Larger schools might cut down on costs, but it will increase students leaving our district. They will get lost
A detailed timeline for development and launching of grade reconfigurations needs to communicated. In addition, the fact that K-8 choice schools are successful because this configuration is an intentional part of the school’s life, academics, community and overall success has been overlooked.
Focus on IPS – should not focus on innovation/charter schools.
How can we improve the space for our existing schools.
I strongly believe the key to a quality school is a stable & qualified staff. The best of programs can not be successful if the staff is ever changing. What is IPS doing to keep quality teachers?
A district-wide grade configuration change is an opportunity to ensure that we have robust Arts Education Programs at every building, eliminating disparities, providing motivations to attend daily, and building foundations for positive and engaging school culture.
I feel you needed to have a meeting with just teaching staff and get their opinion and experience. We are the ones that are in the trenches everyday teaching in these buildings and with these students. The teacher voice needs to be open to all teachers, just not a select few. I know you have offered these surveys, but the in person voice is powerful.
If a type of choice school isn’t included in your zone, will you not be able to attend?
Commitment to linguistic diversity, multilingual preparation, and critical history.
language access
IPS needs to strongly consider a loss of money with an exodus of families at sixth grade now instead of just at high school.
Cut the fat at the top levels of administration. What is spent in salary and benefits there should be invested in the actual school buildings and student-facing resources. It’s really gross to hear the rhetoric about equity when leadership and admin costs consume so much of the budget. Act like you mean it.
Maybe you should work to ensure all the options of “choice” schools are available in each geographic area. (e.g. Right now there are only 2 lab schools, 2 Montessori schools, etc., and they are not well distributed in the district.) Choice expansion – away from proximity priority – creates a transportation issue that will be extremely difficult to overcome. (Lack of bussing disproportionately affects minority families, too.)
See above
A better visual representation of the plan being directed. Maps, numbers of kids affected and where?
You should have included the slides, since you asked questions about them. You should also have a fair and transparent process of decision making that is based on taxpayers’ opinions, and is democratic, rather than based on top-down decisions. It would also be helpful to also quantitative questions in addition to these qualitative ones, to get an overall sense of current opinion of key IPS stakeholders.
Charter and Choice school models are not the answer. As a parent I actively chose not to send my children to charter or choice model school.
you don’t mention that NO CRT or political jargon will be permitted to be spoken to our kids while in school – NO TEACHER’S PERSONAL OPINION

IPS Affiliation

Pre-Read Reflection

What were your initial reactions or thoughts to the pre-read?

What We’ve Heard: Review the key components stakeholders identified are needed for every child in Indianapolis to grow and succeed (see slides 10-17)

Does this capture what we most value?

What would you change?

Potential Solutions: Examine the potential solutions (see slides 18-24) and respond to the following questions.

What do you have questions/wonderings/worries about?

What have we not included that we should have included?

Choice Offerings

Caring Educators

Current Scholars

District Phone & Email

District Location & Hours