IPS Ends Deal With Charter Schools USA, Creating Uncertainty For Takeover Schools

Indianapolis Public Schools Board voted unanimously Thursday to not renew a contract with the for-profit operator of one of its first innovation partnerships.

Emma Donna Elementary School was opened by the Florida-based Charter Schools USA in 2015 in partnership with IPS. The company also operates Emma Donnan Middle School as part of a state-mandated takeover. The two schools created a K-to-8 southside campus where students were taught by the private company’s teachers.

When the partnership was approved, it signaled a drastic change in the relationship between the two organizations. In 2011, the State Board of Education took control of Emma Donnan Middle School and three other IPS high schools due to chronic academic failure. Charter Schools USA was hired to turn around the middle school and Thomas Carr Howe and Emmerich Manual high schools.

The state’s decision set off bitter fighting at the time, pitting IPS against CSUSA and state education leaders.

IPS Board Commissioner Diane Arnold was on the board when the takeovers occurred. Then in 2015, Arnold voted to approve the innovation partnership with CSUSA. She said it seemed reasonable, given CSUSA was in control of the middle school. The company hoped it could improve academic achievement by creating a K-8 school that students could potentially attend up until high school.

But Thursday, Arnold said time had run out. The five-year innovation agreement between IPS and CSUSA was up for renewal. The school’s academic achievements weren’t enough to keep working with the company, she said.

“I think it was the other issues that came up. The leadership. The drastic teacher turnover rates and some of the other issues, like not getting information from them,” Arnold said. “I don’t think it was a mistake (to approve in 2015). We gave it a chance.”

No one from Charter Schools USA or its partners attended the board meeting. IPS plans to keep the school open. The district will explain the next steps for Emma Donnan families at community meetings in December.

IPS set up a website with information about Emma Donnan: www.myips.org/about-us/emma-donnan-process-update/

Next month, IPS plans to formally ask the State Board of Education to return Emma Donnan Middle School to the district in June 2020 when the state takeover expires.

Future of Howe, Manual High Schools More Uncertain

The private company also runs former IPS high schools Thomas Carr Howe and Emmerich Manual under a state takeover contract.

Charters for those schools sought by a CSUSA partner have not yet been approved, and it’s not yet known who will run them or if they will remain open when state intervention ends after the 2019-20 academic year.

The three schools were taken over by the state in 2012 for chronic academic failure as part of a larger, state-wide intervention overseen by the State Board of Education. The state hired CSUSA to turnaround Donnan, Howe and Manual and manage each through June 2020.

The Past And Future

In 2015 Jon Hage, the CSUSA CEO, and former IPS Superintendent Lewis Ferebee used a new law to open the K-6 Emma Donnan Elementary School in the Emma Donnan Middle School building to create a campus for students in kindergarten to 8th grade. The contract for the school was for five years and ended in June 2020.

This was also the start of what is known as IPS innovation schools — a school fully managed by an independent organization yet ultimate oversight is with the district board.

The Emma Donnan K-8 campus was part of Hage’s long-held plan to create a feeding system for students to be instructed under the company’s curriculum from kindergarten through high school graduation. Under this plan, students would matriculate from Donnan after 8th grade and then enroll at the nearby Manual High School, then also run by CSUSA.

At the time, the agreement between the company and the district drew strong support from the State Board of Education. Only one IPS Board member, former commissioner Gayle Cosby, voted against the plan.

Then a year later, more board members questioned the progress at Emma Donnan.

In 2018, IPS released a high school reconfiguration plan that resulted in the closure of three high schools. The report also suggested closing Howe and Manual high schools if the state returned the schools to the district.

In March, the State Board of Education directed CSUSA to seek charters to independently run the schools when state takeover status ends in mid-2020. Instead, a new nonprofit organization called ReThink Forward Indiana are seeking charters for each school.

The applications filed with the Indiana Charter School Board propose dramatic enrollment growth at the schools in the next five years or less.

• Donnan would more than double its current enrollment of around 300 students to 657 by 2022-23.
• The eastside Howe would expand to a K-12 school and more than double enrollment to 970 students by 2021-2022 (currently, the school is grades 7-12 with around 600 students).
• Manual would remain a 9-12 school, according to the application, but increase enrollment by about 200 students to 812 students.

The Indiana Charter School Board is scheduled to vote on the charter applications Dec. 13.