Good evening and welcome to the August meeting of the Indianapolis Local Uh Education Alliance.

I'd like to begin by officially calling this meeting to order, and I want to take a moment to thank you all for being here.

I want to begin tonight by noting that uh Herado Britt, uh an alliance member informed us in advance that he is unable to attend tonight's meeting due to a family commitment.

Otherwise, uh we have the remaining eight alliance members here with us tonight.

And indeed, tonight we will be uh beginning uh a deep dive into the issue of school facilities, both the data we've gathered and what it means for our planning.

You'll hear from several different perspectives this evening.

And I'm grateful to each of our presenters for being here.

As in prior meetings, we will also hear public commentary after tonight's presentations.

We would ask that the comments try to stay focused on the topic of facilities, because that is what the Alliance is going to be exploring this evening.

So let me take an opportunity to at least initially extend a sincere thank you to Eddie Rangel for hosting us here at Amadonna, home to Adelante Schools.

Eddie, thank you for your hospitality and leadership, and I'd like to invite you now to share a little bit about your school and the community here.

Eddie.

And to tell a story of cross-sector collaboration, what and what children, not just adults, can achieve when we earnestly work to ensure our kids in Indianapolis are achieving to their fullest potential.

And I'm going to get the magic clicker.

So our mission here is on the screen in front of you or behind you, which everyone you can see.

And that's what our mission's all about.

We've worked alongside our community in solidarity to create a neighborhood school full of joy and opportunity so that our children have limitless opportunities at their fingertips.

They can prepare to be able to change for future generations through their own leadership and service to Indianapolis.

It was at one room schoolhouse.

About 11 years later, or 10 years later, um the building was annexed and sold to Indianapolis Public Schools.

And then the very next year changed uh to what is now school 72, a kindergarten through eighth grade academy.

Uh in 1970, they needed more space, so they built a wraparound, and that's actually the part of the facility that we're in this evening.

And then in 1994, the facility was upgraded to welcome students in the 21st century.

30 years later, we're here, Emma Donna Elementary Middle School, and we now welcome 470 scholars every morning and say goodbye to them every afternoon.

Um as you can see, our school is beautifully diverse, and we serve a multitude of students.

It's our scholars and students that drive our values as a school community.

Our values are ownership, swing, optimism, and solidarity, and we live in the action, beliefs and mindsets we operate with at our school.

And they also unintentionally but serendipitously spell the word osos, which is bears in Spanish.

And that has been the mascot of Amadonin for decades.

So surprise to us.

And we work to establish a working environment that prioritizes humanity and well-being for the adults in the building because they're the ones that make it happen for kids every day.

So you might be asking how does this all work to create opportunities for kids.

Well, over the course of the past five years, both during and after the impact of the COVID-19 school closures, we've been working diligently with our school community to get more of our kids to school consistently every day.

And we finally have achieved the 94% appearance rate last year.

Not only are students showing up more consistently now, but increasingly less of them are chronically absent.

So we're proud to announce uh just recently 36% of our students are now deemed uh we had a decrease of 36% of students who were deemed chronically absent by the state, which placed us fourth in the state of Indiana for largest decrease and in the top five.

And we know that when we get kids to school consistently on time and we provide them with high quality opportunities, they yield other results.

So this is just a snapshot of ILERN math proficiency for our third through eighth grade scholars.

We see that our uh scholars achieved the 12-point gain in math ILERN again with the actions that our school and our community have been taking to get kids to school and to offer them all the opportunities.

Consistency is a priority here, and so we know that's what all children deserve.

When we look at state island data, furthermore, students who return to Amadonin for even just a second year outperform new to Amadon and scholars by four points in ELA and nine points in math.

Furthermore, our youngest scholars, who predominantly have started in kindergarten and stayed with us through third grade, are rewriting the narrative for what is possible in schools like ours, regardless of what statistics in the attempt to dictate.

And so here you see over the course of five years that scholars at Amadon and Elementary and Middle School have nearly closed the gap between our school and the statewide average for third grade I weed three proficiency.

Additionally, it's not just some students who are learning how to read, and you won't see this reflected on the slide here, but it's all students, and we uh have a special elevation to make because 93% of our black students performed proficient on I read three, and that's uh 17 points higher than the state average.

Our goal of creating a school where all students and families want to return is a paramount for delivering on our promise to families and the community.

And so we all know that student professional isn't just the singular store of a school.

Uh last year, 93% of our families, when given the five essential survey out of the University of Chicago, uh, stated that they were satisfied or highly satisfied with the school overall.

And not only that, but again, I mentioned consistency earlier.

Uh, 92% of our highly effective and effective staff members have decided to return year over year.

And so that's something that provides students familiarity and what they deserve to walk into every day in the school building.

Not only just the academics and the satisfaction, but we want to make sure that teachers are able to do their jobs with as minimal distractions as possible, and so we're proud to say that our operational satisfaction at the school times the lunch things are happening, or you know, just different things that teachers need.

Um we give them the survey from TNTP Insight Survey, 40% of uh our results are 40% higher than the national average for schools that take the same survey.

And last but not least, Adelante schools have been able to operate transparently and accountably to multiple stakeholders, including Indianapolis Public Schools, our independent auditors, and our authorized with the mayor's office.

As you can see here, our financial metrics have consistently met or exceeded standard from our authorizer, and it's with this level of fiscal responsibility and consistency that we're able to continue moving Arielante more forward to create a joyous neighborhood school for our scholars.

So, with that, uh, our city and community has important decisions to make as we move out in there or forward into our future.

And so I want to note that these results that we share are not solely because of the amazing group of humans who work at Adelante schools, even though they are in large part, but it's because it's a result of the opportunity our city and uh school leaders have created for organizations like Adelante schools to exist.

So once again, welcome everyone to Amadana and Automanti Schools.

We're happy to host this evening.

I'll continue to speak as loudly as we can.

Oh, the hands over.

Thank you, Eric.

Uh we very much appreciate your welcome.

Our plan for those in attendance is to continue rotate our meetings to different campuses across the city, so that alliance members and the community can better understand the diversity and breadth of our schools here in Indianapolis.

So now we begin our facilities discussion hearing this evening from and listening to a presentation from some of our charter school partners.

Dr.

Keanu Warren of Purdue Polytechnic High School will begin, followed by Andy Seaburg Seiber, excuse me, CEO of Together Ed.

Dr.

Warren.

Thank you.

It's such an honor to be here tonight to present with uh before this prestigious board.

And I'm just going to start by talking a little bit about PPHS.

And so we exist to give students access to their next giant leap.

And so that's whether that means admission to Purdue University, which we hope that happens, boiler up, or any path that they choose that meets their unique goals and aspirations.

We do it through relationship driven schools where students are known, supported, and very importantly, challenged academically.

And our commitment is we offer access to in a clear pathway to Purdue University.

Every student is known, valued, and empowered to take ownership of their learning in their future.

We have four different campuses that we operate across the state.

Three of them are in Indianapolis and the other is in South Bend.

But as you know, we are here to talk about Indianapolis.

Our students come from across the regions with diverse backgrounds and diverse needs.

And so I'm gonna share a little bit.

This is our enrollment overall.

We uh across our campuses, um, we have now around 960 students that we serve, and as you can see, um our demographics are representative of the Indianapolis area.

I would be remiss if I did not mention our incredible partners that we have who make this all possible.

Um, first I want to start with the Indianapolis Public School District.

Dr.

Johnson and her team have been so incredible for us to work with over uh the last uh we're going into our ninth school year, but they have just been incredible to work with over our time together.

Um we also work with the Inglewood Community Development Corporation under the leadership of Joe Bowling, and he makes facilities possible for us all.

And what I really appreciate, and what really sets Indianapolis apart from other cities who do it who do this work is that even with the limited resources that we both have, um, Dr.

Johnson and her team, Joe Bowling and his team always put students' needs above what adults need, um, and it's just it's been so wonderful.

So I cannot stress enough how much those relationships have made it possible to serve students really well.

So thank you, Dr.

Johnson and team.

Hmm.

Okay.

So I'm first gonna start about a talk about PPHS Weitzer Center at Inglewood.

That is our flagship location.

Um, we opened our doors to students in 2017.

We've been in three different locations.

We first started out in the Union 520 uh 5 building.

We started out with 150 freshmen about, and we quickly outgrew that space at the end of the year.

Then we went to the mall for school year for FY19 and FY20.

Um wouldn't necessarily running school if you're thinking about it, but we're grateful for the space and it met our needs.

And then uh in 2021, we moved into the PR Mallory campus, um, and now we serve uh 630 students, grades nine through twelve, and ninety uh over ninety-nine percent of our students live in Marion County.

Um, for that facility specifically, uh, we exist in three different buildings.

Two of them are on the Mallory campus, and then we have a micro school that is located in Cornerstone Lutheran Church.

About a five-minute walk.

Well, if you're in shape, five minutes might take you seven minutes if you um have a solar stroll, but we're in uh three different local.

My apologies, I can't, it's not moving.

I can't, it's not moving.

There we go.

My apologies.

So I'm going to talk about some strengths of the facility.

We're in a really private, vibrant community with strong community and gate and incredible partnerships.

It's a community school, which is such a beautiful thing.

We have students who are able to walk to this, and there's just a strong sense of community and pride, and that can seamless transition between Paramount School of Excellence, which we co-locate with them, so there's a nice K-12 pathway.

Um there, they have co-located with us since we moved into the PR Mallory building.

The spaces were intentionally designed for PPHS.

So as we are working with the ECDC, it was there, we got to put a lot into the design and make it specifically for our school mom.

We have great access to Indigo.

Our students have top writership, and we're excited about what the opportunities that will come because of the blue.

Because of the blue line.

We have a large lot with a possibility for future expansion.

Sorry, is it is it better to not talk through the mic?

What's better?

Okay.

Okay, I'll use my teacher voice, it's fine.

Um we have a rich history and natural light from our facility from our building.

You have one of the most beautiful views of Indianapolis and one of the most beautiful, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

One of the most beautiful views of Indianapolis.

We have a fully equipped maker space, labs and engineering facilities.

We have about 12,000 feet just for bikers for bakerspace, which includes our award-winning robotic scene, state champions two years in a row, very proud of that.

Thank you, thank you.

Um, and we offer over 20 IAS AA sports to our students.

Dr.

Warren, I'm so sorry, I'm gonna interrupt you real quick.

If you want to come over here and finish presenting, that would be amazing.

Okay.

Um so I'm gonna talk through a couple of our challenges.

Um, one of them is the cost of the facilities.

Um, and while we have a wonderful partnership, we don't own the building, so it limits some of the long-term investments we can make.

Um, it's a beautiful building, but there are some aging infrastructures that requires uh significant maintenance.

For example, our roof will need need to be repaired very soon.

We have no parking available for staff, and where uh staff currently park is not on the campus, but it's a lot that will need some remediation.

Um, and we have limited parking for guests.

Um it's located on the busy East Washington Street, which is a beautiful thing, but there's uh constant constantly construction going on as we're developing the as the blue line is being developed, so that could be a bit of a challenge.

The current campus does not have an auditorium or larger gathering space that allows for uh the whole school to come together, and um many of our classrooms are uh cannot fit um over 28 students.

Um there's some issues with the indoor air quality and poor acoustic acoustic, so if you ever taught before, it can be challenging if you can hear everything that's going on through the school.

Um, but uh and then um we have no on-site sports facilities, um, and we are currently there's currently more demand for uh spots in our school than we have available, and so um there's a limited space for growth.

Okay, and now I'm gonna transition into UPPHS Broad Ripple where we're co-located with uh Broad Ripple Middle School.

And so our Broadway campus has a similar history.

We've been in three different spaces.

We opened our doors in the 2019-20 school year.

Um in our first year, we were down the street in uh uh 1405 building, um, and within a year we were we needed more space.

We outgrew.

We started out with 65 students and doubled in size the next year, so they needed more space.

And then for the 21-22 school year, um, we operated in two locations, so we operated in the 1405 building as well in the storefront, and so there it was somewhat challenging getting students to different locations, and so we're really grateful.

And in 2022, that's when we began our partnership with IPS to locate in Broad Ripple High School.

We now serve 220 students, grade 9 through 12, and 96% of those students live in Marion County.

And so our facilities right now include the Broad Ripple Building as well as access to shared athletic facilities, gymnasium, and the track through our wonderful partnership.

So our strengths are access to sports facilities that are on the campus.

IPS covers our maintenance.

There is space to grow and adapt our programming, so we're not above capacity right now.

We benefit from IPS's scales and systems, including the expanded research, expanded resources, purchasing power, and some of those district level operational supports.

We have a fully equipped maker space and engineering labs, which are very key to our programming and that just allow for students to do some really great hands-on learning as we do at our Englewood campus.

And thanks to the sports facilities that we now have access to, we're able to continue to grow our sports programming, which right now include things like soccer or basketball track, volleyball, which we know are very important to the student experience.

And our even our data in our school shows that students who are involved in athletics have higher attendance rates, have higher SAT scores, have higher GPAs, so that's really crucial.

Some of the challenges that we have is because of the shared facilities, there's just some limited in limitations of what we can do in customizing the space.

It does impact scheduling and it requires coordination with another school community.

We do have we have limited access to some of the athletic facilities, and that's just because there's multiple uh schools and students who need access to those buildings.

Um the building was not designed for PPHS, so there are some layout inefficiencies that don't align with our model.

We're located on the third floor.

The building is a bit older, and um it's not um visually marketed as a PPHS school.

Um, an example of that is we have some crimson lockers.

Boiler up.

Um we have a kitchen with limiting limited warming, but it doesn't allow for a full scratch kitchen like we're able to offer at our Enklewood campus.

Um we have um some ongoing issues with Wi-Fi, uh central heating, central cooling.

Um we don't currently have ownership of the building.

There is parking, but it is limited, and that's understandable with the shared space.

Um couple of challenges with um, we don't always have access to events space as a poly usage, and that's again because multiple parties are using those spaces.

Um our classroom and shared spaces need some upgrades to meet um uh modern learning standards, um, and we've had some challenges with our uh enrollment over the last year.

Um, and so as some of the facilities goals and priorities that we have is we want to see all students in Indianapolis have access to updated, high-quality spaces that meet their individual educational needs.

We'd love to see um increased access to shared spaces and sports facilities.

Um we'd love to have all updated PPHS branded campuses, and if the uh if the opportunity to lease or purchase our facilities becomes available, we'd love the opportunity to explore.

And that is the end of my patient.

I appreciate you uh your patience with me as we work with some technology uh hiccups, but um excited to call my friend Andy up.

Good evening, everybody.

Thank you, Dr.

Warren.

My name is Andy Seibert, and I serve as the CEO of Together Ed.

I'm a veteran in this role all over seven weeks.

Um but the 13 years prior, I've been with Kid Penny Public Schools, most recently spending the last eight years or executive director.

Before that, I was a teacher with an IPS.

Uh fun fact, um, my very first year teaching 18 years ago.

Uh there was uh an emerging teacher who I looked at and learned from, Tina Alden.

Um for those that don't know, if you want to see excellence in the classroom, uh go visit Park and Mobile is your uh see all of these.

It's a real privilege to be well tonight, so many friends and partners.

Um more than anything, uh what I'm hoping to do is to build off of the information you heard from Eddie and Dr.

Warren from the School of Leaders Perspective, a network leaders perspective to zoom out of it at the sector wall.

I'm here to talk about first schools, but I've been remiss but to start with just a firm belief that partnership and collaboration courses through every single thing that we do.

Um I think this body and the work that is in charge to do is inspiring, um it's a privilege to be a small part of it.

The quick agenda on my end, and I know we might get to QA is to talk a little bit about the facility and transportation pilot that was created as part of the same legislation that uh generated this body.

Um, and then I'm gonna set some just brief context, facility contacts for charter schools, some funding context for charter schools, and wrap up in a singular way that Dr.

Warren wrapped up with a summary of sector wide strengths and challenges.

So, first, would love to talk a little bit about, I think why I'm here tonight, which is that Together Ed, which for the last eight years has been in this community as a center for innovative education solutions.

We decided that 28 syllables was too many, so we're now together ed.

Um, but we in charge to facilitate and spearhead the Indianapolis pilot uh that was created as part of the House and World Act 1915, which is you all know is the same legislation that created this body.

The pilot is both has the potential to be both the transportation and a facility pilot.

The Indianapolis-based pilot application that we submitted on behalf of 54 schools that represent close to 22,000 students will be a consolidated transportation and facility pilot.

I spent a lot of my summer connecting with school leaders and network leaders of all schools that I've had great conversations with community partners that are deeply invested in our schools, with friends at IPS who have been extremely collaborative and supportive in the process, and then ultimately the 54 schools that agreed to participate and submit an application together.

And so my hope tonight in representing some of the charter sectors' uh strengths and challenges and context is to bring their voices into this room, uh, given that all of them can compete here.

So, all that said, the transportation facility pilot again was created by House and World Act 1515.

It charges the group that's submitting the application with developing facility assessment, uh really catalyzing collaboration and innovation in new ways.

Timeline wise, this spring and summer legislation was passed that IDOE created the application we submitted last week.

The DOP will notify recipients in October.

The pilot will launch in the winter of 2026, and then we'll have a runway for three years.

Um again, the collaborative, the collaboration and just the spirit of partnership that's been present, design and connecting with folks is popular, and that is for all school types for the district and from community partners, and really just couldn't be more excited about the level of interest.

Again, we're talking about 21,600 students that are formally part and represented in this pilot.

And that doesn't even go into level of community partners, and again, collaboration from the district itself.

So, all that said, uh, won't go into the details in the slide about where we're headed, but couldn't be more excited about operators who are doing the work on a day-to-day basis, coming together perfectly innovative solved problems and trying new things when it comes to facilities and transportation, perfect guidance from the DOE and HAFT.

Some quick facility contacts about charter schools.

I think if there's one thing to take away from this slide, is that charter schools, since they've been around in Tuesday since 2001, have pursued a diversity of different facilities setups.

And to kind of bring us to life, you know, there's kind of four different domains of facility setups and structures right now.

Uh, I had a privilege again of working at Kip IndyPal Schools for 13 years, and during KIP's 20-year history, they actually experienced all four of these domains.

Doc Johnson actually was part of the uh founding team at KIP Indy uh way back in 2004.

At the beginning, KIPP was founding the West Side and Calculate and leased community space from the community center.

They then moved with the support and partnership of IBS in the mid-2000s to the Julian Coleman building, which is an IPS owned building.

And the setup initially was a lease setup and a co-location setup.

So when I started teaching at KIPP, we're co-located with several IPS alternative education programs, navigated some of those challenges that you see in that bottom right corner.

And then with the partnership of IPS, uh, we ended up then moving into that Julian B.

Coleman building entirely in 2014.

Uh, it is now one of the high most highly utilized facilities in the district's portfolio.

It educates about 1100 students in the Martin Belt Brightwood neighborhood and educates the network educates over 80% of students in the Martin Belt Brightwood neighborhood with significant community support.

That's only possible with IPS partnership.

That's only possible with community investment.

And then lastly, in 2019, in a really unique partnership with the Edmark Christian Center, KIPP built the first high school in the community in two generations.

It is now the neighborhood's lead high school, and KIP owns that facility.

But they own it in partnership with the Edmund Computer Center that's been Martin Bell Brightwood since 1941.

So Edna Martin gifted the land to build on, and then the entire campus is a co-location.

That is one small example of the type of evolution the charter schools have seen since the charter law passed in 2001.

And again, it's meant to just illustrate that the key takeaway from a facility contacts is that charter schools have pursued a diversity of types of situations and have all of these different types of experience as far as ownership, leasing, co-location, and creative partnership with community partners.

From a funding standpoint, the biggest thing that I want to underscore from this slide is two things.

One is that any time we talk about funding, I think that there's an instinct to gravitate towards zero sum thing or scarcity thinking.

That is not the point of this slide.

The point of the slide is to just illustrate one funding fact, which is charter schools historically and currently it's a significant funding gap when it comes to dedicated funding for facilities compared to other districts.

The second thing is that that is not at the expense and shouldn't be of the expense, right, in a zero-sum way, where we're saying IBS is over here with their funding, chart schools are over here with their funding.

I think there's a way to say all schools deserve robust funding, all ster, all schools deserve dedicated facility funding.

And there are efforts underway to address that.

By 2031, chart schools will have access to full operations property tax model.

At that point, if the $1,400 per student facility grant is still in place, this gap on this uh slide will close significantly.

There will still be a gap, but it will close significantly.

Now, that doesn't get at the charge, I think that all of us should be able to say all schools should be robustly loaned.

All schools should have dedicated facility funding.

But the reality context for charter schools is that historically they have faced a significant funding gap when it comes to facilities, and so it's got to be creative in how they've pursued facilities.

From an expense standpoint, the number one thing from this slide that I want to just highlight is that in addition to not having access to some of those dedicated funding strengths, charter schools face a huge uh big uphill battle when it comes to financing.

And that is due to not having access to sustainable municipal bonds, it's due to not being able to issue referenda, though they've been many, especially innovation schools have been the beneficiary of the collaborative district that have shared referendum funds, and that's been huge.

But without the ability to issue referendum on their own, then the credit rating and access to the financing is a totally different dynamic.

And so charter school leaders across the city face really high cost of issuance, face you know, situations where they have to be uh creative in the five types of financing deals that they go out and secure in order to purchase their own buildings or fund deferred maintenance needs or capital improvements.

And so, again, the funding environment, both on the expense side and the dedicated revenue side is a challenge.

Just to kind of wrap up here as far as charter school facility strengths and uh challenges, the biggest thing that I would highlight here is that because of the landscape, charter schools have a wrong track record of being creative.

And that has led to the types of things that you heard from both Eddie and Dr.

Warren tonight.

Create a partnership set of deepened ties in communities, flexible adaptation and responsiveness to community need.

And really unique and special ways of funding and investing into facilities to make them as sustainable as possible in a challenging funding environment.

A challenges standpoint, talk about this a lot, but it really comes down to both the lack of kind of dedicated sustainable revenue, and then the high cost of facilities that then are ultimately up to this point, meaning dollars that are coming out of general operating funds that would otherwise be going to invest in things like teacher salaries, curriculum, high quality resources and programming for students.

So all that said, you know, again, I think that there have been real strengths, real challenges, all of it has been kind of part of this broader environment of collaboration and partnership.

I think charter schools have thrived in large part due to community partnerships, partnerships with the district, partnership with folks that are deeply invested in this community.

And so again, it's such a privilege to be here with you tonight to be part of the next kind of chapter of partnership conversations as we move forward.

So I think, and Mike, correct me if I'm wrong, we can do Q and are we doing QA now?

We used a live mic here.

Thank you by by the way, Dr.

Warren and Andy for your presentation.

I'd like to open it up for questions from members of the Alliance to either Dr.

Warren or Andy or other questions or observations that alliance members may want to make.

Just a quick note.

As you speak, please press the button on your microphone to make it great.

There's also a microphone right in front of Dr.

Johnson that you can pass around that should be a little easier to be heard and similarly presenters.

Let's use the cast mic.

And if we continue to struggle a little bit, feel free to come up here.

These are working.

Let's just parse the body.

Thank you, Mr.

Mirror.

Thank you so much for your presentations.

A couple questions starting with you, Mr.

A, if that's okay.

So you said, well, of course, we say kudos to you for getting 54 schools to sign up.

Can you share their reasons for agreeing to participate?

Absolutely.

I think the first reason is that there's just a desire for collaboration.

I think when I again, and I've known a lot of these college for a long time who sat in similar seats.

I've always known them as collaborative leaders, but connecting with them this summer specifically about facilities and transportation and coming off you know, kind of the context that we're in right now.

The desire to solve problems.

And there's the big system collaborations that I think people think about when they think about hey, there's a transportation and facility pilot, right?

A lot of the stuff that folks are most excited about are what you know what you kind of think about as the day-to-day operations impact on student experience and staff experience.

So things like you know, the after-school activity busing for spaces for things like athletics and robotics and performing arts that some schools have and some schools don't.

A lot of times those can be complementary, even in a geographic part of the city, right?

So we're here on this, you know, on the south side, so it's if it's Autalacte, if it's Crystal House, if it's VCP, they have way different facility and transportation situations that they come together to solve problems, a lot's possible.

So I think the the Nate kind of the what I heard from leaders consistently was just this excitement about problem solving on student experience and staff experience types of types of things, and just the desire to be part of this broader conversation together to have their voice be part of the the kind of next chapter of what facilities and transportation are going to look like in the city.

So, Mr.

Mayorman, follow up so my you kind of answered it already, but I'm gonna go ahead and answer it.

What is your expectation as far as participation from the district, and then also from the those community-based organizations?

For example, the boys and girls clubs, we did sign up to to be a partner and to come alongside the community to ensure that you know we are putting our kids first and really working together.

So, again, what are your expectations for those two groups specifically?

Yeah, absolutely.

And and you know, the first thing I'd say with regard to the district is that I had extremely collaborative and positive conversations about the pilot with both Deputy Superintendent Stroke with Dr.

Murphy.

They both you know very very actively said we want to be part of the conversation.

So, what we've kind of agreed to do so far is to keep a really strong line of communication open to find opportunities to collaborate, hopefully work together as much as possible.

So I was really optimistic from all the conversations I've had to date with the district.

Again, they've been collaborative and very supportive at the table, and we'll you know, as we figure out concrete what this looks like.

I think that there will be opportunities to collaborate even more.

And then the community partners uh are huge.

Um, and you know, we have uh community partners that are formally part of the pilot, like Boys and Girls Club, like Shepard Community Center, like the Edward Martin uh Christian Center, um, that are just deeply committed to neighborhoods and to schools of all types.

And I think that you know there's a spirit of that that is super important.

There's also a like logistical part of that that is crucial of you know, these community centers and community partners have transportation assets a lot of times that might be you know 12 or 15 passenger vans, but to be a multimodal part of the broader solution for after school activity bus.

One question we asked uh for a survey that we had the 54 schools fill out was who are you partnering with as far as as community organizations go?

And we had just the overwhelming response.

It was like one of the I gave me like Jill's reading it, because there were literally 39 community organizations that were listed that are not not like like surface level partnerships, but deep partnerships that want to come to the table.

So I think it's going to be crucial to have everybody at the table as we you know go through this next chapter.

Thank you, Eric.

I have a question.

As we examine, and this is really to everybody at the table.

So we had the presentations that included discussion about co-location, and my question is as this group thinks about options for the future, co-location would presumably be an option.

My question is what are the pros and cons of co-location?

And so what I'm what what I really want to get to is those I understand there are weaknesses such as a lackers or crimson, right?

I mean, that's a weak I mean, but that's a that's that's inherent in the facility itself.

You don't we don't have dedicated athletic facilities.

That's really more the facilities itself, right?

Um my question or we're on the third floor of Broad River Ball High School, right?

Or school, right?

I get that.

That's but my question is what are the pros and cons, are there strengths that come from co-location and what are the weaknesses that are inherent just in being in the same sharing space with another school?

Um I can start with that.

Um some of the pros of it is that you're able to utilize the space.

So one of the things I love about being co-located with Broadway Middle School is a building that a couple years ago with Bakit is now serving um several students across the that come from across the district, so that's a beautiful thing.

Um you also can um share, like we share lunch services, we share there's so many shared resources, so that we can be really fiscally responsible with uh taxpayer funds, which is something we all deeply deeply care about.

Um some of the challenges challenges, and another benefit to co-location that I know our parents love, that there are parents who can do a drop-off at Broadersville Middle School and then drop their same child off at pretty polytechnic high school so that that's easy for parents, and there's more opportunities to continue to share more resources.

I think some of the biggest challenges, and one thing that's really important is you want to keep the school separate, especially um from a safety perspective, you want to make sure that you have the the um you want to keep middle schoolers away from high schoolers.

Um so there's some challenges, and you can't share all the facilities because of that, because you want to be really careful to make sure we do not play around about safety in that partnership at all.

And so just making sure you can figure out the logistics of using various spaces, is probably the largest challenge.

And um it's if you and my my recommendation for co-location that it's better to have a continuum versus so it's good to have a K-12 all together versus maybe having two different high schools, and if the models are very different, that can be a challenge as well.

But it really comes down to and we um I'm I'm really grateful for our partnership because they're making sure that the tools, two school leaders are coming together to meet regularly to make sure they're on the same page.

Because if um, you know, if you have a fire drill, they all need to happen at some of those things need to happen at the same time.

You need to have shared safety plans.

You need to make sure a lot of things are um really collaborative from the beginning, and so that's why we're grateful for good partnerships both at because we co-locate both at Paramount and at Broad Riverville Middle School, and so there are definitely to me the benefits outweigh some of the challenges.

Thank you.

Next question.

When I guess maybe walk school building or good loans, uh well.

Um say all about separating people.

Uh we had an adult high school, we had a high school, we had the old manual high school continuing to exist.

We had uh kindergarten uh through uh eighth grade, all of these people uh in a in a child care center, all of these people who couldn't you know interact with each other legally um and and from a safety perspective, and it is uh it can be a challenge that may be an extreme example, but um yeah, those challenges are real.

I thank you both for your presentations, those were great.

I just want to ask you, Dr.

Warren, specifically about the Mallory campus, uh, which may be uh uh because it might be an example of the compromises that are required uh under the circumstances that uh many charter schools find themselves in.

I remember that how how ballyhood it was when that uh building was um restored, uh rehabilitated, and and and Purdue Polytechnic High School moved into that building, and it just seemed like after your years of being vagabonds that it was uh that it was nirvana to move into that building.

I did not know till tonight how much you don't have there.

Uh no parking for faculty on site, very limited visitor parking, no athletic facilities and on and on, those things that you mentioned.

So, why did you do it?

Why did you go into that building with all of those weaknesses?

Is it because uh there was so much it was such a big partnership of different people pouring money into it that made it affordable, or what why'd you choose to go there?

So um the most important things about choosing our locations is we want to be where families and communities have invited us to come and where they are looking for a strong school.

I deeply believe that schools exist to be a pillar in the community, and we came to do that, and we have done just that, and that's evidenced by our continued growing enrollment.

And so that was really the reason that we chose that location.

Um there's opportunity to expand on the lot and possibly add some um athletics with facilities and various things, so there's a lot of opportunity there, but we always come to locations because of um it's where the community is and where there's a desire and a uh a uh need for schools that is uh backed by data.

So that is the main reason.

Uh thank you both for the presentations tonight.

Uh appreciate you guys coming out and sharing that with us.

Uh I I want to return to the transportation conversation for a second.

Uh I I will readily admit I have not studied the state's transportation laws at length, so I I'm a little um oblivious to the intricacies of it, but I'm wondering as you've started to have some of these conversations, are there some state policies that could be addressed uh that could help improve transportation access?

And maybe it's too early in the process to identify some of those, but just wondering if you have.

Yeah, I um without going down too much of a uh a rabbit hole with it.

I I've been learning more and more about the the state policy framework with it, and there's the state policy framework and then federal law that layers on top of it.

Federal law often supersedes the state law.

So there are folks at the state level that believe that they could waive requirements for multimodal uh transportation options, smaller 12-again, 12-15 passenger bands, um, you know, potentially alleviate and create more flexibility with licensing requirements that put downward pressure on staffing.

Um it's a complicated puzzle with the federal law on top of it, and so that's part of the conversation that I think we need to have with policymakers at the State House, with maybe representatives of Congress, frankly, um, to learn more about how federal and state law work together to create again what what can be a really supported and flexible um environment uh to create I think better and more innovative options.

So I think that there's there's a lot there um and I hope we can keep that conversation going and pursue it more.

Thanks question.

Again, thank you both so much.

Um right along with I guess is really a fantastic way to learn so much more about all these transportation pieces.

One of the things that I really learned from it is um you know the intricacy of all these pieces, particularly when it comes to multimoral and the regulations that exist for a reason.

So when we waive them, right, they're safety involved, but then uh trying to rely on different pieces.

So one of the pieces that I was really pinging in my head when you were talking about the transportation pilot, I'm just curious about um could apply to facilities as well.

So, particularly when we're working with outside community organizations, um, I know that as much as we are all in budget crunches as well.

The federal grant impacts have had major impacts on our local community centers and community partners as well.

And so I guess my question is how you know how concerned are we for the future of those partnerships if funding at the federal level in particular has really become a problem.

So I really wish I've brought it right here because we had had intense conversations about his own, you know, and the Martin Christian Center and their financial challenges uh coming out of these reduced grants.

And so I'm just curious, you know, what what is the thinking around that?

And is that something we're concerned about long term?

Yeah.

Yeah, to your to your point, you know, it brought us great has great perspective on this.

I've had the privilege to serve on the and Martin Board for the past decade, and I can say, like, as a board, we're thinking a lot about this.

And so I think you're naming the issue for sure in terms of the concern.

Um, I think this is a good example of the types of things that everybody in this room is concerned about and should be you know should continue to be concerned about and be paying attention to.

Um, I certainly don't have um you know a good answer to it.

I would, you know, um I'm sure somebody in this room uh has it.

Uh but I I hope we can continue that conversation because it you're you're exactly right, is any of the the sources, whether it's and a lot of times it's a mix of state local sources, federal sources, philanthropic sources, and if we end up losing some of those federal sources because of the environment, um, you know, we're gonna have to make it up somehow or get more creative and innovative to set that to delete costing.

So I think you're exactly right, and I think it it's another reason why we just have to be as clouded as possible.

Any other questions from the alliance?

Okay, I'm gonna uh very proud to introduce someone who needs no introduction, Superintendent Alicia Johnson, so uh that she can uh introduce the presenters for the district.

Thank you, Mayor.

I thought you were talking about Andrew Strope over there.

He also needs no introduction.

Um Andrew Stripp serves as the deputy superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools.

He's been with us the last couple of meetings presenting on our behalf.

We'll turn it to him.

Thank you, Mayor Hog said, thank you, Dr.

Johnson and Alliance members.

It's an honor to see you again for the third meeting here.

Um also appreciate the opportunity to present alongside Dr.

Warren, Andy, who uh we work with very often, great relationships with those two.

So I think you're gonna see a theme of collaboration, I think, across uh the presentations here.

Also uh appreciative to Eddie and the Adelante team.

I think you're sitting in a building.

This is representation of a lot of that great collaboration.

Uh, and so very thankful uh for him and his team for allowing us to be here tonight.

So I'm gonna um I was joking with the team yesterday when I first started at IPS.

I had an eight-slide minimum or maximum, I'm I should say.

I'm gonna go over a little bit over that here.

Uh facilities is we could talk for five hours tonight and still not hit all of the intricacies of facilities.

So I'm gonna try to keep it 30,000 foot, of course, we'll answer questions.

I've also got Zach Molholland, our executive director of operations with us.

Uh Zach is an IPS grad, also spent time as a board administrator for IPS for many years, and now is on the facility side and operations, so it brings a wealth of knowledge and perspective.

Uh and so I'll tag him in quite a bit, uh, probably to answer some questions.

So I'll hit current landscape, some partnerships.

Um, one of the themes you'll probably get in presentations that we make is just a lot on the history.

Um, Eddie, I was I was happy to see he started off with that conversation.

The history of where we are standing right now is so important to continue to discuss.

And then I'll I'll just raise a couple questions that that we at IPS are thinking a lot about when it comes to uh facilities.

So our current facility landscape, we've got about 98 total public school buildings and IP in the boundaries.

65 of them are IPS owned facilities, so that's direct manage, innovation, or alternate use.

33 charter facilities, those are innovation independent.

You heard Andy talk about some of those.

And then 67% of our public school students attend a school in an IPS owned building.

I'll show a graph here in a minute that will dive deep there.

Andy had that same number on his presentation, which makes me happy because sometimes it is tough to get uh information across the board.

That is one of the challenges we have.

Um, but that's just a kind of a broad overview of where we are.

This is really hard to see, so I don't expect you're gonna be able to see it, and particularly if we're sitting in the audience, but if you zoom out and look at the boundary, uh these are all of the facilities, the district and charter, the little dots and colors represent what grade band they serve.

So again, this just gives you a visual of what the IPS boundary uh looks like.

And again, pretty tough to see, but um also believe we need to have this conversation in the context of enrollment.

So our current enrollment landscape you can see in the blue there at the top line is IPS uh direct managed.

So we'll talk or I'll talk a little bit more about kind of the history over time there, but just gives this gives you just a little bit of an overview.

Then you've got uh charter, and then you have IPS innovation in LEA.

So you can kind of see things have been leveling out a little bit over the past couple of years.

Uh it's stabilizing in some respects, or seeing you know, some some changes in between the IPS families of schools.

When we say family of schools, we're talking district managed and innovation.

What this slide shows is kind of again zooming out even a little bit further than that.

Since the school year 2021, the number of IPS boundary resident students attending public schools within the boundary has increased one percent.

And so this kind of layers on top private schools, and so you can see on the far right hand bar there, uh, the dark blue is IPS direct managed, the orange uh is our IPS innovation charter.

An example of that is Adelante.

Uh, and so you can kind of see that has stabilized uh a little bit over time there.

And then to just show this a different way in a circle graph, I believe we may have showed this the first meeting.

This is the distribution of resident students, again, about 51,000.

So in the blue, um, that's IPS traditional, it's about 19,000.

Then you've got IPS innovation in LEA, Cold Spring is an example of that, or Edison.

And then you've got the green, the IPS innovation non out non-LEA, Adelante is an example of that.

That's what we call our IPS family of schools.

And then that gray bar that's kind of a crescent kind of in the middle, the 28,000, that's how many students are in IPS buildings.

And so, again, Adelante is an example of that.

So, this is as Eddie mentioned, uh, this is an IPS owned facility that that we contract and partner with Adelante and collaborate uh to serve students here and um you know, around Adelante neighborhood.

So, this is again, it gives you kind of an overview of what is the landscape we're operating in.

So, I'm just gonna hit two slides on how facility funding works.

I've got again some extra help here.

We've got Eric Long, who is our bond counsel with Ice Miller.

When you talk about facility ownership, you also have to kind of talk about bondholders.

That is an incredibly important part of the conversation.

We could probably spend three hours alone on that, if not more.

So, again, if there are questions on that, we're happy to answer them.

I kept it pretty high level here just for the sake of time.

But from a facility funding perspective, um, kind of on the district managed side, if you have up annual operating expenses, those are the day-to-day upkeep.

That is paid from your operations fund.

So that is part of the annual school budget or school district budget.

That covers things like utilities, routine maintenance, custodial, minor repairs.

So that's approved annually through a process.

Every school corporation in Indiana has to do that.

There's no separate voter uh approval required there.

The revenue source is property tax levy.

You heard Andy talk about kind of how that's shifting over time with SEA one and um and uh uh or Senate Bill 1 essentially at the state house this past legis legislative session.

So that's the property tax uh landscape is shifting over the next four to five years here, and so that will have a direct impact on our operations fund, uh, and that's what we use for these these kind of day-to-day operating expensive expenses.

We're talking major capital improvements.

That's kind of the other the other bucket here.

That's replacement, big renovations, new buildings.

This is funded through capital projects with bonds and debt.

So that largely does require approval.

The most well-known version of that is a capital referendum, which IPS has passed a few of those most recently in 2023 for about 410 million dollars.

So you can see there at the bottom some pictures, uh, that's how middle school, they're the Hornets, so that is a uh is a field uh that was just finished, how middle school students also uh partner with Purdue Inglewood to try to make best use of that space, but those uh big improvements, those are done through bonds, and in that case a capital referendum.

From a collaboration perspective, again, just talking a little bit about partnerships.

You've heard a lot about that.

There's a couple different ways we leverage partnerships at IPS.

Um is really kind of rental and community-based partnerships.

So since you can see the stat there since June of 2024, we have about 250 short or medium-term uses of IPS facilities.

So that includes innovation.

I'll talk about them on the next slide or the next two slides.

Um, and so what this is, and and again, Zach can definitely answer more questions about this as he helps run this process.

You know, but we have community partners reach out all the time, wanting you know, access to space, how can we work together to leverage space, whether that's short term for an event or whether it's medium term?

You can see a couple pictures here.

Um, you know, at Broad Ripple, there's an Excel Center, a Paul Miller that we partner with the Excel Center to support uh adult learning, how middle school, I just spoke about them.

They have an early learning center there where if you haven't been over there, it's a beautiful space.

Early learning Indiana, we were able to partner with them, and that opened last year, which we're very excited about, and we know is uh is a community need.

So again, there are a number of different ways that we leverage our community partners to make best use of facilities.

This is one of them.

And then another one uh is our innovation network schools, and so the network school model started in 2014.

So the Indiana uh assembly passed uh innovation network school law, which really kind of opened the door for district and charters to cooperate and collaborate, in particular on things like facilities, which you heard Andy talk about is often a barrier to growth, and so there are many different versions of versions of innovation network agreements.

Uh it has gotten pretty complicated over time.

We're now at about 30 innovation schools, so that's grown quite a bit over the past 10 plus years now.

Uh, but I'd say kind of most fundamentally, um, if you're gonna use Adelante just to use the space we're in as an example, we're able to able to partner together and leverage facilities, leverage transportation, and work together to support you know, students in uh you know, in this community in this neighborhood, and you know, in a school like Adelante has done great things uh on that front.

Again, innovation looks many different ways, uh, but but I think one of the founding kind of guiding principles of innovation and the innovation law was was really how can we work together on some of these really big items like facilities and transportation, and and I think obviously we've been open to do that at IPS.

So a little bit more about the innovation network.

We've got 13 innovation schools that are in IPS owned buildings.

We have two innovation schools that are co-located.

Uh so it's a good question about co-location.

I agree with what Dr.

Warren articulated in terms of some of the strengths and challenges there.

Um we also co-late co-locate with Monarca Academy at Northwest Middle School, and so that takes a tremendous amount of collaboration and coordination between the school leaders at uh whether it's Broad Ripple and Purdue or Monarca in Northwest, and so they they work through the challenges.

Uh we've got about 33 million dollars in in-kind services to innovation schools, that was as of 23-24.

So things like repair and maintenance, as that comes up.

Our team is happy to support that.

And so that's those are kind of that gets a little accounting kind of terminology there, but you know, there is there's in-kind services that that of course were you know, we bear as is as IPS, and and again, happy to do that since it is support of our family.

Um, when I talk about capital improvements, rebuilding stronger, I've got another slide on that, but again, that was really the big push in 2023 in the capital referendum.

About 118 million dollars of those capital improvements are in innovation operated facilities.

So, out of those 13, there are a number of them that are getting improvements uh that our voters approved.

So, an example again, Adelante, just right here, and again, this is ongoing, but you can kind of see some of those things that an old building like this takes deferred maintenance, it takes upkeep.

So, roof, gym ceilings, elevators, increased security, voIP, those are all kind of the things that that are able to and ensure that we can support students and staff on a daily basis.

Uh, so that that uh was included in the capital referendum.

So, now to turn, we've got a few slides on kind of the historical landscape.

And if you were with us in the first meeting, I believe we also hit this slide.

If you have seen Dr.

Johnson present or I often present in our community conversations that we do, we we try to ground ourselves in this slide.

Again, it is very hard to see, but on the y-axis there, going up and down, that is uh enrollment number of students on the x-axis of the years, and so you can see that line graph kind of going down over time and then stabilizing, which we've been pretty stable over the past five years.

And the kind of real big thing to note here is IPS, at least from you know what my research has found, uh, our peak enrollment was about 109,000 students in 1968-69, and had about 120-ish buildings to support those number of students.

In the 1970s, we've talked about this before.

You had um you had desegregation order uh that was happening across the United States, right?

I mean, you name it in a city, and they were going through essentially Brown versus Board of Education and kind of working through what that meant to their community, and so what that meant here uh was bussing in particular of black students one way uh out to townships.

You also had in 1971, I believe, Unigov, um, which kind of uh remade the landscape uh for the city of Indianapolis, didn't touch uh school corporations.

That's why you've got 11 in the boundary.

And so I know there are a lot of people in this room that you know have lived through a lot of that, and so know that history very well.

Um but you know, again, you can see kind of what that has done to enrollment over time.

This is a very hard slide to see.

When our team was going through this, we were kind of debating what is the best way to show and really elevate some of this history over time and how the community, how IPS uh you know, has um navigated this over the years, and I think we just kind of landed with you know what, we just need to show in one slide, because that also hits in terms of just how much change and really ultimately instability there has been really since 1919.

And so that's that's where we're starting here on the far left.

I'm just gonna highlight a couple things here.

I know it's really difficult to see, but you know, on the last slide I mentioned kind of federal desegregation, and that really started one-way busing again of black students out.

That started in 1970, so you started to see some enrollment declines.

Um, you know, and and Dr.

Johnson and I have often talked about this.

She has gone through a lot of deep dives of her own research about this, so she can, I'm sure, plug in here.

But that that's when essentially some consolidation started.

And so what we really want you to take away from this, and I and I hope the alliance, I think we think about this every day at IPS.

You know, is the operations and use of IPS facilities has been a direct result of these legal and policy conditions, and so as we look ahead to the future and what kind of solutions there may be, uh, I think it is it is really difficult to do that without first looking back, right?

Um, and so 1970 is when that that busting started.

You started to have that enrollment decline.

We had I think one facility consolidate then.

You fast forward to the 1980s, you lose about 50,000 students, and again, our records indicate you've closed another 15 schools.

That happened again throughout the 1990s, so you're getting to see obviously kind of a trend here, and that's this constant destabilization destabilization.

Then you hit the 2000s again.

I know it's really hard to see, but that's when uh enrollment actually stabilized just a little bit, and there was a comprehensive facilities assessment done at that time.

Um, and I've often heard uh kind of represented that was I think in 2008 was when referendums essentially started in this state, uh, and I've heard people that were around then talk about IPS ran a referendum in 2008, and it was the air conditioning referendum, because a lot of people may know that in here.

So a lot of our schools didn't, or most I think didn't have air conditioning, right?

And we think about how hot it's been the last two weeks here in the state of Indiana here in Indianapolis.

Um, and so I think there was a big investment made in 2008 in a lot of our buildings.

Then in 2000 in the 2010s, uh, you see kind of the innovation law passed.

I think you start to see some of this collaboration, how can we best utilize our facilities and our resources?

Um we also went through in 2018 under Dr.

Farabee uh at the time who was superintendent, a high school transformation, closed one high school, kind of reorganized a few high school buildings, and then in the 2020s, obviously uh you know, national pandemic hits, right?

And so that I think has kind of stopped a lot of us in our tracks and really made us think about what we want to be true for students, how we can best utilize space to support students, and that's across the board.

And um, and then over the last couple years we've launched rebuilding stronger, which I'll talk about on the next slide.

But essentially the essence of rebuilding stronger was to try to take a look at yes, how can we maximize facility space, but also how can we determine like how can we ask ourselves the questions of what what do we want to be true for all students?

Um, and so as we kind of zoom back out now to where we are today, um we got you see a rebuilding stronger, and and some of you may have heard of that, some not.

But there are a couple of of really really I think key elements of rebuilding stronger that are important to name as we're now in our second full year of implementation.

So rebuilding stronger, like I said, we really kind of grounded ourselves in what can be true for all students.

We had a lot of community conversations about that, held over 70 public meetings.

Um, and and what kind of came to light is yeah, we there's a lot that we we need to offer students, and our community believes we need to offer them, and in particular from an IPS perspective, those offerings were not consistent across the board.

A lot of it depended on where you lived, what kind of school you went to.

And so I think we did our best to try to start to address that, and a big part of that was you got to get to scale.

And we did a lot of research on this.

When I talk about scale, again, we could go way deep, you know, on on kind of utilization and different things like that.

But we worked with a national consult consulting firm to really look at how do you kind of balance this idea of kind of being small enough that the culture can feel really positive and people aren't overwhelmed, but being large enough that you can actually try to maximize your financial resources.

And so we did take seven schools offline two years ago.

But I think ultimately we were trying to look ahead to try to see how do we maximize scale to offer as many robust opportunities, uh, opportunities and experiences we as we could can for kids.

So we're two years in, and you can see some of the data here.

IBN STEM program enrollments have more than doubled.

Our instrumental music enrollment has increased more than 50%, and we've been able to see kind of enrollment in buildings that are good in good or better condition has increased by 15%.

A lot of that's due to that capital referendum that our voters approved in 2023.

You know, so again, for us it was important to try to start to get some to some scale so that you're able to offer more of those things like music in band and algebra one, because that's what our community was asking for.

Um and so this a little bit of where we are now, and I'll just kind of leave with with some questions really.

Uh and I think some of this were may align to what my two previous colleagues shared.

You know, I think one of the challenges you know that we face, I think collectively is this idea of uh building capacity.

Uh, and so there's really no common definition for that.

And so if you were to ask us, hey, what is the building capacity across the IPS boundary?

I think I think you might get like four or five different answers.

I think if you ask that question, you know, to another city, I think they may give you four or five different answers, right?

And so when you're looking at whether it's IPS or even more global across the IPS boundary, that that is something that we have found very challenging uh to address.

Um and then just some some kind of key questions again as we think about our history.

You know, we think about this a lot.

How many students are there in our boundary, current and future?

How many buildings and facilities should support those students, and how do we best utilize finite resources to support those facilities, both in the short and long term?

But probably the most important question there is what is our community desire to be true for our children and their educational experience.

I think without answering that question, it is really challenging to answer the the three that go before that because everything has a trade-off.

Um and so I think that is is I think what the this body is left with kind of discussing.

So really appreciate your leadership.

Uh I think as you can see, there's been a lot of work done over many years to try to address some of these things, uh, but there is no short of complexity here.

So thank you.

Thank you, Andrew.

Um I'd now like to open it up.

Uh Andrew, you might want to stay up there.

Um because I'm gonna open it up for alliance questions for IPS's presentation.

Questions is it on?

Yeah, there we go.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, and thank you so much for your presentation.

So, my question is regarding uh the utilization rate on page 46 and page 47.

Uh you stated that the number of districts building are operating at nope, that's not it.

The district uh utilization rate has increased by 3%.

So, how many of the buildings are actually at uh 50% at that 50% capacity?

Because if I understand right, and I'm not an attorney, nor do I play like an attorney.

If I remember the dollar law, like the buildings have to be at like a 50% uh capacity cut.

So can you explain that?

And also I used building capacity and the utilization rate interchangeably.

That is a great question.

Not using building capacity and utilization rate interchangeably, utilization rate, and again, there are different ways to calculate this, right?

No, it's a great question.

Often um utilization rate, I think, in its simplest form is your enrollment as a numerator, denominator is building capacity.

I think that denominator is the challenge, right?

To calculate kind of across the board.

And so what we often look at, I don't have the number off the top of my head in terms of how many buildings are above or below 50% capacity.

But I think one of the things that that we would want to highlight is a really big part of that conversation is what kind of kind of program you're trying to run.

So one way to calculate building capacity, for example, is you can just look at square footage.

Um that often doesn't take into account if you're a STEM school and you want to leverage a science lab.

That science lab may not have kids in it all the time but you may really utilize that from a program perspective.

And so your building capacity might actually or utilization rate might be lower but you might suggest that that program from a STEM perspective like really needs to be there and needs to use that that science lab.

And so I think utilization rate you know is one way to look at things building capacity is the denominator of that calculation which is again why it's really hard cross sector to identify utilization rate.

So should we should this uh task force do a deep dive and understanding utilization rates because again understanding the dollar law and we're tasked with looking at facilities should we all be operating from the same understanding and again if the dollar law is actually something that we all need to abide by like how do we how do we level set around the definition and how do we move forward ensuring that the charters if necessary have access to uh those spaces for a dollar Dr.

Johnson raising our hands I think it's a great question.

I I could think a couple of things one and it's no secret IPS is very much opposed to the dollar law.

So I would hope perhaps one recommendation that comes from this group is we say that should go away secondly though I think okay glad we're support for that um secondly I think is in terms of the utilization right now in law that actually only applies to traditional public schools so the question I think we should wrestle with is should that apply across sector we are sitting in a building right now that has trip has large capacity probably if you looked at the building capacity this school at one time held I think Eddie said like maybe over a thousand certainly several hundred I'm not gonna speak on behalf of Adelante.

However their program capacity is not that so should they be faulted for that this is an excellent school serving kids very well so which one is it is it that we want schools to have the ability to say this is my program model these are the number of students I want to serve sort of regardless of what my building can hold because that's a a point of view we could have we could also say there are finite resources and we want to maximize all of the spaces available to us and so if you are a small school sorry you can't be a small school in a particular space because that's not maximizing the space so I think what we're gonna be tasked with deciding is is it that we want to and again this goes back to policy conditions and the legal conditions that have led us to the place we are in today is it that we want to have a perspective that says let's maximize our resources and everyone's gonna have to give something up to do that is it that we want to say actually we really value autonomy and flexibility that's what we've built over the last 20 years and so if a charter school can make their budget work and whatever facility then they should do that and we value that or is it that we want to say what we desire for our children is a particular experience.

So Purdue Polytechnic made a choice to be in a building because they have the flexibility to do that.

A trade-off was not having athletics do we believe that that's something actually that all students should have and so we want to have a standard experience that all students have or is it something else and so in the first meeting when I said we have to be clear on what is it that we desire to be true that will drive how we come up with our solutions if we're saying we just want to meet the letter of the law that's one thing and I actually don't think then we'll be leveraging this opportunity as much as we could because I think we should be pushing on that to say what is best going to serve our children and then advocate for that thing I I think was very well said by the by the superintendent I I I do think that's exactly what we're gonna have to struggle with and in and as we do we're gonna have to keep in mind that in the past it's really always been about how do we in some sense how do we decide and now the pie is going to start getting smaller pie is getting smaller it it changes the equation entirely and you have to I think look very differently we have we are going to have to place efficiency efficiency place efficiency yeah place efficiency uh pretty high on the priority list uh given the environment that every public school in Marion County is going to be facing um Andrew thank you for your presentation I um you know one of the things uh questions has been in the air for years and and and I'm sure will be a subject of discussion uh among the members of the ILEA as we go forward is the overall size of the IPS budget budget and the and the hello

Andrew, thank you for your presentation.

I um you know, one of the things uh questions that's been in the air for years and and and I'm sure will be a subject of discussion uh among the members of the ILEA as we go forward is the overall size of the IPS budget.

And the and the hello and the uh I'm just gonna talk to you all.

Um and the central office budget uh given is it right size given the decline in the the number of students attending the traditional IPS direct run schools?

That's an issue that's been in the air for a long time, and I hope we'll all have a chance to get better educated about that issue.

But in fairness, one of the things I think it's important to point out is that the IPS budget includes the support for innovation schools.

You mentioned 39 million dollars of theme kind services are provided to uh innovation schools, and also I think it's important to note that you know, whatever the the scope of the IPS central office is, there is some management responsibility required in order to run this innovative program of innovation schools that we have, uh and that I think we're very fortunate to have.

So I would just urge you as as we move forward and as we start to get into understanding sort of the total amount of dollars in the system and where they go to uh help draw out what what is the cost in real dollars to IPS in its support of the innovation schools?

Uh because now that now that charter schools are gonna have more money with with property taxes, I think that's an important thing to take into account questions.

Go ahead and do this thing.

Well, uh honestly, I don't need it.

I'm quite loud, so you can still pass it to Toby.

I um thank you, Mayor, for your comments.

I'm thinking, so just say the mindset really is how do we educate each student?

And I don't know, maybe I've slept since then, but for me, the critical question that for me is what is the actual P12 student population, birth rate, current population, birth rate, right?

What does it actually cost for get model?

I don't care if it's parochial charter, innovation, what have what does it cost to educate a current student and that P12 pipeline?

Because then that's how you look at what the mayor is saying, which is my question.

Uh however we're doing it, at the end when we're looking at facilities, what does it really cost to manage the number of buildings we need, the space, the utilization to actually educate each child appropriately and adequately?

And then um, do we still need all of the buildings at all?

And then do we still need more in new schools at all?

Earlier, Dr.

Warren had talked about, or maybe you're saying I've forgotten which one, but anyway, speaking about we look at the data to determine where we're locating.

But then when you look back historically, is that current building, why did IPS close it?

Is the that does the data really support that?

So maybe we don't need as many school buildings no matter what, Catholic parochial innovation, charter, IPS.

So those are questions I have, because I feel like we have to get down to the true dollar value, and we also have to look at the actual people looking back on the scale of enrollment.

So I don't know if that's really a question or just like thoughts I want us to all consider as we're looking at maximizing efficiencies.

Okay.

See, I'm glad we'll go.

I'm writing this down on my mind.

I forgot my pen.

I saw Dr.

Johnson writing.

So we will I think these these are important questions to continue to dive into.

I think this was a start, but very aligned, I think what what we have up here.

Yeah, so happy to definitely run those things down.

Question, which is turn on think of that.

Which is just give us a uh take a step back and so how much what's not only from there.

Uh so what's the how much does so we have property tax fund for facilities?

We have a property tax fund for transportation.

I think there's one.

I don't know, maybe I smell it enough, you know.

But so there's also a capital fund, right?

So there are three property tax funds, is that correct?

They all come together in the fund in the in the left, correct?

Yeah, Eric, do you want to that is correct?

Okay, and so my question is just kind of the simplest terms.

How much do we do we receive?

How much does IPS receive each year from each one of those three funds?

And how much do we spend on facilities?

How much do we spend on transportation?

And I understand capital is we could probably spend you know infinite amount of money.

But I'm really focused on facilities and transportation, just gives a correlation.

If somebody told me that we spend that we maybe in transportation phrase 30 million dollars a year, and we spend 40.

Yeah, right.

And so what I'm trying to get some sense of, especially on the facility side, how much can we receive in property taxes for facilities and how much do we spend?

How much we receive.

Yeah.

Weston, do you want to respond to that?

Yeah, so we can from a what you're asking, right?

What revenue do we get in?

What our expenditures related to transportation facilities, right?

As a proportion, I don't know off the top of my head, I can definitely get those numbers for you.

But 150 annually, but that's for facilities.

Yeah, I hear you asking kind of about you know transportation as well.

You said that's how much we spend, but that was in the slide.

My question is do we how much do we get the Western Young CFO IPS debt is uh is buildings, operations, yeah, is property tax that supports not just facilities but also funds transportation and admin costs.

So when it looks at transportation, we see we receive about 100 million dollars that is split between facilities operating funds, operating revenue uh operating expenses, so the the repairs and maintenance, the utilities, custodial stuff, about 50 million goes to transportation, and about 25 million goes to admin.

So we have a hundred million total that goes into operations fund a hundred and thirty million is spent out of that operations fund for facilities, transportation, and admin.

Okay, another property tax fund is the operating referendum fund that is receiving about 45 million dollars, and that's primarily been devoted to compensation for teachers and school staff.

How much did you just say for teachers and compensation?

25 million dollars annually in this last budget debt is everything above that, so uh it's it's around a hundred million dollars that we're getting in proceeds, property taxes to pay debt payments that we've committed to for the capital improvements at all of the IPS buildings.

So in total, property tax is coming into IPS in 2425 is around 250 million dollars.

And so the total amount of the bonds outstanding are roughly a billion, I'm guessing, if it's you said how it's outstanding debt is around 500 to 600 million dollars at this time, which on an annual basis we're paying about a hundred million dollars on debt service payments soon is in the in the simplest terms.

What I'm really trying trying to understand is because it all goes into the operating funds, but in terms of we spent 150 million dollars a year in just facilities.

Your point is that that's larger than just the operations that includes it's debt service and operations fund it and and so if there was if there was a shortfall, let's say that would require a referendum side, or would it be one of the facilities?

Well, I guess operations would include facilities, but it approved be on the capital side as opposed to the operations side.

It depends on what we're funding.

That was funded through a capital referendum through the vote.

Correct.

We get the approval to issue debt, we issue debt.

It's subject to the capital referendum plan.

When it comes to uh what we are doing from an operations fund standpoint or operating standpoint, that is an annual expense and an annual revenue that we receive, and that's uh you know, till utilities represent a maintenance custodial uh items that are needed on an annual basis.

And I know this just speaks for itself, but that includes especially all the innovation network schools, correct, in terms of those improvements, right?

Yes.

Yes, any there's a in the circle graph uh this graph here.

We've tried to capture 51,000 total students in the IPS boundary that are resident students.

This gray crescent in the middle, we're trying to say there are 28,000 students that are getting the benefit of property taxes every day because they're in an IPS owned building and or receiving transportation services.

So that's what's what we're showing is that that crescent crosses IPS traditional district managed, it crosses IPS innovation in LEA, and also includes a number of our charter partners that have contracts with us receiving in-kind services.

Uh you know, part of it goes into that green section, and so 28,000 students are being supported by all of the property taxes of IPS right now.

What we're looking at into the future is supporting that same amount of revenue coming in with 40,000 students.

So the pie is going to get smaller, or it's going to grow less, however, you want to look at it.

Regardless, this body has a pie that's not going to be much larger, and it's trying to serve not just the 28,000 across different sectors, but however many kids in whatever color of the graph is going to receive that property tax.

But somebody's who's receiving that property tax now is potentially going to have some services shifted.

Correct.

And so shifting yours just slightly, and you probably don't you probably don't keep track of this, but I'm just curious in terms of the number of employees that by IPS, that really their job function relates to supporting facilities as opposed to classroom.

Do you have any kind of data like that?

We do.

We have a lot of data.

We have our annual comprehensive financial report that has that data in the statistics session.

We can get you more details on that.

I think what you realize is that there's FTE, so in my time at IPS, there's been a lot of focus on FTE, the people that are employed by IPS.

The reality is we're focused on spend, and sometimes when we spend, there's a contractor element of it, which is pretty much FTE as well.

Sure.

And so if you look at the specificity, the unique need, a lot of times it's an FTE here, sometimes it's a contractor there.

We can give you the FTE data.

It's what you're gonna make of it and arrive at.

Because at some point, we're looking at spend.

Because you your point is it just shifts it from character one to character three, right?

You're spending, let's say, 100 million dollars, but 50 million dollars may be spent on contractors, which are most likely people, but we're focused in on the 50 million dollars that we're focused in on, like that's an employee, which you know, IPS is one of the top 20 employees, employers in the in the state in the city, you know, 3,500 employees.

But at some point we're contracting out a lot of our our work too.

And your point is we should be looking at total spend.

Okay, yeah.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Any other questions from the alliance to IPS.

Thank you for your presentation.

Um I'd like to now open the floor for public comment.

Um just as a reminder, I think it would uh really uh help the members of the alliance uh for public comments to attempt to focus on school facilities.

So uh having said that I'll turn it over to Shaena Carasos to facilitate the public comment, period.

Shana okay.

All right.

So tonight, um, everyone who'll be giving public comment.

You will give it here, please, um, so we can make sure you're heard.

Uh as in prior meetings, we are following the public comment procedure that is shared on our website based on the 38 people signed up to speak this evening.

Each speaker will have one minute to speak when your name is called and the timer begins, which will be right here that you can look at from Holly.

Um please proceed until the timer sounds or it'll will it sound?

It should.

It should sound.

Um we will signal you.

Please be respectful of the time limit and finish comments promptly at time to allow as many people as possible to speak.

Please keep your comments centered on the work before the ILEA, which tonight is school facilities, and note that the alliance members will not answer questions or otherwise respond to comments.

Comments should address the alliance as a whole, not individual members or staff.

Disruptive or offensive comments or similar behavior may result in a five-minute recess, and if it continues adjournment of the meeting, though we don't expect that will happen.

Comments submitted tonight, I'm sorry, comments submitted online prior to tonight's meeting and emails directed to the alliance were shared with alliance members and will be posted online in the days to come.

Um if you have a longer comment than your minute allows you tonight, you may also send those to ILEA at Indie.gov, and we will make sure that Alliance remember alliance members receive those in their entirety.

We thank everyone so far who has shared their thoughts with us.

Um I'm gonna is this middle mic here not so much working?

Is it working a little bit?

Okay.

All right, I'm going to take the mic from the front and I will give it back when I'm finished, um, and I'll be starting calling names in just one second.

It works.

All right, we will begin hearing from Jordan Habib and then next uh after Jordan, Brianna Dynes.

Hi there.

My name is Jordan Habaev.

I'm the chief operating officer here at Adelante Schools.

Welcome.

Um two things that I would really love this committee to know.

The first is that Indianapolis Public Schools is incredibly good at facilities.

We saw those numbers up there, and they're taking buildings from not great condition to at least good condition, and their partnership in that and in transportation and in IT is unmatched.

We pay services, we pay for services for IT, we pay for our custodians out of the funds that are supposed to be going to classrooms.

We do that because their ability to provide a high quality service at cost is amazing, and I hope that that is something that folks look to expand or replicate.

The second piece actually goes to what Dr.

Johnson said when it comes to building capacity.

Over 50 years, the max average in this building has been 600 students.

If we were to do the 100 plus, we would start lunch at 8 a.m.

Go till the end of the day.

Student experience matters.

Um Brianna, followed by Jishnu Guha Maj Majumdar.

Hello, good evening.

Um I'm Bree Dynes, uh graduate of public schools all throughout here in Indianapolis.

Um your house for nothing, you'll save on maintenance, you'd laugh.

But that's the logic used by the one dollar law to justify giving away public buildings to private entities by the same politicians and industry players that have directly caused IPS and its students resource harm through competition and defunding instead of fighting for real support for all kids.

That's not collaboration or partnership in the big picture.

It's taking public goods supported by generations of families and turning them into private real estate deals.

One charter group is already preparing to use IPS tax dollars to expand to other districts.

I would hope not to choose to expand an unsuitable or unstable uh facilities and then claim need.

Um that's not about serving kids well.

It's expansion and competition for its own sake.

Didn't feel like 60 seconds, but okay.

Micro-argument is really simple.

Education is a public good as part of a healthy democratic society.

It depends on a robust public life structured by public accountability and transparency.

Number two, all of the rhetoric about school choice and efficiency obscures this fundamental fact.

The charter schools delink education from public accountability.

There's been much discussion about the nuts and bolts of funding of facility needs, but I don't want this fundamental idea to be lost that schools ought to be accountable to uh uh publicly elected school boards.

This applies to the narrower question of school facilities.

I agree there should be more funding for schools, but these should be publicly accountable ones, and in a world where we have finite budgets, that should be the filtering principle by which we decide how schools are funded.

Next is Anne Wynne, followed by Mary Yerling.

Okay, we will hear from Mary Yerling, followed by Christina Smith.

I'm on one's husband.

Can I speak on her behalf?

She is ill and not able to be here.

Go ahead.

Here we go.

So this is on behalf of On Wynn.

Um we are parents of uh IPS students at World Seidner Academy.

Um we want to urge the IOEA to be transparent and immediately release all data on enrollment, school performance, and facilities so that the public may also be informed, not just the ILEA board.

We also on facilities call for the repeal of the unfair one dollar law so that IPS can sell or lease properties at fair market value.

That has hurt the resources of IPS continuously since its uh inception, and we need that to end so that we can actually benefit off of the taxpayer uh decisions that allowed for those facilities to exist.

And third, we need to be clear this conversation about building ownership should be discussed primarily at the IPS school board with commit their input from community members.

This is not something that should be decided by undemocratically elected boards or appointed uh positions to further uh enrich businesses and a lot of our politicians' uh friends up here.

Thank you very much, Mary Yerling and then Christina Smith.

My name's Christina Smith.

Um, I do have two children that went to IPS and then Heron High School who refused yellow bus service from IPS so that their students could have that.

Um two key components of the racist national racist Christian Nationalist Plan Project 2025 are the transfer of publicly owned buildings and land like school facilities and the privatization of public services, like contracting out the education of our children to a privately owned company.

This appointed board was set up to do both.

Unfortunately, we're seeing the same democracy destroying scenario play out all over the country.

What's different about Indianapolis is the pack of wolves in sheep's clothing.

We get diverse faces with a Democrat next to their name, nonprofit organizations that funnel dark money and donations to legislators who are attacking our communities, but how equity in public.

Some of you crafted the legislation with the Indiana MAGA to create this board so that you could then steal publicly owned lands and schools.

Some of you even want to take over the school district, completely eliminating fully public schools.

Throughout the U.S., people are rising against these fascist tactics to steal from us the people.

See, we own this building, we own this land, they aren't for sale, and neither are our kids, especially not for a dollar.

Ariane Clanton and then Zwala Venegas.

Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

Um I appreciate that you all had several different charter leaders speak today.

Um, that is their experiences and their schools' experiences are only a glimpse into the world of all charter schools.

And so over those past few months, um, it has been very apparent that um while this board was created to look at all schools within IPS boundaries, that has not been the case.

Um, all of the data and information that has been shared with parents with community members here have been focused primarily on IPS, and so I want to urge you all that while obviously we want to make sure IPS is successful, we also want to make sure that the charter schools within those boundaries are also successful, and that only happens if we have a voice at the table and if those leaders have a voice at the table as well.

Um want to have that information and they won't get it unless we start to continue to bring um those leaders to the table.

We often talk about we've talked a lot about resources today, facilities today, um, and we'll continue to have those gaps unless all of voices are at the table so that we could figure out a solution to make sure that all public schools are successful.

Thank you.

Is I'm sorry if I'm saying this incorrectly.

Okay, then okay.

Um Alma Estrade.

And then after Alma, uh Yohanna Aguilar Carrera.

Good evening.

I appreciate the opportunity to address all of y'all this evening.

I am a dedicated education advocate.

The Latino community is strong.

Our community has strong commitment to education.

We value creating more opportunities for our children because it's the only way out of the cycle.

We value uh education.

Despite the challenges we face, we remain committed to ensuring that our children continue to have access to quality education.

One of the most significant challenges family encounter, the transportation problem.

Children must not be obligated to attend primary school in their neighborhood if the institution does not offer high quality education.

Every child is entitled to access the school that effectively prepares them for the future to future success.

Thank you.

Yoana, Joanna.

Okay.

Then we will hear from Perla Sanchez and after her, Alejandra Benitez Gonzalez.

Alejandra.

Okay.

Um Miriam Reyes.

Kai Wang.

Okay.

Um good evening, everybody.

Uh, my name is Kai, and I'm a teacher in Monaco Academy inside Northwest.

I would like to highlight the issue of the enrollment trends.

A general report by Chalk Pete indicated that IPS is facing challenges related to these trends.

Um, confronting a financial uh physical crisis due to a consistent decline in enrollment.

The report reveals that IPS has experienced an annual law for students at a rate of approximately 3%.

Specifically, IPS enrollment decreased by over 3% as numerous students transitioned out of middle school, resulting in a nearly 4% decline from 2016 to 2020.

Understanding this trend is crucial as it signifies that families are opting for alternative educational options.

Consequently, any forthcoming recommendations must fully acknowledge the growth of charter schools, innovation schools in contrast to the decline of traditional district schools, so that students, families in our communities, can still receive quality education and resources whether they go to charter traditional organizational schools.

Thank you so much.

Julio Reyes.

Good evening.

My name is Katrina Anderson.

I am a proud IPS grad and a dedicated parent whose children have attended various educational institutions.

It is my understanding that the ILEA is tasked with surveying all educational facilities to provide recommendations.

I firmly support the request made by school leaders for the public dissemination of this data.

It is imperative for families in the larger community to have access to this information for their benefit.

I made educational decisions for my children after conducting comprehensive research of data and visiting the institutions.

Based on that, I had to drive my children to ensure they received a high quality education.

While I was fortunate to have that option, many parents lack similar opportunities.

Consequently, their children are forced to attend schools that do not align with their preferences and or have inadequate facilities.

I endorse the recommendations aimed at streamlining the management of school facilities and essential services, including transportation.

Families must receive transparency, equitable access, and clarity throughout this process.

This is not just a matter of preference, but a pressing need for our community.

Children are our greatest priority and inspiration.

They are our future.

Thank you.

Brenda Marcella Gonzalez Artiga.

Mutu here by Lydia Sanchez.

And after Lydia, we'll hear from Neleli Garcia Nava.

Hola, muy buena noticia.

My name is Lydia.

Gracias por tomarse for escuchar in Australia Community.

Come madre member dedicado de esta communidad, la educación isla piedra angular del futuro de Nestros Hijo.

La educación de calidad y la libertad election de las escuelas anders fundamentales sin una square in my community no se aligna con la necessidad de mis hijos.

La transparencia is un faro para las familias, las escuelas anders of the community.

Then in quiet story of the family several profundamente influenciada por la recommendations que brindan para mejorar la educación.

Para our process educativo.

And then Alicia Bell.

Yeah, I was gonna I was gonna follow up if we if we could just make sure that our uh translation uh partner could follow up so that um the folks giving uh comment in Spanish or another language are able to reach out to the ILEA email address and submit those so we can make sure that everyone receives it and is able to understand.

Uh we'll follow up, we'll make sure that that happens.

Thank you, Andrew.

I stand before you not only as a parent, but as the chief executive of structural development and advocacy for guns down gloves up, a community leader committed to the future for every child in Indianapolis.

Education is not a privilege, it is a fundamental right, and our children deserve more than the bare minimum.

They deserve schools that challenge them, support them, and equip them to rise together.

We are fortunate to have variety of educational options available.

Charter schools, innovation network schools, and traditional public schools.

However, the focus often seems to be almost exclusively on IPS.

While IPS is important, it doesn't tell the whole story.

Families deserve the transparency and comprehensive view of learning across all charter and innovative schools.

I strongly encourage the mayor's charter schools office to provide a broader perspective, enabling the present the parents to make truly informed decisions.

Achieving equity in education requires us to take action.

Anything less will be an injustice to our children.

As I conclude, I will remind you the true measure of the city isn't found in its skyline, but in the futures it creates for its children and their people.

Let's work together to build futures worth striving for.

Thank you.

After Alicia will be Gloria Jasmine Nieto.

Hello, my name is Alicia Bell, and I am the president and CEO of A Safe House.

We provide vital social welfare services for Marion County.

Good evening, and thank you for allowing me to speak with you tonight.

I'm a proud past student of IPS.

My children are also past students of IPS.

We provide services to students of IPS and the charter school districts here in Marion County, and we also advocate for those students.

I firmly believe in providing access opportunity and social welfare needs for every child in our community.

Tonight's topic is facilities.

I know the ILEA is required to survey all school facilities to make recommendations.

Transparency and school facilities data is not just a matter of principle, but a practical necessity.

It allows us as a community to make informed decisions about our children's education and ensures that resources are distributed equally in a fashion and contributes to considerable measurable growth.

I believe in quality education and access for all students and the expects expectation of transparency.

My passion is ensuring that every student's voice is heard and that all students, regardless of their location, have access to quality schools, safe, and modern facilities.

I believe that every member of our community has a role to play in this, and I encourage your active involvement.

Every child deserves a school that is open, accessible, and designed for their success.

Share data with us.

Learn more about what we do at ASafehouse.org.

Is Gloria here tonight?

Okay, next will be Kim Graham and then Shawanda Tyson.

Good evening.

The ILEA has a crucial responsibility to survey the facilities and utilize this information gathered to recommend adequate facilities such as classrooms, libraries, laboratories, sports facilities, medical rooms, sanitation facilities, and computer labs are not only necessary but also a vital for fostering effective learning environment.

Your role as a committee member is making these recommendations should be very transparent and inclusive.

Every family is entitled to access of a high quality education within their community.

Families should not be required to travel across town to find a quality school.

Rather, it is essential that every neighborhood school offers high quality education with both academic excellence and women, sorry, inadequate facilities.

Furthermore, establishing a governing body to oversee all educational institutions is a crucial to ensure that every student has access to quality education to which they are entitled to.

Every family, teacher, community members, and advocates have been here showing up to every meeting.

Families who represent the majority of public schools students in IPS.

It is not just important, it is crucial to your progress.

Their involvement is key in the future of our city.

The families you serve depend on you making the right decisions and recommendations for every student, not just a select few.

It is crucial that you maintain transparency and quality in your recommendations.

Your decision will shape the future of the education of this city.

Let's take action together.

Remember, your decisions are not merely choices, they are responsibilities that will shape the future of Indianapolis public schools, innovation schools, and charter schools.

Thank you.

What was your name?

Thank you, Kim.

Is Shawanda Tyson here?

Oh, we're using great.

After Shawan, we'll hear from Bonnie George.

All right.

Good evening, ILEA members.

My name again is Shawana Tyson.

I spoke with you last month about my journey as a mother of two boys who attended both IPS and charter schools, and I've learned that this conversation isn't about school type, it's about what's doing right for our kids together.

Since learning about this task force, I've worked with parents, students, educators, and community members to build a shared vision for education in Indianapolis.

Tonight, I am proud to share that vision.

Together we strive, a shared vision for student success.

It reflects our community's voice.

I started advocating because of my son being diagnosed with autism in 2012.

Our vision, um, would I say I truly support it and I saw him and I saw what the school did for him, and it lit a fire in me.

Our vision imagines a city where families have real choices, transportation is in a barrier, data guides decisions, and schools are held accountable where IPS charters and traditional schools are unified under one board, focused on delivering world class education.

Please consider this vision as a promise to all 42,000 children.

Let's build a city where every child can thrive.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak here tonight.

My name is Bonnie George.

I'm a Haitian immigrant.

I'm a father of two children, and I'm a teacher at an IPS school.

So I'm joining other parents, students, and teachers to drop this document that we call We Thrive is the vision for student success in Indianapolis.

This is the this document that you're receiving today.

So I helped create this vision because I've seen how hard it can be for families, especially immigrant families who don't speak English to navigate education in Indianapolis.

I can support my own children, but I've seen so many parents struggling.

And that's the reason why I get into education.

Working with families across school type, I've learned that many share the same struggle.

If we want to eliminate barriers, we can't keep dividing students into separate system.

We need one public education system in Indianapolis that works for every child in every neighborhood.

Every student deserves to be seen and supported because the vitality of our city, the vitality of the nation would be determined by the type of education that we are giving this generation.

Because every day in my classroom, I'm seeing the future of this nation.

So I urge you to consider this vision and work with us and work with the communities to make it a reality.

Thank you.

Next, we will hear from Dantea Dyson and then Ada Lemus.

Hope the hope that we will come together as parents, educators, students, community members, to build something better for our kids.

That is why I joined with the effort to help us shape this vision that you received today.

We know the challenges, the gaps between opportunity, transportation barriers, the tension between school types, but we have also seen the good.

Schools where students thrive, educators that go above and beyond, and communities that fight for the kids.

As a dad of two autistic boys, I've lived on both sides.

I had to make school choices based on transportation and not sometimes on what's best for my kids because of my license situation.

I've helped create the recommendations together of the We Thrive program, and not just for picking winners and losers, but to build something better for our kids.

Thank you.

Good evening, my uh the con you.

Good evening.

My name is Ada Lemus.

I am a mom of two, and I'm here to speak for my son Christian and my daughter Scarlett, and for families like mine.

I was here before sharing my story about Christian, who is at Edison School of the Arts.

Scarlett just started kindergarten at the same school, but I'm a bit nervous because of what happened to Christian.

It took years for him to be set up with the right help for his learning disability.

My family depends on school buses, and if there were more options, I would have chosen a school that could help Christian sooner.

But without a car, I had no choice.

We had to pick up pick what was closest, not what was best.

That's why I joined a group of parents, students, teachers, and community members to draft the vision you all received today.

I spent months with community members to talk about the issues and solutions.

We need transportation for all public schools.

We need to come together and make choices that are best for students and families.

Every child deserves to get the school where they can do well.

Next will be Keelan Peraza Arqueta.

And then Catherine Harkov.

My name is Kellyn Peraza Argueta, and I'm a student at IU Indy, and I'm here because my nephews just started at an IPS school, and I'm very involved in their education.

They're here with me tonight, actually.

I earned a full rides scholarship to study philanthropy, and as an English language learner, I navigated school largely on my own.

But I graduated with honors from public schools in Indianapolis, and I want my nephews to have those same opportunities I did.

My sister avoided IPS for years, choosing a private school that ultimately failed them.

Finding a new school was hard because there wasn't a transparent performance system.

That's why I support Together We Thrive, a shared vision for student success in Indianapolis.

A system that doesn't use data to grow school to grow successful schools is failing our children.

Some schools are helping black and brown students achieve results four times the state average.

We families are calling for accountability and clear performance goals for every school.

My nephew's class had to retake iRead because the lack of accountability.

Hi, my name is Catherine Harcuff, and I'm a parent of two children that attend um district run IPS schools.

Um also a member of the uh newly formed IPS parent council.

And so we're asking that as you review facility data this week that you include these critical recommendations for local and state leaders.

First of all, it's time to repeal the one dollar law in Indiana that has undermined local control and sound planning.

We also need a moratorium on any new school opening or expansion through the end of 2035, recognizing that schools are not simply businesses and that unchecked expansion and subsequent closures harm and traumatize our students.

Can't be only taking from district to give to others.

After Brian will be Melissa Lavella.

For example, the 2023 rebuilding stronger capital referendum included funding for facilities improvements in at least three charter operated IPS schools, one of which we stand in this evening.

I urge the ILEA to consider the cost of facility sharing that is already underway through these existing contracts between IPS and charter operated schools before IPS is asked to share even more of its resources with charters.

This is just one way that we can try to ensure equity and funding of our public schools.

Thank you.

After Melissa will be Angela Lee.

Good evening, Alliance members.

My name is Melissa Lavella.

I grew up in Ohio.

My husband grew up in Pennsylvania.

Both of us grew up in suburban areas, went to the public schools there.

We met at Purdue, uh, didn't have to, but chose to stay in the state of Indiana and chose to put roots in Indy.

We assumed that we would move to a place like Carmel when our kids were school aged, but that ended up not being what we wanted for our family.

And IPS was a really big reason of our decision to stay where we were.

I have a fourth grader and a first grader at uh CFI 70, and we love their school.

We love the community there.

Selling a building for a dollar is ridiculous.

IPS should be allowed to sell at fair market value and needs a strategy that allows them to invest for strength and longevity.

As Mayor Peterson said, the pie is shrinking.

I know this is happening.

We all know this is happening.

I know it's going to affect both of my kids for the rest of their, you know, K-12 time.

We should be efficient and we should figure out creative solutions so that we can outlast this period of time that we're in.

But I also want us to be thinking about bigger and longer-term sustainable and accountable solutions that will allow the IPS school system to thrive over the next hundred years and beyond, along with our Indianapolis community.

Thank you.

After Angela is Adrea McLeod.

Hi, my name is Angela Lee.

I'm a mother of two IPS students at Leodore Potter School 74.

And in 2023, Marion County voters approved a 410 million cap dollar capital referendum, which allowed for building renovations at more than 20 IPS elementary and middle schools.

I was so excited that my fellow citizens voted to increase their own tax burden in order to support their public school system.

The fact that we had that referendum less than two years ago demonstrates that IPS is not operating in a space of financial excess.

Fairness would dictate that IPS should be allowed to sell their properties at market value to recoup the investment that they have made in those properties over the years.

I also ask that you place a moratorium on the opening of any new charter schools in the IPS district boundary area until 2035 to allow our communities to stabilize.

Thank you.

After Adrea is Jesse Brown.

Hello, my name is Adria McLeod, and I'm an IPS parent and teacher.

We were reminded this evening to make public comment related to facilities and transportation, but the reality is the decisions this board makes affects far more than just facilities and transportation.

We cannot make informed decisions about the future of our schools without looking at the full picture.

We heard this evening how great rebuilding stronger has been with the expanded music and athletic offerings.

However, due to the effects of property tax sharing and the inevitable decisions made by this board, we've already lost full-time specialist teachers in many of our IPS schools.

We have also lost our pre-K program.

We're now charging vulnerable families $500 for pre-K.

And at my school, many of our families didn't even know until we called to tell them when it was already too late for them to figure it out.

It is all related, and who knows what will come next.

IPS cannot continue to give up our resources and sacrifice our own students' education and well-being in the name of collaboration and unity to improve the education in schools and students who chose alternative schooling options.

Let IPS take care of IPF.

We need to put the oxygen math con first before we lose much more.

After Jesse, we'll hear from Megan Alderman.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Jesse Brown, and I'm proud to represent District 13 on the Indianapolis City County Council.

My constituents have urged me to stand up tonight to fight against Mayor Hawkson and the ILEA's attacks on public education.

Tonight, we're specifically talking facilities and how best to share them.

That's a ridiculous concept in and of itself.

IPS has already been forced by law to share its facilities far more than makes any logical sense.

Before this year, IPS was forced to sell two school buildings to charter school operators for a dollar apiece.

Neither charter school that just the buildings is still open today.

But don't worry, they did manage to resell those buildings on the open market for hundreds of thousands of dollars both times.

It's currently ongoing for more buildings where the same thing is being attempted.

On my block, the former Susan Leach School 68 is an IPS facility that has been used multiple times for its popular mission and more recently by the OPHS Office of Public Health and Safety to shelter otherwise homeless individuals over the winter.

Just as they do for transportation, for common programming, and for facilities, IPS has already been doing more than their fair share of providing their facilities for the benefit of the whole community.

Thank you.