A charter school wants this IPS school proposed for closure.

A constitution college inside Indianapolis Public Colleges borders is hoping to accumulate Paul Miller Elementary Faculty 114 if the college board approves its closure subsequent month. 

Victory Faculty Prep, a Okay-12 college simply half a mile from Faculty 114, hopes to make use of the property to accommodate its rising enrollment.

“The Paul Miller property is simply two metropolis blocks from the VCP campus — and yearly, in recent times, we’ve welcomed a rising variety of Paul Miller switch college students into our VCP school rooms,” Ryan Gall, the college’s government director, advised the board on Thursday. 

The district’s Rebuilding Stronger plan — an try to handle declining enrollment amid constitution college progress — would go away a number of college buildings open for constitution faculties to doubtlessly occupy. Victory Faculty Prep is the primary to publicly announce its intentions to accumulate such a constructing.

State regulation permits constitution faculties to lease or purchase empty college buildings for $1. 

Six college buildings would grow to be vacant on the finish of this college yr underneath the ultimate draft of the Rebuilding Stronger plan.Faculty 114 is without doubt one of the two faculties proposed for closure that will merge with different current faculties. 

A seventh constructing, Sidener Academy for Excessive Means College students, may additionally grow to be obtainable within the 2026-27 college yr when these college students transfer to a brand new constructing on the web site of former Joyce Kilmer Faculty 69.  

IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson has mentioned she hopes to work with lawmakers and preserve the buildings underneath district possession. 

However timing dictated by state statute might throw a wrench in these plans. That’s as a result of inside 10 days of a vote to shut a faculty constructing, the district should notify the state of the constructing’s availability. The following legislative session begins in 2023.

Victory Faculty Prep, which has roughly 900 college students, hopes to extend enrollment to as excessive as 1,600 college students by 2025, Gall advised Chalkbeat Indiana. 

“That is simply too good of a chance to not think about and pursue, given the dynamics at play,” he mentioned, noting that the college is popping away college students in grades 7-12 yearly because of area limitations.

Greater than 80% of the college’s inhabitants are college students of coloration and economically deprived. 

In 2022, 14.9% of scholars at Victory Faculty Prep had been proficient in each English and math on state exams, barely above the IPS common of 14.1%. That proficiency charge on the college is larger than its pre-pandemic charge of 12.3% in 2019.

Gall advised the college board that he hopes the college will enter right into a partnership with the district. 

“We might additionally hope to collaborate on this transition for the college neighborhood,” he mentioned, “however are ready to make the most of all obtainable authorized pathways to accumulate the ability, together with buying the college underneath the $1 unused facility statute.”

The college board will think about the ultimate Rebuilding Stronger plan for a vote on No. 17. 

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Marion County faculties for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.