Indianapolis, IN

Indianapolis Public Schools announces proposed $7 million cut to school budgets as deficit looms

Published

4 months ago

March 13, 2026

Indianapolis Public Schools announces proposed million cut to school budgets as deficit looms

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Indianapolis Public Schools plans to cut $7 million from school budgets next school year as it faces an impending financial shortfall.

The cuts could impact anything from staffing to school supply budgets as the district projects ending the year with a $40 million cash deficit that will grow in the coming years without additional voter-approved funding. The school board will vote on the budget for next school year on March 26.

Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said in a video on Thursday that the proposed budget cuts would affect each school differently, as principals made “tough budget choices” for their schools over the past several weeks.

“Because every school is unique and factors like academic programming, enrollment, and student needs shape a school’s budget, there’s not a one-size-fits-all summary of changes happening across our schools for next year,” Johnson said.

Johnson didn’t list specific cuts in her announcement, and the IPS board won’t vote on the proposed reductions until March 26. But at least two schools have already notified parents about how they are planning to change staffing for next year.

The IPS website is also listing fewer schools for next school year that offer prekindergarten than offered it this year. Johnson did not mention cuts to pre-K services in her Thursday announcement. The district did not respond to requests for comments about whether there will be fewer pre-K sites next year.

The announcement comes as IPS faces increasing financial pressure from a variety of factors: Recent state property tax reform, and a requirement to share property taxes with charter schools, will result in less funding. The district will run out of money if voters don’t pass an operating referendum in November. And like districts nationwide, IPS is grappling with student enrollment declines that affect budgets, which are heavily reliant on per-pupil funding from the state.

Certain teachers to be shared across IPS schools

Before Johnson’s announcement Thursday, some schools announced that they would share teachers designated as “specials” or “studio” — those teaching art or music, for example — with another school next school year. The district adopted the move last year at some schools despite parents’ protests.

Principals at Butler Lab School 55 and Center for Inquiry School 27 told parents over the last few weeks that the specials split would affect their schools next year due to declining enrollment.

“While the minutes of the time your children are in Studio class would not be different from this year, it will be different in timing (days of the week),” Butler Lab 55 Principal Sarah Clark said in an email to families last month.

Clark said the school would also share its English as a New Language teacher with another school in the district, since the number of students identified as English language learners has decreased in the last two years.

The family and community engagement liaison, she said, would also become a part-time position.

Center For Inquiry School 27, meanwhile, would share its specials teachers with Sidener Academy for High Ability students, Principal Hilary Duvall said at a parent-teacher-student association meeting this week.

Johnson said that she will share district-level budget cuts at some point in the future.

“Please know that as we consider decisions to meet our budget, what will remain my number one priority is our students’ access to a high-quality and robust student experience,” she said.

List of IPS prekindergarten sites grows smaller

At least five schools that offer prekindergarten this year are not listed on the district’s website as offering prekindergarten for 2026-27.

The district’s prekindergarten population dropped from 836 last school year to 691 this school year, state enrollment records show. Expanding prekindergarten sites was a core tenet of the district’s Rebuilding Stronger reorganization proposal.

Only one site expanded under Rebuilding Stronger — Garfield School 31 — is not listed as a prekindergarten site for next year, according to an analysis of the district’s published list for next school year and the schools that currently offer prekindergarten.

The district began charging for prekindergarten this school year, citing changes to state funding for prekindergarten and legislative changes that have affected the district’s finances.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Indianapolis, IN

See inside Indianapolis Public Library’s upgraded, accessible bookmobiles

Published

10 hours ago

July 17, 2026

Press Room

See inside Indianapolis Public Library’s upgraded, accessible bookmobiles

The Indianapolis Public Library’s bookmobiles have been a crucial part of the library’s public outreach for nearly 75 years, but they recently got a much-needed upgrade to improve patron experiences and overall accessibility.

Bookmobiles are essentially a library branch on wheels. Almost all library services are available on board, from checking out books, movies, magazines, CDs and more as well as signing up for a library card, placing holds and more. They play a huge part in the library’s public outreach by bringing library services to people who can’t get to the library themselves or those who simply don’t have a branch nearby.

The Frog and Toad bookmobiles, aptly named for the beloved children’s book characters of the same names, were recently replaced with upgraded vehicles that are smaller in size, but ultimately more accessible to patrons.

“The main goal of our department is to bring the library to those who can’t get to the library,” Maggie Ward, manager of outreach services and volunteer resources at the Indianapolis Public Library said. “So we wanted to make sure our new bookmobiles were fitting into that of being more accessible.”

The new vehicles will allow bookmobiles to attend more events and be a part of parades, since they are more compact and easier to maneuver on the road.

New bookmobiles are more accessible

The manual wheelchair ramps make them accessible for patrons who previously were unable to get on board due to the steep, and sometimes unreliable, electric wheelchair ramps on the last ones.

“All of our wheelchair/walker-using patrons, anybody you know with mobility issues, have a lot easier time getting off the bookmobile,” Ward said.

“Even though they’re shorter and people have talked about ‘oh, it’s smaller’ and nuances aside, it’s so much better,” Amber Scott, driver and circulation clerk for Bookmobile Toad, said. “Like scouting new places, the first thing would be ‘can the vehicle fit’ and a lot of time it would be like there’s no place for us to park.”

These vehicles should also be a lot easier to maintain, meaning the bookmobiles will spend less time in the shop and more out in the community.

Frog and Toad bookmobiles cater to different age groups

Frog is the blue bookmobile and most often the selection on board caters to children and stops at daycares and preschools, while Toad, the green bookmobile, has books more geared toward adult readers and makes stops at senior living communities or neighborhoods without a library branch nearby.

Despite weather constraints, the bookmobiles can still bring the library experience to patrons in a way they couldn’t before.

On days too hot for patrons of senior communities or schools to come outside to the bookmobiles, the new ones are equipped with shelving units that can be removed and rolled inside.

“Last time we were scheduled for a visit, it was so hot, but we had missed a couple visits because we have our own weather policy that we won’t go if it’s too cold or hot because we don’t want people coming outside,” Scott said. “Since we have this now, we took three carts into their lobby and just set up with our laptop and the hot spot and everybody was there that we would usually see.”

“We only cancel if it’s extreme weather, but even then we’ll try to just do deliveries if we can,” Ward said.

The library has a small fleet of Ford Escapes to deliver holds and materials to patrons that they requested.

“We call them Itty Bitties,” Scott said.

Each bookmobile comes with a librarian

The Frog and Toad bookmobiles each have their own librarian on board to assist patrons and help provide a full library experience.

“We have a lot of patrons who tell us they schedule their day around us,” the librarian for bookmobile Toad Katie Watson-Juarez said. “We have residents who don’t really leave their rooms except to come out to the bookmobile because they love coming. That probably is one of the best parts is knowing people are so excited that we’re coming.”

Residents from one of bookmobile Toad’s stops at Rittenhouse Village Northside shared their favorite things about the visits.

“I think it’s a great system for the ease it makes for us,” resident Mark, who likes to read Western books, said. “I don’t have to go out and go to a library or something, even though it’s nice to do that. This is just an exception to that rule.”

“I like living here, but when you read you get to go somewhere else,” resident Tony — who likes to read detective novels and listen to jazz CDs — said.

That is one of the main reasons Brittney Spencer, celebrations director at Rittenhouse Village Northside put in the request for the bookmobile.

“It has opened the world up for them to be able to escape,” Spencer said. “My whole job is to try and get them to escape out of worries of like their health or anything like that, so it is great that they’re here and able to provide that for us.”

Getting people excited about reading is something both bookmobiles provide to the community.

“For some of these kids, this is their first ever experience with the library, because we visit a lot of preschools and stuff, so I mean just kind of showing them what a library is all about, getting them excited about it is kind of fun,” Kathleen Stewart said.

The bookmobiles are in high demand as there is currently a waitlist to be included in their routes. They operate on a biweekly schedule, visiting the same spots every two weeks.

And it doesn’t take a library card to enjoy the bookmobiles. They have books not in circulation available to readers without library cards to read and return.

The new bookmobile Toad started being used on June 1, while Bookmobile Frog has only been up-and-running since June 29, so the excitement of the new vehicles is still very fresh for the library staff as well as their patrons.

“I just love the versatility of these as opposed to our other ones,” Stewart said. “There’s so much we can do with it.”

Libraries are more than just a place to checkout books. They provide resources, services and often act as a community space for people to connect outside of home and work, which is something even the bookmobiles are able to provide.

“We’re bringing that third space to them, that connection,” Ward said. “So it’s more than just the books, it’s that community connection.”

Katie Wiseman covers trending news for IndyStar and Midwest Connect. Contact her at klwiseman@indystar.com. Follow her on Bluesky, Twitter and Instagram.

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Indianapolis, IN

Businesses await next steps after Braun ends diversity program

Published

22 hours ago

July 16, 2026

Press Room

Businesses await next steps after Braun ends diversity program

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A business owner on Thursday said programs like Indiana’s now-discontinued Supplier Diversity Program get minority-owned businesses into the room.

Pierre Dunn owns DC One Connect, a construction contractor already certified as a minority-owned business by the city of Indianapolis.

Dunn says that certification helped him get a $3.5 million contract for the new IU Health patient care tower, among other projects. He said he was scheduled for an interview with the Indiana Department of Administration on Wednesday afternoon to get a state-level minority business certification. He learned early Wednesday morning that the interview was canceled.

“I gave him a call, and he said at this point, I was told to cancel all interviews,” Dunn said of his conversation with the person he was supposed to interview with. “And it was pretty quiet, and he said that’s all he could say at this point. It was shocking.”

An order from Gov. Mike Braun, issued Tuesday, backed up by an opinion from Attorney General Todd Rokita released the following day, ended Indiana’s Supplier Diversity Program in favor of a new Indiana Small Business Program, which is directed “to promote and facilitate the use of qualified Indiana small businesses in state procurement.”

Under the old program, the state had a goal of awarding 8% of state contracts to minority-owned businesses, 10% to women-owned businesses, and 3% to veteran-owned businesses.

The Indiana Department of Administration told “News 8” Indiana that it had 1,136 certified minority business enterprises and 1,509 certified women business enterprises. Certified businesses held more than $12.2 billion in state contracts. The Mid-States Minority Supplier Development Council said businesses it has certified generate nearly $9.5 billion in revenue each year and support more than 32,000 jobs.

Dunn says the value of programs like the Supplier Diversity Program is that they get people like him into the conversation when it comes time to bid on projects.

“They want to walk in a room with confidence that this is where I belong, I have a shot,” Dunn said. “It speaks more to the confidence of putting your name in the hat. And that changes communities. It encourages communities.”

Braun administration officials have said most minority-owned businesses will likely be eligible for the new small business program and, unlike the previous program, will have the opportunity to serve as prime contractors on state projects rather than subcontractors. The governor on Wednesday said his order aligns the state with recent Supreme Court rulings.

“I think this gives more freedom for anyone at the end of the scale, where you’re a small business, to be able to now be in a place to benefit from it,” he said. “It’s just getting us into a place where we won’t be handicapped by something that got confusing and no longer, probably, has currency.”

Dunn said the governor’s order reflects someone who has not had the same lived experiences as a minority business owner. He said he thinks the new small business program sounds good in theory and probably will still lead to state contracts for minority-owned businesses, but the governor will have to market the new program to minority-owned businesses.

“He could always come to my office, and we can go to those outreaches together and see how that participation, that campaign works out,” he said. “Let’s roll it out and see. It sounds great in theory, but practically, does it work? What he needs to understand is that it’s effective. When minority businesses are given the opportunities with a local, other local businesses, it changes our community.”

The governor’s order suspends all active and pending certifications but leaves state contracts in effect. Agencies are directed to continue to follow the terms of those contracts.

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Indianapolis, IN

See ‘The Odyssey’ as Nolan intended at one Indiana IMAX theater

Published

1 day ago

July 16, 2026

Press Room

See ‘The Odyssey’ as Nolan intended at one Indiana IMAX theater

“The Odyssey” director Christopher Nolan has long been an advocate for IMAX 70mm film, advising movie buffs to get the best viewing experience possible in special IMAX theaters.

Very few locations around the world are capable of projecting the film, however, with just 25 U.S. theaters airing Nolan’s newest movie in the special format.

Luckily, Indianapolis is among the locations where fans can see “The Odyssey” in 70mm at one IMAX location.

What is ‘The Odyssey’ about?

Based on Homer’s epic poem, the three-hour saga (in theaters July 17) follows Greek king Odysseus (Matt Damon) on his 10-year journey back to Ithaca to reunite with his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and son, Telemachus (Tom Holland). Throughout his journey Odysseus faces off against sirens, giants and sea gods.

What is a 70mm film projection?

70mm film projection is a wide high-resolution film gauge for motion picture photography, according to Indiewire. It is a process of projecting movies onto a big screen using a film print that is 70mm wide, which is about twice the size of regular 35mm film.

Nolan’s “The Odyssey” is the first major studio movie to ever be filmed completely with IMAX cameras, as they are notoriously costly, loud and bulky to operate, according to USA TODAY.

Why does Christopher Nolan prefer 70 mm film projection?

Nolan previously told the Associated Press he is a longtime fan of the filming method, creating other films like “Dunkirk” and “Tenet” with the large format film stock as well.

He explained that viewers are getting the feeling of 3D without the glasses, adding that the sharpness and clarity of the cameras immerse them in the world of the film.

“You rarely get the chance to really talk to moviegoers directly about why you love a particular format and why if they can find an IMAX screen to see the film on that’s great,” Nolan said. “We put a lot of effort into shooting the film in a way that we can get it out on these large format screens. It really is just a great way of giving people an experience that they can’t possibly get in the home.”

Where can you see ‘The Odyssey’ on 70mm film in Indiana?

Moviegoers can see “The Odyssey” in 15 perf/70mm film in the IMAX Theatre at the Indiana State Museum. As of Wednesday, July 15, some showings for opening weekend already were sold out.