Charter school wants to pay $1 for IPS building on chopping block
By Jade Jackson
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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Paul I. Miller School 114 in the Indianapolis Public Schools district would close at the end of the school year if the school board approves a reorganization plan.
Students at School 114 would merge with Frederick Douglas School 19, School 114 is one of several that would close under the Rebuilding Stronger proposal if approved in November.
IPS has said it would use the empty buildings. At Thursday night’s board meeting, one charter school announced its intent to purchase School 114 under Indiana’s $1 Charter School Law.
School 114 is at 2251 Sloan Ave. That’s on the southeast side of Indianapolis and just north of the city of Beech Grove.
Ryan Gall, executive director of Victory College Prep, said the K-12 charter school at 1780 Sloan Ave., which is close to School 114, could be used by the charter and help it expand its enrollment. Indiana Department of Education data for 2020-21, the most recent available, shows Victory College Prep has 963 students.
“Paul Miller is only two blocks away from where we’re currently located, and I think what we’ve seen in the city before is when folks try expansions across the city or across communities and neighbors it introduces new variables and new challenges that’s not the same as when it’s just right down the street,” Gall said. “The hope would be that we could find some kind of partnership with IPS. I understand the dollar law is out there and the dollar law is favorable to charter schools, but, ideally, we’d find a way to do this that makes sense for both them and for us to be able to serve kids in a place that’s really close to us.”
Victory has a strategic plan for growth by 2025. Gall said the charter school executed its plan in May with expansion and doubling their graduation class as goals.
Gall said IPS is pulling of the area because its buildings are at from 40%-50% capacity.
Victory is at 110% capacity, and he wants to do continue to do good things if it can serve more children.
Victory recently spent $2.5 million on upgrades in its building, and Gall said the charter school looks vastly different than it did six months ago.
He understands that School 114 would need the same wants to be able to upgrade it for use to still serve students for daily instruction.
“We currently have demand that exceeds the number of seats we have in grades 7-12, and we’ve even have had to turn some students away in the elementary school as well because we haven’t been able to serve them,” Gall said.
IPS hasn’t responded to Gall’s comments.
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