by Kenya Woodard
There’s more bad news this week on the charter school front in Indianapolis.
Fall Creek Academy and Fountain Square Academy face closure by the end of the school year after both schools’ applications were turned down by Ball State University, Indianapolis Star reporter Scott Elliott writes.
“The university offered an avenue for Fall Creek Academy to submit a new, fast-track application with changes to the school’s management structure. If approved, that application would keep the school operating next school year with Ball State as the sponsor.
Fountain Square Academy has fewer options, but its board will be meeting soon to seek a way to keep a charter school in the Fountain Square neighborhood.
Ball State officials couldn’t be reached Tuesday to explain the university’s reasons for turning down the sponsorships.”
Both schools were chartered by the office of Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard. Ballard had announced in May that Fountain Square would close next year, when a seven-year contract between his office and the school would end. In its final evaluation of Fall Creek, released last week, Ballard’s office found that the school met just five of 19 standards used to judge charter schools. Both schools are seeking to transfer their charters to Ball State, Elliott writes.
Fountain Square’s possible closing is an especially thorny issue for the mayor.
If shuttered, the neighborhood will be “without a charter school option, something Ballard had promised to try to avoid. Beth Bray, who heads the city’s charter school office, said there are no proposals for a new Fountain Square school.”
The news of both schools follows last week’s announcement that another charter school sponsored by the mayor’s office, Stonegate Early College High School, would close because of financial troubles.
