Indiana Charter School Board approvals set stage for Indianapolis schools’ growth

Two Indianapolis schools will merge and a third will become a charter school under changes approved by the Indiana Charter School Board this month.

The board met on May 8 to hear requests from the two merging schools — ACE Prep and Circle City Prep on the northeast side — and Cold Spring School, a school on the northwest side that’s looking for more independence.

In both cases, school leaders said restructuring would secure financial stability for years to come.

“We feel really strongly that we have done everything that we need to do as a school to be successful by academic metrics,” ACE Prep Principal Amanda Liles said. “We just want to make sure that we’re taking the steps to be as stable as possible financially so that we can continue to offer the high level of academic rigor that we pride ourselves on.”

Their requests come at a fraught time for public school relationships in Indianapolis. Charter school supporters pushed hard for legislation this year that redirects some property tax revenue from districts like Indianapolis Public Schools to nearby charter schools.

IPS officials opposed the effort, saying the legislation was divisive and would cost the district millions of dollars over time. However, that bill passed, along with another that creates a new advisory group tasked with exploring ways IPS and charter schools can better work together to share transportation and facility costs.

The leader of Cold Spring School hinted at the potential property tax shift as at least one motivator in his school’s decision to pursue a charter. But each request brought a layered story as to how these small schools plan to sustain themselves, and even grow, in the future.

And, the Indiana Charter School Board approvals come nearly a week after the city’s charter board gave its own blessing to two additional schools’ plans for expansion.

“We’re seeing a lot of families that want to be a part of what we’re doing at Cold Spring,” Chief Operating Officer Cody Stipes said. “That really got us thinking — what if we could expand the amount we have financially to be able to provide more programs for our students and our families?”

Cold Spring School to go charter

Cold Spring School has a relationship with IPS. In 2016, the K-8 STEM school was one of the first in IPS to voluntarily transition into an innovation school.

An innovation school is a unique school type that lets school leaders establish their own nonprofit board and make independent decisions about things like curriculum and hiring while still maintaining a relationship with the district, which provides the school with its building and food and transportation services.

But, Stipes told the charter board, that relationship comes at a cost. IPS also decides how much money the school gets through a student-based allocation process. Under this system, Cold Spring collects about $3 million a year for educational expenses.

As a charter school, Cold Spring would assume control of some services, like special education, and receive money directly from the state rather than see IPS decide the school’s budget.

This change, Stipes said on May 8, would increase the school’s annual state funding by more than $2 million — and that’s not to mention the additional property tax revenue that’s planned to come to charter schools in the future.

School leaders anticipate a $400,000 greater annual surplus as a charter school, meaning they’ll be able to grow STEM and foreign language opportunities for students.

The state charter board voted nearly unanimously in favor of extending a 15-year charter agreement to the school. The Rev. David W. Greene Sr. was the only board member to vote against it after asking whether the board’s staff considered offering the school a shorter, seven-year charter agreement.

“We did talk through that because it’s technically a new charter,” the board’s executive director, Lindsay Omlor, said before the vote. “But this isn’t a brand-new start-up school and for that reason, we felt like 15 was appropriate.”

While the school’s structure will change, families shouldn’t notice much difference operationally next school year. The school still intends to keep its relationship with IPS for transportation, food services and facility use.

“We’ve been very upfront with IPS about our process with this,” Stipes told the charter board. “As it is currently written, there’s not a lot that’s actually changing in our current innovation agreement.”

ACE Prep and Circle City Prep to merge

ACE Prep, an independent charter school just south of Broad Ripple, has a strong academic record. But, enrollment has been a challenge.

In its initial application in 2015 to become a charter school, ACE Prep proposed a K-5 school that would scale up to 432 students over five years. As of this spring, the school had only 129 students enrolled.

That’s why, over the past year, ACE Prep leaders have explored their options for merging with another school.

Principal Amanda Liles told the Indiana Charter School Board that through school visits and interviews, ACE Prep identified Circle City Prep as a potential partner due to its similar school culture.

The K-8 school on the northeast side also has a track record for growth, increasing its enrollment every year since it opened in 2017 to serve more than 400 students this year.

Leaders from both schools described the merger as mutually beneficial.

Circle City Prep Founder Megan Murphy said her school’s board has discussed growing for a few years but hadn’t found the right opportunity. Liles said her team, with its small size, hasn’t had the staffing to dedicate to foot-on-the-ground recruiting efforts.

“We see this not as a turnaround,” Murphy told the state charter board, “But instead to support ACE to continue to do the great work that they are doing, support them in infrastructure to hit their enrollment targets, and also provide some extracurricular opportunities and clubs that their families have been asking for.”

The charter board also voted nearly unanimously to support the merger. Board member Anna Shults, who helped found ACE Prep in 2016, recused herself from the vote. The schools’ merged charter will extend through June 30, 2029.

Leaders from both schools have been working together on transition plans. Liles intends to stay on as principal of ACE Prep in its same northeast side location along with at least 10 of her school’s 16 staff.

The schools will share some curriculum and roll out new branding in the coming year. Students from ACE Prep will also be guaranteed seventh and eighth grade seats at Circle City Prep once they age out of the K-6 school near Broad Ripple.

The team has had three parent engagement sessions to answer questions about the change. Maintaining ACE Prep’s small-school feel has stood out as one of parents’ biggest concerns.

“We’ve had some really tough conversations that it has to grow in order to be sustainable,” Murphy told the charter board. “But, we can also continue to have the quality of a family-structure even when the organization grows.”

Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.

Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at [email protected] or follow her on X @carleylanich.

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