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Indy mayor asks Indiana for control of 4 schools

Associated Press
January 31, 2013
Keywords
Department of Education, Education & Workforce Development, Education reform, K-12
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The mayor of Indianapolis is asking the Indiana State Board of Education to give him control of four former city schools taken over by the state because of poor performance.

Mayor Greg Ballard announced that if the state board approves his petition at its Feb. 6 meeting, it would transfer to his office oversight of the private turnaround operators at Arlington, Howe and Manual high schools and Donnan Middle School. Transfer would occur at the end of the current academic year.

Ballard says Indiana School Superintendent Glenda Ritz supports the move, as do the private operators and the Indianapolis Public Schools.

He says day-to-day operations and academic decisions would remain in the hands of the school operators.

The state took over the academically troubled schools last year.

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  • Oh lord...
    MarshallFebruary 1, 2013 8:56 AM
    ... Bring on the loony conspiracy theorists! I think this move makes sense... These are city schools and the mayor of this city would naturally have a more vested interest in the performance of these institutions than an outside collective.
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  • Uh seriously?
    Wilbur ShooterflyFebruary 1, 2013 6:53 AM
    We're talking about the Mayor that apparently gives his grafter buddies contracts, ACS - parking meter contract, $6.5 million to a developer for a Broad Ripple Parking Garage that taxpayers have no ownership in, guarantees 100s of millions of dollars of loan guarantees to CityWay, and now trying to force Marion County taxpayers to pay more tax dollars for an unneeded rail system! This is the same Mayor that hired Frank Straub who basically bankrupted Public Safety, increaed violent crime and has failed to hire more officers, cannot keep the downtown area safe and HAS NOT maintained basic road and sidewalk maintenance needs. So he wants his hand on these schools for no other reason than to get contracts to his buddies? He has no skill set or ability to make them better and will not. He will perform at a D- or F level just as he has with everything else. And why should taxpayers in the suburbs have their tax dollars used for Jason Kloth and his bloated staff (just like Frank Straub) oversee Center Township Schools when we do not get adequate Police protection and the CCC cannot balance the budget without cutting services?
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    1. As a St. Vincent employee of over 20 years, I am saddened and disheartened by this announcement. Unfortunately, as the healthcare "industry" continues on this political and corporate path, all that St. Vincent Hospital has stood for spiritually for its employees and this community is being sucked dry. I know it truly has no choice. It is not just Obamacare or just competition or just any single thing. This trend started long before I was even born when the government became involved in healthcare and it became an "industry." I grieve for those who will lose their jobs, one of whom may be me, but I also grieve for this hospital which I have served for over 20 years. May God give us and it the grace to withstand the future of healthcare.

    2. Why do people constantly harp on this issue and act ignorant about what a city population measures? A city's population is the city's population. There is no argument or debate about it. If you want to measure the density of a city--measure it. If you want to measure the size of a metropolitan area, then measure the metropolitan population. City boundaries cover different sized areas--and they always have (though the disparity has probably increased since about 1900 or so when more cities began annexing their surrounding communities). For example, San Francisco only covers 49 square miles while Houston cover nearly 600 square miles. No one argues about the population rankings of either city even though they clearly cover extremely different sized areas. Indianapolis is the 13 largest city by population in the U.S. That is a fact. While the population of a metropolitan area may give you a better sense of how large a community is, as noted, even metro areas can vary widely in the size of geographic area they cover--so that is not a perfect comparison either.

    3. If Whole Foods went in, I doubt the Nora one would stay open, and with all those customers coming to Broad Ripple traffic would be horrible, and forget about a run to the grocery on weekend nights. I think concern over the number of apartments is misplaced, but the 400 space parking garage has me concerned - someone needs to ask the developer just how much traffic they think this development is going to generate. I am not against more neighborhood residents, but heavy commercial traffic going in and out at that location sounds like a mess.

    4. I thought everyone was innocent until guilt was proven. Seems people have already convicted Reggie in the press. My nephew was a good kid and is a good man, more to this story im sure

    5. Going by the Marion County population only is of little use. 13th largest? No Way! To judge the real size of a metro area, the easy way is to look at the Arbitron rating list. Indianapolis hovers around 40th largest in the nation--sometimes more, sometimes less. Advertisers want to know exactly how large the population is before they buy radio advertising. Arbitron figured it out long ago. Indianapolis is estimated at 1,427,500. The real #13 is Seattle-Tacoma with a metro population of 3,470,400. So, the population of just Marion County is completely irrelevant to anything useful as far as metro area planning.

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